Green goes Marching out

What with one thing and another, I didn't get a lick of RSC sewing done last week, but I did a little better this past week.
It helps if I lay out the components next to the sewing machine, ready to grab and run through.

That's a green Sand Castle, along with a green Jacks&Sixes, a green Buckeye Beauty, and another green Sand Castle ready for some four-patches.
Here's the lozenge portion of the first Sand Castle along with the Buckeye,

and here's that Jacks block.

(It's really convenient to cut the squares and triangles for this and the Sand Castles at the same time, since one needs 3 squares and 6 HSTs, and the other needs 5 squares and 6 HSTs.  As long as I've got strips and rulers in hand...)

Two Sand Castles done and done.

And here they are added to the green ones already on the design wall.

I'm ready for a new color!  Hello, April!


 While I'm deciding what new project to start, I pulled out the (sadly neglected) Glitter bin and made a few blocks,

and then a few more.

I added another four blocks to this bunch, but the camera must have eaten the photo because I can't find it.  Only 472 million more blocks to go and I'll have a quilt...

And I've got the back pieced for Sea of Tranquility.  Now to just iron it flat and get ready for the pin-basting.

I'm sure it'll be smooth sailing, right?


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And another top flimsied!

Or another flimsy topped.

Some of you may remember back when I was working on my Storm at Sea (see the tag over the sidebar), which I had renamed Sea of Tranquility.  I'd left it here, with the stormy portion pieced with the setting triangles, while I dithered about borders.
Border decisions were finally reached and I hauled out the almost-top and got to stitching.

This is actually hanging sideways and you can only see the left half of the top.  (The top of the top, as it were.  Or the bottom of the top.  No wonder we're calling them flimsies now.)  (I dream of having a bigger design wall.)

I've put all the lightest block bits in the center of the quilt and worked outward progressively darker.  It gives it a shimmery watery glow.

The borders continue the watery effect - I'm really pleased with the prints I found.

This is the next one up for quilting.  I have it in mind to start in the center and quilt a spiral outward, continuing with the watery effect.  I may end up regretting this plan partway through - it's a big honkin' quilt.
If you hear a lot of swearing in the next week or so, it's probably me.  I might get a little loud.
Sorry.

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How Green Was My Sandcastle

Pretty darn green, as it turns out.  Here's one I finished last week -

and the two I got done this week.

That gives me four green ones so far, so I'll need two more to cover my goal of six blocks per month.  I need 64 total for the quilt, so at six per month for ten months, I'll be pretty close to that.  Make four more blocks?  No problem.  It's fun (and way too easy) to pick out a fabric and cut the squares and triangles necessary for a new block. 
Sand Castles may be the best leader/ender quilt ever, too.  The four-patches have been my go-to leader/ender for years, and the assembly of that middle unit works for l/e, too.  Even the strippy triangles lend themselves well to the process.  Those last two blocks went together as I was stitching up my triangle stars top.  (And hey, since I finished that top, I get to start four new projects, right?)

My other long-range project is still cooking along, too.  Here's my Goosey Temps strip for March so far.  (I haven't done yesterday or the day before yet - hoping I'll get to the sewing today)

This month has been a roller coaster, with temps varying between the 60's and below zero.
Sometimes on the same day...


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Well, that's a flimsy excuse

My triangle stars are now a flimsy.  Or a top.  (Could someone explain to me the difference?  Is there a difference?)  (I'm ancient - back in my day it was just called a top.)

I need a bigger design wall - this quilt measures 76" square and just overwhelms it.  (My 'design wall' is really just a big sheet of flannel clipped to a metal shelf unit, but it's still a step up from my 'design floor'!)

This next photo was taken before I got the top border sewn on, but you can see how I resolved the corners of the sawtooth triangle border.

That corner light triangle is trickier than it looks - the tip is a wider angle than the 45deg angle of the kaleidoscope ruler (which is the angle used throughout the quilt), but slightly narrower than the angle of the tri-recs ruler (which I think is somewhere in the 50's - google just failed me when I tried to look it up).  I did a bit of fudging and got everything to lay flat, finally.  (I'm extremely glad that squares only have four corners - by the fourth, I was actively cursing.)

I have enough of that lovely stop-border print to use for the binding.  Oooo - maybe with a flange binding, using light neutrals for the flange?  Hmm...

While I'm pondering that, I'm going to enjoy looking at this finished top.  Or flimsy.  Whichever it is.

Marching on into the green!

A new month means a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Behold the first green Sand Castle!

My Goosey Temps quilt marches on into march, too.
January and February are pictured here side by side, next to my triangle star blocks.  (My camera positively hates taking pictures of these strips.  Every photo turns out blurry, no matter what setting I use.  I hope it likes the finished quilt or you're never going to get a good look at it...)

And here's my first March goose:

Speaking of photos, here are two that I forgot to include in my last post.  When I was cutting out triangles for the triangle stars, I saved the ends of the strips.  Waste not, want not, right?

I'm sewing them together to make full triangles and using them randomly in the borders, just for a little added sparkle.

Otherwise I'd probably be tempted to design a whole 'nother quilt just to use them up.  I could see that squirrel coming from a mile away.


Linking with Soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!   Come see all the scrappy fun!