Last of the crazy orange cluckers

As September heads off into the sunset,

we wave goodbye to orange.   (My clucker seems to be waving goodbye with her tail feathers...)  I'll miss orange, but they say all good things must come to an end.

Okay, October, ready or not, here you come!  Bring on the next color!


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the scrappiness!

Playing with four patches

As I mentioned the other day, I've started playing with some of the four-patches that I've been making for leader/enders for the last couple of years.

(And look!  If that worked, I've learned to make a collage!)  (Next step will be to learn to make a good collage!)

Four-patches are the ideal leader/ender for me - I just keep a box of 1.5" squares close to the machine and the little blocks pile up.  And up.  And up.
When I first started making them, I also started collecting ideas for what to do with them when I had 'enough' (whatever that means...)  The problem is, there are way too many gorgeous quilts made with four-patches.
What's a ditherer to do?

That's when I thought of "The Great Four-Patch Project."  I'm going to make ALL the four patch quilts.
In small versions, of course.  (Even I can see the pitfalls there)

So, I'm starting with this one:

Of course, there will be the traditional dithering over a border -

I like that one, so I'll try another purpley one.

Maybe a nice pinky-red?

Why not both?

I really like that one.
But I'll give brown a chance, just to see what happens if I tone it down a bit.

I'm not so good with the toning down, it seems.

That's better.  But I still like that red/purple combo from above.  Maybe with a blue binding?

Eventually I'm going to need some four-patches on point, so I've been framing some with triangles now and then.

Here's the latest one, posing with another of the  nine-patches that I'm making for the Burgoyne Surrounded sashing.

 Wait!  What's that?

Does anyone else hear the theme from Jaws?

I thought those monkeys had been entirely too quiet lately.  Apparently at least one followed me to my daughter's house.

Oh, dear.  We'll probably have to spray for them again...



Sharing with Linda and Julie at the Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE linkup.  Come see all the beautiful projects!

Orange party chick

Since I'm swiftly running out of September, I really buckled down with my orange scraps these last few days.
As long as I had that fabulous fluffy orange print on the cutting table, I did a bit more cutting.

A Jacks and Sixes -

and a cute lil red orange hen.

And once there was one clucker on the table, who should come racing up but this wild girl.

Don't let those staid feathers in her wings fool you.  I'm pretty sure she's covered in ice cubes - probably from some kind of spiked orange punch.  Definitely a party chicken!

And once more with that orange print.  I've got a four patch project in mind to use some of those hundreds of four patches I've been sewing for leader/enders for the last few years.

And for leader/enders for that project, I'm making nine patches for my Burgoyne Surrounded sashing.

Some days it's just all about the itty bitty squares.


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see what all us scrappy folk are up to!

Well, orange ewe fluffy?

 Yes.  Yes, ewe are...

Not a lot of orange sewing has been done this busy busy busy month, but at least I got one of Sally T's fabulous sheep added to my small (but growing) flock!

Orange stars, Monday Minis, and slowly expanding BS

Finally some RSC content!  (You knew I wasn't going to be able to resist orange, right?)
I grabbed the bin of my sadly neglected Centennial stars, and got right to work play.

Check out the star points in that block in the lower right corner of the picture.  I could only squeak out seven triangles from my orange pindot scrap, so I rummaged through my pile of scrap triangles for an eighth one.  Luckily I found an orange polka dot scrap that would work perfectly as long as I wasn't picky about dot sizes.  Win!

I made a sixteenth Burgoyne Surrounded block, but apparently forgot to photograph it.  It's the blue-centered one being cut off at lower left -

and then I whipped up a couple of quick nine patches and tested out the 3" sashing version of BS.  I like it better than the narrow sashing, which is going to result in a much larger quilt.  (Fifteen inch blocks with three inch sashing is going to be honkin' huge.)  This means I might as well stop making more blocks.  Or start another BS quilt.  Whichever.

Proceeding from large to small, I next turned my attention to my Monday Maniacal Minis.  (Was that the name of it?)  I counted up my little blocks and what with the extras I'd made (because my math skills don't seem to include counting), came up with twenty-three.  There's no sensible layout I could think of that used 23 blocks, so my choices were to discard three blocks for a count of twenty (like in the Temecula pattern) or to forge ahead and make two more blocks for a total of 25.
I forged.

A couple of framed square-in-squares gave me the desired total, and I started sashing these itty bitties.

Cue the dithering for the second sashing color.
Green?

Yellow?

Orange?

Pink?

Red?

Rainbow swirls?

What's that last fabric again?

I found a backing for Are We There Yet.  I love these big multicolor circles sooooo much!

(And my Monday Minis are currently in timeout while they think about their total lack of cooperation in sashing choice.  I'll get back to them when their attitude is a little better.)


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see what all the happy scrappy folk are doing!

Burgoyning again

Now that Are We There Yet isn't sucking up all my available time, a few other projects have been perking up to the surface.

This knitting project bag is actually something I finished a couple of weeks ago, but I had to wait to show it until I had given it to the friend for whom it was intended.

(I really really really didn't want to spoil the surprise!)  (And yes, it's another of the Retreat bags, like I was making here.)

I'm still puttering along with the 365 Challenge blocks.

I only lack one more of these 6" blocks to be caught up to the end of May.  I think these larger blocks are done at the end of June, then it's back to the 3" blocks that seem to go together a bit faster.  (Well, they do for me anyway)

And since Are We There Yet is up off the design floor (I've pinned the two halves together, but haven't committed to stitching the seam yet.  The sensible part of my brain is still trying to convince me to just stick with the parallel vertical lines of quilting that was my original plan, while the less sensible part (aka The Part that Gets Me in Trouble) is holding out for that ever-so-cool idea to quilt it in a continuous square spiral. ), I grabbed my newest Burgoyne block (#15)

and some 1.5" strips and squares

and laid everything out for a good look.

I still haven't decided whether I'll go with this narrow sashing, or with the 3" sashing with nine-patches for cornerstones.  I'll mock up the wider version, too, at some point soon, but considering the fact that these blocks finish at 15" without the sashing, that's a lot of quilt laying there, even in this compressed version.  I may have to go out in the yard to find room to lay out the big one...

I'm also got some other sewing projects going on - costume pieces, etc - that aren't yet at an interesting phase.  More on that later!

(And for those of you wondering about my adventures post, one of our elderly alpacas had to be put to sleep, and we were donating the body to the local veterinary college to benefit the students, the sweet corn was for the pigs, and my dad's vehicle of choice happens to be a truck with a dump bed.  So it was all perfectly logical, for some definitions of logical.)

Linking up with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  (I'm also hoping to get back on track with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, especially since this month is ORANGE!!!)

Friday Adventures

I've been living in an adventure-free zone lately, but today I had two.
The less interesting one was driving around town in a dumptruck with my dad, with a pallet of sweet corn and a dead alpaca in the back.   (Sometimes life is just weird)
The more interesting adventure was meeting one of my long-time imaginary friends and finding out she's not imaginary at all!
I'd long suspected that she is a thoroughly delightful person, and damned if I wasn't absolutely right.
And now I'm kicking myself, because though I brought my camera, I had total camnesia.  Really really would have liked having a picture of the two of us, thus proving imaginary friends are real...