Saturday, January 19, 2019

Another Sand Castle and a Goosey Thermometer

I thought I was done with Sand Castle blocks for this month's RSC color, but I was wrong.


One more.  Well, at least one more.  Since I was wrong before, I could very well be wrong again.  I do still have a lot of reds lurking on my cutting table.
As I was laying out the pieces for that block, I had a moment's panic about getting all the stripes going the same way.  Then I realized that I'd accidentally cut the triangles identically (and correctly!) and it was just a matter of turning the squares the same way.  (phew)
Bonnie has the string triangles and that itty bitty sashing all made just a bit over-sized, to make squaring up easier.  I've decided that given all those bias edges, I'm going to put off the trimming until I'm ready to sew the blocks together, hoping that it will increase my accuracy with these blocks.  Since I'll be piecing them over a long period of time, and (knowing myself as I do) will probably be laying them out all the time to admire the effect, I think that's probably for the best.

There's another project inching along in my sewing studio, too, which I haven't posted about yet.  (I wanted to see if it was just a squirrel that I'd lose interest in, or if it looked like I'd be able to follow through)
There've been lots of folks making temperature quilts, using colors to record the highs and lows of each day through the year.
It looked like fun, so I made a plan, cut a few triangles, and made some flying geese.


The first week went smoothly and enjoyably, so I cut some more triangles and kept on going.  I'm consulting the same source every day for the previous day's range.  Here are the first two weeks' worth of geese.  (I've made more geese since this photo was taken, and am currently caught up)


The goose represents the day's high temp, and the sky triangles are the low.  My rough(ish) rule is that I'll use a solid with a print each day, with the goose being the solid on alternate days.  But rules are made to be broken, and I'll freely substitute at my whim.  Some days will be two solids or two prints, or maybe there will be consecutive print geese.  I'm doing this for my own entertainment, after all!
I'm planning that each month will be represented by a column of geese (the geese finish at 2"x4"), then I'll set them as a strippy quilt, maybe with a narrow sashing in between.  Or maybe not.  Plenty of time to figure that out later.
In the meantime, I'm looking forward to getting up out of the blues and into the greens.  Is is Spring yet?


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


18 comments:

Chantal said...

I love Sandcastle block and this one is just as awesome as the others. Goosey Thermometer sounds like a fun project. But what are you going to do during the summer months when the geese are gone back north because they don't like hot temp? Oh no! What are you going to do? Maybe you could use ducks instead or ... ostriches! They love hot weather! ;^)

Jo said...

Makes sense to square up your sandcastle blocks later. Yours are looking great!

The Joyful Quilter said...

Nice job with your scrap sewing!

chrisknits said...

Great idea on that temp quilt! I can't see myself ever doing one because I would get too bored. I guess that's why I've never knit a temp anything either. Too fickle. LOL!

Jo said...

Sounds like a good idea for your weather quilt.

Cathy said...

I was feeling all nice and cozy and warm inside when I saw the sand castle and then brrrr....came those flying geese. You must have the same kind of geese there as we do here.

Carry on!

scraphappy said...

What a fun idea for a flying goose quilt. Block a days are always fun to start. Looks like January is a cold month for you.

LA Paylor said...

I've seen other weather geese but yours is really kind of different. Smooth, and pretty. I wonder how to do one here with the temps jumping from 60 during the day to 12 at night, or all during the day banking from cold to hot and back. High Desert I've been told. I sure like the first block...Now if we could get rid of the real geese here in Aurora CO who poop all over the place and scare the poodle.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

I've seen temperature scarves, and temperature socks... but never quilts! I like it!

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

The stripes on your Sandcastles block worked out great! I also like the temperature quilt idea you're working on - it will be fun to see how the colors change as the year goes on.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

I love striped fabrics and they look amazing in your block. I hope we get to see more :)

Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

Ellen said...

I really like your sand castle block and I think you should definitely stop and take many breaks to just admire them.

I was tempted to join in the temperature quilt as well. I really like your idea of using flying geese.

Ann said...

When I have blocks with bias edges I always wait till the last minute to square them up for the same reason as you. Good plan.

Mystic Quilter said...

Wise move to wait for trimming until all the blocks are finished. Hope we see your new project very soon.

SandraC said...

Yayyyy!....so glad you are joining in with the Temperature quilt!!! There is a linky party on Fridays over at Twiddletails....You can probably still link up this post to last week.

Sally Trude said...

What a great idea for a quilt. It's giving me ideas...like developing a scale of naughty to nice and assigning a color to each. Then Molly's score will be the inside and Buddy's score will be the outside. And if they both get the same colors, I will know they are conspiring against me!

Magpie Sue said...

Flying geese look like a great way to represent both the high and low temps each day. I've seen at least one of the temperature quilts that have been made - it makes for an interesting design!

Kate said...

What a cool idea for a temperature quilt!