She had me at orange...

This morning, Bonnie Hunter posted the colors for this year's mystery quilt and it's not a mystery that I'll participate.  The color with the largest fabric requirement is ORANGE, so I am so so so in!
And who couldn't use a bit more Good Fortune?

Of course, that meant that I spent the afternoon madly sewing On Ringo Lake chunks together so I could start Good Fortune with a happy heart.  (And a clear conscience...)

Success!  All those blocks and sashy bits are now assembled!
I still need to put the corner triangles on and since I can never leave well enough alone, I'm going to add a 2" border of scrappy brown strips all around.  And maybe another turquoise border on after that.  Maybe.  (I didn't say I was done dithering, just that I'd gotten the blocks sewn together.  It's my success and I can define it any way I want)

Good Fortune, here I come!

UFOs trying to be WIPs

I've been watching my friend Chantal diligently working on her Challenge 365 quilt blocks and envying her progress.
It finally dawned on me that I'd be making progress, too, if I got off my derriere and actually worked on my blocks...
Wading back through photos and blog posts, I decided that the last block I had made was for May 30.  One more block finished May -

and then I started June in motion.

I'm making this quilt in blues, reds, and browns only - a definite departure from my usual color scheme of chaotic rainbows.   I'm trying to decide if this exercise in control is character-developing or crazy-making.  (I keep having to spat my own hand when I reach for the oranges and purples.)

And another semi-long-lost project called for some attention, too.  On Ringo Lake (last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt) was last seen back in February, duking it out with Burgoyne Surrounded.

Burgoyne kicked Ringo's butt and Ringo ended up rolled up in a ball and abandoned set aside.  Burgoyne is now a flimsy (sort of - it still lacks a border) (but I have a plan!) and now Ringo is clamoring for a turn.  Fair's fair, after all.
So I've pulled out the bin of component parts that I stitched up last winter and now I'm figuring how many blocks I want to put together.
With the next mystery getting close to starting, I'd feel a lot better if I got this quilt at least to flimsy stage. 
Even if it's just a lap quilt.  Finished is finished, right?

Linking with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap, because scrappy is my life!  Come join the fun!

October is squaring up (and away)

I finally got one of September's Squared Away blocks done.

I'm still eyeing it, though, since it's not as symmetrical as the other blocks in this sampler.  Though it occurs to me that I could make four of them and use them in the corners, which would solve the problem neatly.
Ever since I started this sampler way back in January, I had it in the back of my mind to use a Single Irish Chain to set it with.  This week, I gave it a test, whipping up four quick chain blocks.

I think it's going to work!

I've also noticed that I have an inexplicable urge to finish my Centennial Stars.  (It's particularly inexplicable given how seldom I actually finish a quilt...)

A sale on batiks got some auditioning-for-alternate-blocks going.

A dotsy butterfly -

A flashy swirly one that contains every color in the blocks -

And this colorful dotted wonder that makes my stars look like they're bursting out of a night sky.

It's going to be a tough decision, but I think I'm leaning toward that last one.  Well, at least at this particular moment as I'm typing this.  It's hard to pass up a good dither.

Time to count the stars again, so I can decide how many more I need.

Any excuse to make more stars...


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see what we're up to with our scraps!

October Green

It feels a bit funny to be hauling out greens in October, when the world outside is trying very hard to be not-green as fall erupts around us.
But green is always a happy choice to play with, so I made up a block for the Squared Away sampler.  (Have I mentioned how much I've enjoyed these blocks?  Every one of them is tempting me to make a whole quilt out of them.)

When I added this one to the Squared Away stack, I remembered that I hadn't made the blue block for September, so I pulled out my notebook where I keep a record of the patterns.  (I can't get wifi in either of my studios, so I have to transport information the old-fashioned way.)

Well, that explains why I haven't done the September block.  I'll have to revert to an even more old-fashioned way and scrawl the pattern on the back of an envelope...

In the meantime, in between my log-cabin-building efforts, I'm still putt-putting along with my demented project.  I sew HSTs until I'm sick of them, then sew together those little four-patch butterflies until I'm sick of them, then I switch to sewing a light butterfly to a dark butterfly to form a half block until - well, you get the picture.

And when I have a sizable stack of half blocks, I finally start sewing them together to make more full blocks.

And when I get tired of that, I go back to HSTs.  Little by little, the stack grows.  (The fact that I'm spinning every one of those seam intersections as I go helps contribute to the tedium factor.  I know it's making everything easier to sew together, but wowzers it's a pain in the butt.)

When I get to where the count is over 200 (out of the 256 I need) I think I'll start sewing these blocks together into sets of four.  Just to break things up, of course.  (By that time, the seam spinning will be epic.)
I can do this, yes I can.

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come enjoy all the scrappy fun!

Logs and more logs, and loony every one

Still loonily logging away here.

Sometimes I zig -

and sometimes I zag.

Frankly at this point I have no idea how many little loggy cuties I have now.  I've given up counting them, because what's the point?

I just seem to keep cutting more logs to add to the fire pile.  Accidentally, of course.

You know what I mean.


Linking with Julie for Log Cabin Loonies.  (I'm late, but I was busy making logs and lost tack of time...)

Against all odds

Hey, look!  Finally a post!  There are lots of pictures, too, since I've been sewing a bit here and there.
Last month I inventoried my Centennial stars and decided to make purple ones for September instead of dark blue.  (I had lots of blue stars that I made last year, but only one purple.)
And as long as I was playing with purple, I might as well play with pink, too, right?

And that cleared the way to make some green stars for October

 And as long as I was on such a roll, another pink and a yellow/gold showed up with the last two greens.

Inventory time again.

I'm not done yet since I really like making these, and they're only 6" blocks, so it's going to take quite a few to make a good-sized quilt. 

Next I turned my attention to my Jacks blocks - another block I really enjoy making.

And where there are Jacks, there are buckeyes, since I usually make them in tandem.

When I first fell in love with these little cuties, they were set in a quilt like this -

and that's how I'd intended to use them when I'd accumulated the hundreds that I'd need.  (4" blocks.  Hundreds might be optimistic...)
But after seeing Bonnie's leader/ender  Jewel Box Stars this year,

I'm kind of tempted to set them like that.  I've got lots of time to decide, since I'm nowhere near having a lot of these yet.

When I put away the Jacks and Buckeyes (and you'll notice that they even share a bin - they really are linked in my brain!), I decided I might as well count them up, too, as long as I was in a counting kind of mood.

And a good thing it was, too, since I found a few wanderers hiding in amongst the Jacks.

A 4" broken dishes block.

Two little red chicks that should be in the Cluckers bin.

And a pinwheel and a Hope of Hartford block.  The pinwheel belongs in the pinwheel bin, of course, but the Hope of Hartford doesn't have a home.  (It's a block I auditioned for RSC a couple of years ago.  Looking at it now, I'm tempted to start cutting a bunch more...)

And the real surprise was these five itty bitty kaleidoscopes that I'd completely forgotten about.

Good thing I got my Kaleidoscope Shot so I don't come down with THAT infection again.  Maybe I should make these up into potholders or something so I'm safe from starting a quilt.  (I wouldn't actually need that many more to make just a tiny little quilt though, right?  Maybe a couple of blues and another orange or two...)

Uh oh.  I'd better hurry up and link to SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap before I do something I regret...  Come see all the scrappy fun!