Last purple post

I've spent most of this past month feeling like my batteries have been drained, but I did manage to get a little bit of work done.
En Provence is still ticking slowly along.  It's nice to have a project that has all the thinking done, so I can just let myself be soothed by the hum of the sewing machine.

I've got 8 blocks done, out of a planned 9.  Though I'm still thinking about making it a 3x4 setting instead of this 3x3, which would mean I'll need four more blocks rather than just one.  I'll have a better idea of the size after I get this lot assembled.

Several of the blocks that I made last year for RSC have been carried over for this year's challenge.
I finally managed to get one of Chantal's pinwheel blocks assembled.  I'm seeing a lot of people taking up this block for RSC this year, which makes me really happy.  And apparently the name of the block is Hidden Gems, which works for me!

I got one Jacks on Sixes done.

Or Anvil, or Hovering Hawk, or any of a bunch of different names for this block.  I'm calling them Jacks and then calling it a day.

And another block that I don't know the name of -

which I've been calling Whatchacallit Stars.  I've been slowly building up a store of these since last year, but since they're 6" blocks it's taking a long time for them to add up to a quilt of any size.   I thought I had a more recent photo than this

of them all together, but this is the only one I could find.  I'll have to drag them out and see what I've got.

One of my highest priorities was to fix the wing on Sally T's Chicken block -

It explains why I had a little purple square left over when I originally made the block...

And I made another paper-pieced chicken while I was playing with purple chickies.

And then I gathered up the gang for a group shot.

I think I'm going to call the quilt "Cluckers."
It's going to be an interesting year.


Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the fun!

Scrappy fun and an oops

I laid out more En Provence bits, and I thought and  I thought.

At one point I thought my path should involve stripes - particularly diagonal stripes - in those yellow blocks, so I acquired some stripes to experiment with.

But the results still had me shrugging.  Then I had a revelation.

Like most things in life, En Provence just needs more orange.

I did a quick rummage through my neutrals for anything that had some orange in it and started cutting strips and triangles.   A little sewing, a little pressing, and a little scattering here and there, and I think everything's going to be fine.
The small flashes of orange are just enough to balance the orange stars and the yellow squares, and they subtly warm up the background of the quilt.
It's going to work!

I was convinced enough that I sewed together a block.

And another block.

And a strip of sashing.

I'll keep assembling components, and eventually I'll end up with a quilt!

Since this is a supremely scrappy quilt, I'm linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come see all the pretty scrappinesses!

Oh, and the oops?  I missed my blogiversary again.  My very first post was January12, 2008, with my official intro on January 13th.  A lot has changed since then.  I'm still knitting and making quilts, though.  We'll see what the next nine years will bring.

Chicken Accomplished!

My primary mission today was to take Sally's new chicken out for a test drive.  Er, flight?

Racing chickens.  It's a thing.

And I made a spool, because I seem to have fallen into that particular black hole.  (I swear I was pushed!)

And somehow or another, I seem to have made another piglet.

You knew I wouldn't be able to stop, didn't you?


Linking my purple darlings with ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy, where rainbows go to spend their Saturdays.  Come see all the purple!

En Provence - Stepping back helps

While I'm still not entirely convinced about the yellow, I am happier with this the more pieces I lay out.  Just stepping back makes a world of difference in this busy pattern.

The more golden I go, the better I like it, so I may use that as my guide.  I've got lots of golds left over from last year's Allietare.  Or I might jump off in a whole new direction. 
(I've never been a big fan of yellow, so I'm wondering how much of my antipathy for it here can be chalked up to that.)

I see some purple four patches that need to be turned the other way, but that's easily fixed.  All in all, I like En Provence.  I like my orange stars, my blue stars, and my purple paths.
As for the yellow, I may or may not have a plan...




Linking with the last En Provence party at Quiltville.  Thanks, Bonnie!

Of course I'm not starting a new project...

Because, you know, I have so many already going.

Seriously.  I don't know where those stars came from.

Linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, since those entirely imaginary stars are made of imaginary scraps.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 wrapped up

So what do you get when you start with a fabulous tutorial and pattern from the fabulous Sally T (there are two sizes, so I'm giving links to both) and then mix it with a year's worth of scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge?

You get a bunch of these -

in a whole dancing rainbow of colors.

Then if you make them run uphill

and downhill,

and give them a nice meadow to play in,

you end up with a top that looks like this.

Now just throw in some bacon (because according to my dad, I add bacon to everything)  (can't argue with him there)  (because bacon)

and add some whooshing lines of quilting,

and a nice confetti binding,

and you get a perfect quilt to give your dad for Christmas.  (He raises pigs.  He knows a good pig when he sees one.)

He loved it, by the way.  I had a feeling he would.  And he got one right big chuckle out of that bacon fabric on the back, as did all family members who've seen it since.
And I got a big chuckle when he asked me if I'd put it on the internet.  See, he doesn't read my blog, so I got to tell him "Dad, there were people all over the world who knew you were getting a piggy quilt for Christmas, and you had no idea..."

Thanks, Angela, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Without the RSC to get me and keep me going with this project, this Higgledy Piggledy quilt of mine never would have happened.
Oh, and Dad thanks you, too!

Linking with ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy for the End of RSC2016 WrapUp.  Come see what rainbows of fun have been happening!

En Provence, now with more chickens

(Note to self:  Remember that writing posts in your head is not the same thing as putting up a post on the blog.)

So Bonnie Hunter gave us the Big Reveal for En Provence, and I'll admit that I never saw this setting coming.   I hurried through a few of the final components and voila -

a trial layout.  I've substituted blues for greens, and I'm hoping they'll show up against the purples in the final quilt.  They do look a bit bluer in real life than they do in this photo.  I've also substituted orange for the magenta, and I like that just fine.
I'm not completely convinced about the yellow yet, though.  Maybe a pale orange instead?  A combination of yellow and orange?  A more orange-y yellow?
I'm going to play around some more with that as I make more bits.  (I'm not even at the halfway point for any of these parts.  Plenty of time to dither while I sew.)

While I was wiffling through my computer files for a pattern that I wanted to send my daughter (I download ALL the free patterns I find, whether I think I'll make them or not.  Acquisition is my middle name...), I found a pattern that I'd wanted to do for RSC last year, but had completely forgotten about.
It's a foundation paper-pieced pattern, which is a technique I've been wanting to practice more, so I decided to give it a try.  Unfortunately, our printer is on the blink right now, so I had no way to print it out.  I ended up putting a piece of paper up against the monitor and physically tracing the lines. 
(Whatever it takes, ya know?  Let nothing stand in the way between me and my quilt block.)
I then traced the pattern off onto freezer paper -

and then darkened the lines (in order to make them more visible), flipped the patterns over, and traced another set onto freezer paper, so I would have a set that was a mirror image.

And I tried it out.

And I liked it so much, I tried it facing the other way.

And the best part about using templates from freezer paper?  I can re-use them.  Next time I want a chicken, I'm ready to go, whether the printer is good to go or not.

(The pattern is from here, along with a bunch of other wonderful chicken patterns.  Cluck!)