I should have known this would happen

Last time I posted, I showed a photo of my Frolic with the blocks laid out in a straight set. 

It'll be fine, I told myself.  Terrific, in fact.  I really like it, I said.  I don't need to do the on-point setting like Bonnie Hunter designed it because it'll be quite okay this way.  Just because I usually prefer an on-point setting is no reason to think that that will be the case this time too.

Yeah.

I decided to make up a block and the two half-blocks needed to fill in a corner if I turned the blocks on point.  You know, just for scientific purposes.  Not that I was going to dump the straight set or anything.

Uh oh.

You saw this coming, right?

On point just dances rings around the straight setting.  I liked the straight set.  I LOVE the on point.

So okay, three blocks and six half-blocks to go.

I should've known I wasn't done...

Let's pretend I did some RSC sewing

Look!  Greens!

Not RSC January greens at all, though.  Those are more numbers for the temperature quilt.  (I'm really proud of that 7 in 70, by the way.  I just slashed a square with my rotary cutter at an angle that 'looked right' and it turned out really well.  I'm not usually that lucky!)

The other win was that I've got nine blocks done for Frolic, which is all I'll need if I decide to go ahead with a square setting.  If I dither myself into that lovely diagonal setting, I'll just need four more blocks and a bunch of setting bits.  (I've got some of that stuff cut out anyway, from when I panicked and thought I wasn't going to have enough parts for clue 7.)  (Or was it clue 6?)

At one point I had all the sashing strips in place between the blocks, but in the process of rearranging for value (because I couldn't help myself), most of those sashy bits fell onto the floor.  (I cropped them out of the photo)  (It's just as well)  (Who needs to look at a swathe of sashy bits on the floor, after all?)

So, I'm either done with the Frolicking blocks or I'm 9/13ths done with the Frolicking blocks.  We'll see what happens next.  (And can I say once again how happy I am with how my colors worked out?)

Frolicking Revelations

As of last night, before Bonnie Hunter's Big Reveal, this was my best guess for Frolic's main block -

and since we hadn't used much for neutrals yet, I thought maybe some of those HSTs might be needed to fill out the corners.

I'd figured 25 blocks, set on point 5x5, but I was thinking there would be 16 alternate blocks filling the spaces between them.  (Deploying some math at this point would have helped me see that THAT quilt would have been way too big.  Math is ALWAYS necessary.) 

I wasn't ridiculously far off, anyway.

Here's the actual block, as Bonnie revealed this morning -

and I not only like the block, I really like my color choices for it.

So I scurried to make a second one.  (This one actually took longer to put together than the first one, since I made the classic mistake of thinking I knew what I was doing.  I love my seam ripper, I truly do.)

And then I tried to take a photo at a 45 degree angle to show what they'd look like on point.  (As you can see, my design wall is currently crowded with flying geese, and I didn't want to clear space to make room for that on-point layout.)

And then while I was at it, I made a third block, since the pieces-parts were right there and all.

And I laid out a fourth block so I'd have something to start with next time I make it to my sewing machine.

I have nowhere near the number of units I need to make the whole quilt.  I'd just been puddling along behind everyone else, only making enough components to keep my hand in.  I'm still not convinced I need another bed-sized quilt at the moment, so I'd had it half in mind to make a smaller one anyway.  (And doesn't that take the pressure off!) 
So my plan at the moment is to make nine blocks total and sew them together in a 3x3 setting.  I actually like the straight set at least as much as the on-point set, so if I decide I'm satisfied with that, I'll put borders on (hello, HSTs) and call it happy. 
If I decide I absolutely need to get fancy, I can make 4 more blocks and do all those wild setting triangles and corners with what I've got cut and a few more bits, and just end up with a slightly smaller Frolic.

Win/win, I think. 
I'm really happy I went with this purple-orange color scheme - it just makes me smile every time I look at it.

Great Frolicking Chaos, Batman!

Bonnie Hunter dropped Clue #8 this morning, so I printed it off and marched right upstairs like I knew what I was doing, and I turned this -

into this -

because I was well into the afternoon before I turned the page of my printout and saw that there was also a Part B to go with the Part A's that I had been sewing.
Wait, what?
I had two things working against me:  1) I hadn't printed off any of the other clues, and 2) I hadn't been making anywhere near the number of units that Bonnie is calling for.  Confusion was my new middle name.

The wisest course was to move on to other projects until I went back downstairs and printed off the other clues.  (The printer is happily humming along doing just that at the moment.)  I'll go back to it tomorrow with a fresh mind and a fistful of clues.

So obviously I moved right on to another project where I don't have a really firm grasp of what I'm doing. 
I've started making a temperature scale to go across the bottom of my Goosey Temps quilt, with each number made in the color that represents it.  Temps of zero and below are white, and temps between 10 and 20 show up in purple.  (Zero to 10 is gray, but my gray solid strip has gone temporarily missing (at least I hope it's temporary), so I'm skipping it for now.)

I haven't done this kind of lettering/numbering before, so it's a challenge.  By the time I get done I should be fairly good at it, but then I'll be done and it won't matter...

I still haven't decided what to do with the RSC this year.  I have several sets of blocks that I plan to roll over from previous years, but I've had way too much input of fabulous ideas lately (looking at you, Cathy) to make a rational decision about a new project.
Then I glanced down at my sewing table where I've been putting together those flying geese for Goosey Temps for the last year.  I have a LOT of triangles left over, cut in matching pairs.
Hmmm...  What could I do with pairs of triangles?
Aha!  I've long been admiring the quilts made by Lynn Dykstra at klein meisje quilts combining prints with solids.  And I've got a bunch of solids left, too...
So, before I was entirely sure what was happening, these two little cuties showed up on my table.

Not that I'm starting a new project.  Nope.  Not me.
I don't even know what to call these little doodads, so it's obviously not a project.  If I can't label a bin, it totally doesn't count.


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

Some assembly required

Now that the dust is settling on 2019, it's time to start putting together all those months of flying geese.

The geese blocks finish at 2"x4", and I'm inserting a 1" finished sashing in between the monthly columns.  In retrospect, I should have used a smaller goose to start with, because this quilt is going to be bigger than I had first visualized it.  I was thinking wallhanging size, but we're way into lap quilt territory and growing.  (This was increasingly clear as the months went on, but I firmly put my fingers in my ears and chanted la-la-la whenever I thought about it.  Just call me Cleopatra)

I've decided to put them together as quarters, then join the quarters together, just in the interest of reducing the goose wrestling a bit.  And I'm taking it slow and easy with frequent breaks, because that's a whole lotta triangle points goin' on.  My jaw gets tired from clenching my teeth...

Here you can see the first two quarters flying on the design wall.

Six more months to sew together, then it'll be time to put on headers and footers.  I have a plan!

And now that it's a whole new year, I'm trying to decide if I want to do another one of these things.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that last year when I bought a pocket calendar to record temps in, I could only find this one that was for two years.  I'm not taking that as a sign.  Really.  I'm NOT.

And here's what I'm using for leaders/ender while I'm sewing those long columns together.  (And when I need a break from all those goosey points)

I've got representatives of all seven clues we've had so far.  No way have I kept up with actual counts of each clue, but I'm still Frolicking along.  Even if I'm way back in everyone else's dust... 
Anyone else wondering when the neutrals are going to kick in?  The original list of fabric requirements called for buckets of neutrals and we've used hardly any.  Can't wait to see where this goes next!