And then one thing led to another

We all knew that purple kitty print was going to make a handsome cake stand, right?

Right.

And then, because one thing leads to another and because we've already done both lime and orange for the RSC this year and because I do like to play catch-up

I made another.  And then, since I found the pink one that had mysteriously disappeared, I decided I needed a group shot.

You know, a group shot of the blocks that I'm going to be making for NEXT YEAR'S  RSC.  Which I obviously haven't started yet.

(I found the missing pink one when I decided to get a bin to put the kitty block into so it wouldn't get lost like the pink one.  I spied one on top of a stack of bins full of blocks.  Guess what was already in it?)  (Apparently I'd had that idea before, but then it fell right out of my brain) (This time I remembered to label the bin)

And since this is the last Saturday for our July dark blue RSC blocks, I made another postage stamp for PSP20.

Lately it seems like my world is just full of these little 1.5" squares.  Between the postage stamps, the 4-patches I'm making for Sand Castles 2, the squares for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Peasy leader/ender project,

and the nine-patches I'm making for my Jack's Chain,

 it seems I'm all about the itty bitties.

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

Well, maybe just one new project. Or, umm, two...

Did anyone else accidentally start Bonnie Hunter's new leader/ender challenge?  (Well, some of you might have started on purpose.  I just sort of seem to fall into these things without really noticing...)

I'll just make one block, I told myself.  You know, as a sample.  

You can see where this is going, right?

Bonnie is calling this "Easy Breezy", but my brain insists on saying "Easy Peasy", so I guess I'll be sticking with that.

Because it sure was easy peasy to end up with a whole plateful of blocks cut and ready to go.

In RSC news, I got another catch-up block done for PSP20.  (I completely deny this was so I had an excuse to sew some new leader/enders together.)

Now I've just got January's light green to do and I'll be all caught up!

And you know how in my last post I showed you I was a winner?  Well, I'm an even bigger winner now - Sally T drew my name for her Table Scraps giveaway and sent me a huge stack of solids.  (You know how Joy's middle name is Whoosh?  Sally's middle name is Enabler.)  I see a lot more postage stamp blocks in my future.  (And maybe zippers) (and cake stands) (and maybe friendship stars?)

And then apparently Molly decided to add a few scraps of her own, so I've got some lovely kitty bits to play with, too.

And since the fabrics were all just Right There -

I may have to stop kidding myself about whether I've started that Cake Stand quilt or not.

Sally's last laugh was this print -

just to make sure I don't run out of squirrels.  (I think that one might make a good background for when the RSC gets around to red month.)

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

Momma's got a brand new... umm... log

Well, my friend Joy actually calls it a stick, but it's mine now so I can call it a log if I wanna!

So late last month the busiest quilter I know (I swear her middle name is Whoosh) had a giveaway for her stop on a blog hop.

Since the theme of the hop was sunshine, she made the sunniest, shiniest, sunshiny pincushion possible, and guess who was the lucky winner?

Yes, me!!!

Thanks so much, Joy!  I'm going to enjoy this little log of joy!

(I may have to buy some fancier pins, though.  They have a lot to live up to now!)

Three layers deep

Well, not all days are this productive - especially lately.  But after a few mis-starts, I managed to get a few things accomplished.

My Frolic (Bonnie Hunter's 2019 Winter Mystery) was so close to the finish line that I could hear its little footsteps.  I zipped through the last HSTs for the borders and stitched them into nice long strings.

There was an oops, of course, because there's always an oops.

I managed to sew the border strips together wrong way round.  Luckily I'd only done one set before seeing my error.

There.  That's better.

Then it was time for the Math Meltdown.  I'd been willfully denying that there was going to be a problem with those borders.  I'd made my quilt smaller than Bonnie's, so her border lengths were going to be different from mine.  The part that I was really trying not to think about was that I knew from my measuring for that yellow stop border that my quilt now measured an odd number.  Those HSTs finish with an even number.  

I started doing all kinds of mental gymnastics thinking about adding another HST to each border, then adding a second (extremely narrow) stop border to fill the gap.  Multiply this, add that, subtract the other.

Meanwhile, the sensible part of my brain (I do have one - it's usually hiding waaaaaaaay in the back) was trying to get my attention.  

"Go away, I'm thinking," I told Sensible, and returned to trying to remember if I'd allowed for ALL the seam allowances.  Sensible wasn't having any of that, thank you very much, and proceeded to start squawking really loudly.

"What?!?" I said grumpily.

"Not bigger.  Smaller.  Measure and think."

The stop border measured 57".  My HST border measured 56.5".

Oh.

Duh.

Nevermind.

The borders practically sewed themselves on.

I pinned it to the design wall right over top of Unity, which I finished a couple of weeks ago and hadn't put away yet.  (I'm using it to remind myself that I really have gotten something accomplished in this Time of Weird.)

So since I was on such a roll of success, I grabbed Sand Castles and finished the last two seams on that one.

I added it to the design wall, too.

So that's two tops done today, which I'm pretty sure is a Personal Best.

And I've got tops three layers deep on the design wall.

And it looks to me like I can start a few new projects with an absolutely clear conscience...

Of postage and cake

With a new month comes a new color for the RSC - darker blues this time around.

I got right to work on my postage stamp block.

All the while, that imaginary cake stand block was sitting nearby.

"You know," I said to myself, "if I were a smart woman, I would tuck all those little pieces into a little plastic bag and have a kit ready to go next year when I actually start making blocks for this RSC2021 project."

But then...

"But hey, it wouldn't do any harm to just sew those little HSTs together before I do that." 

And despite the fact that I was diligently sewing together little squares for the Projects I'm Actually Working On, I decided that I might as well sew that bigger HST together too, while I was at it.  You know, before putting all those parts away.

And then maybe just sew those little pairs of triangles together so I wouldn't get them confused later when I would take the kit out of its bag and do the real assembly.  You know, next year.

At this point things get a little hazy.  I'm almost certain that cobbler's elves were involved, because the next time I looked I saw this:

I started muttering to myself.  "Squares.  Sewing squares.  Just squares."

And it seems to have worked because I finally had this together.

Though that doesn't explain this:

But maybe it's just as well that I made this second sample block, because I can't find the first one I made.  I know I joked about hiding it from myself, just for my own protection, but apparently I did just that.  

Or maybe those cobbler's elves took it...

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.  Come enjoy the blues!

I'm not saying I cut out another cake stand

But if I were to do such a thing, I'll bet it would look something like this...