Holy crap! I finished something!

Yes, even I can manage a finish now and then.  Well, mostly then.  But for once, now!
Yeehaw!

Usually when I'm hit by a squirrel, I want to start something new.  In this case, the squirrel wanted me to grab an old project and see it through.
Remember this  project?  I had a sudden urge to quilt it (but not to photograph the quilting process), which I proceeded to do yesterday and today.
 

And I even tried out a different kind of binding that I'd been wanting to play with. 

I made a flanged binding, using the yellow/orange dots as a constant fabric for the flange, and a variety of orange prints for the main binding fabric.  (There are lots of tutorials available for this binding.  Here's one now.)  Since this was for a relatively flat table runner, I made my strips narrower - the yellow was 1.5" and the oranges were 1.25".  It worked perfectly!

Normally when I get ready to sew a binding on, I compulsively measure it and remeasure it to make sure it's long enough.  This time I decided to just let it be a surprise.

Phew!  It was a happy surprise!  Plenty left over.

You can sort of see the quilting here -

I used green thread and straight lines in the background, spacing them randomly 1/4" to 1" apart, then free-motioned curved "pumpkin ribs" in orange thread on the pumpkins themselves.

And here's my finished Pumpkin Patch.

 Complete with the required toes...

Gotta go mark it on the calendar, now: "Feb 28, 2017 - actually finished something!"

Who else could combine glitter, pumpkins, and the owl and the pussycat? (Or would...)

I finished my En Provence top, but after ironing the last seam, I folded it up and put it away in the Box of Finished Quilt Tops without taking a photo.  Apparently, I'm done with it...
I do have this photo I took of the border, though, where I was trying to show some of the kitty fabric I used (look, Sally! Kitties!),

and noticed I had an owl and a pussycat right next to each other.  This makes me happy.

Another thing that makes me happy is giving in to the temptation to make a few Glitter blocks.  Glitter is my carrot-on-the-stick quilt - my reward for diligence in working on some of the projects already in progress.  And since Cathy is now making Glitter, too, I've been jonesing inspired to play with mine.   I pulled out the bin where I've been putting cut pieces-parts and picked out some pretties to play with.

I arranged the combinations on plates, telling myself I'd use them as leader/enders.

Yeah, right.
That top one was just staring at me, so I sewed it together, too.

And then I pulled out all my completed blocks.  There are only ten, but I really like seeing them gathered together!

And who remembers way back last fall when I fell for the squirrel of pumpkins?
I don't think I ever showed the picture of the finished top.  Here it is, complete with my foot.

I only bring it up because I've started quilting it.

Walking foot, how I love thee!


Since I'm all about the scraps, I'm linking with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the pretty!

Stars, stormy seas, and a bit of clucker surgery

(First off, someone has asked me about where to find the pattern for the silly chicken in my next to last post, and since I don't have an email address for her, I figured I'd share with all y'all.  It's right here.  Enjoy!)

With the end of February fast approaching, I figured I'd better toss together a few more aqua/teal/seagreen blocks.
I made a Whatchacallit Star -

these poor stars fell off the A List last fall, and I feel like I should make it up to them.  Poor neglected things.

And some kaleidoscopes happened.  I managed not to fall completely into their clutches.  Hey, who knew I could ever be restrained about kaleidoscopes?  Certainly not me.

And one of Chantal's Pinwheels, too.

Now these next bits probably shouldn't count as RSC stuff, since they're from the Sea of Tranquility (aka Storm at Sea) which I'm making in blue/green/teal/turquoise, but they ARE February's color and make me look super-productive, so here they are!

And then there was the clucker.
I made one of Sally's chickens with this perfect turquoise feather fabric.
But the wing.

Oh, the wing.
It bothered me.
I kept telling myself that it was fine, and when the whole quilt was together it would really truly be fine.
But.
I wasn't convinced.
I let it marinate a couple of days, then when I saw it today, I decided it wasn't ever going to be fine at all.
So I dewinged the poor little clucker, and grafted on a whole new limb.

I don't know about her, but I feel much better now.

Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see the last seagreen linkup!

A little sleight of hand(work)

I recently realized that I haven't mentioned this quilt in quite a while.  I've been happily (and slowly) (very slowly) handquilting it for absolutely forever.

Little by little,

inch by inch,

I'm getting it done.  Well, the center part is almost done - then onward to the borders!
My quilting isn't what it used to be, between old eyes and creeping arthritis, but it means a lot to me to finish this by hand.  It's going to my youngest daughter when I finally get that last stitch in.

I really enjoy doing handwork, but I've been thinking a lot lately about coming up with a handwork project that's more portable than a gigantic quilt.  I go visit my kids often enough that it would be nice to have a suitable traveling project.
La Passacaglia is in the running, since I got Millefiori Quilts for Christmas and have been drooling all over the pages ever since.  But I've also been thinking along the lines of a simpler hexie quilt as a way to warm up to the precision of La Pass.  (See?  I can occasionally be sensible.  Sort of.)

Then I saw these blocks inspired by this quilt and fell head over heels in love.
So I took one of the diamonds for a test drive.

I'm using the flat back whipstitch to sew the hexies together, which has the advantage of the stitching being almost invisible  on the front.  It also seems to be easier to fit the hexies together by working with them flat, though that might just be me.

For the first diamond, I tried glue basting.  I'm going to use thread basting for the second one, then decide which technique I like better.

Oh, did I mention the size?

Yeah.  Wee little hexies.

Well, you know what I always say -
Go Small or Go Home.


I'm linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more Fun than Housework, and at Slow Sunday Stitching (for the first time!) at  Kathy's Quilts.  Come see all the beautiful work!

Cluck cluck!

Most of my sewing time has been lavished on En Provence (almost done!), but I did finally take some time to play with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Here's one of those crazy cluckers:

(Note to self - when it's been a couple of weeks since you last did any paper-piecing, do a simpler block first as a warmup.)  (Because for every three seams, I had to unpick two and try again.)  (*sigh*)

My spools aren't officially an RSC block, but as long as I've got fabrics on the cutting table...

The pink one is actually a lavender left over from January.  The one on the left is one of those colors that isn't quite green and isn't quite blue, which is spot on for February.

I stood on a chair to take a picture of En Provence, and it still wasn't enough to catch the whole thing.  Side borders are on, top and bottom outer borders are assembled and just need to be attached.

Almost there!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!  Come see all the rainbows!

En Provence - headed for the last linky

Today is the last linkup for En Provence  over at Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville's Quips and Snips.
Much as I'd hoped to have a finished top to show off, time was not on my side. 

I've actually got all the neutral 4-patches sewn, and am starting to assemble those final borders.  Nine blocks was a great plenty for a useful sized quilt, so I'm not going for the full sixteen blocks of Bonnie's pattern.

I substituted orange for the magenta, and used blues instead of the greens, and I'm very happy with how it's coming out.  (In real life, the orange isn't quite so flare-y, and the yellows aren't quite so bright.   Not to mention that the purples look more purple, too.  My camera doesn't like this quilt at all...)
Once again, my thanks to Bonnie Hunter for a wonderful mystery quilt!  This adventure takes me right out of my comfort zone - making components with no idea what the blocks will look like.  It's also a real exercise in trust, what with all the fabric and time invested in the great unknown.
Last year I made Allietare, and this year it's En Provence.  I've very pleased with both!
So head on over to Bonnie's place for the last linkup.  Enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Late for the linkies!

Anybody remember way back in October, when I decided I wanted to make these stars -

- for RSC2017?  Well, I finally remembered, so today I whipped up one in purple for January.

Then, using some newly-acquired foam plates (like Julie uses for organizing blocks in progress - thanks for the idea, Julie!), I laid out some aquamarine/aqua/seagreen/turquoise/teal bits for February's colors,

and stitched them up.

Then I laid out the whole collection (Look!  Six!)

and decided that yes, indeed, I'm going to have to make a bunch of these pretty stars.

And in other news, I'm still plodding along with En Provence.  All nine blocks are done, most of the sashing is assembled and/or attached, and I'm madly making more neutral four-patches for the outer border.

I'm definitely going to stop at nine blocks (I briefly had a mad notion to make twelve), which will be plenty big.  I'll have some bits left over, but since I've got an orphan block quilt simmering around in the back of my head, I don't think I'll have a hard time using them up!

Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday (even though it's Sunday - better late than never, right?) and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the scrappy fun!