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...

Building Castles in the Air

Or rather, building castles in the sand.  In between the endless triangles for the Frolic borders,

I managed to make the final push for Sand Castles.

Allow me to introduce Block 63 and Block 64:

Yay!  The gang's all here!

I've started squaring up the blocks (the triangle corners are made oversized to allow for any wonkiness in the stringiness) and as soon as my temperature quilt is off the design wall, I'll be starting the grand dithering process of their final arrangement.

And speaking of the temperature quilt, I have a plan:

Notice the extensive calculations and attention to detail!  This is obviously going to work!  (Because we all know my plans always work, right?)  (Wish me luck!)

Linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the scrappy goodness!

The hard(est) part is done

This week I took my Frolic mystery from this:

to this:

to this:

 Ta-da!  The center part is done, including squaring, trimming, and stay-stitching the edges.  On to the borders!

Now that I've got the tricky parts done, I can do the borders at my leisure.  I'll be making HSTs in both purple and orange for a while, which will be a perfect leader/ender as I push forward some other projects that have been on hold while I frolicked mysteriously along.

And I got two more doodads done for the RSC.

Is it just me or are they getting brighter?


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

Orange you glad it's February?

Finally got to my sewing machine after that last storm snowed me out of my studio.  (Not a fan of big storms)  (Or snow in general for that matter)

First up were these Jacks 'n Sixes blocks that I'd cut out the other day.  These have been RSC blocks for several years now.

At some point I'll pull them all out and count them again - it's been a while.  I made one or two a month for a year or two, then none at all last year.  (Sandcastles grabbed all my RSC sewing time for most of 2019!)

And another doodad turned up -

All the above blocks functioned quite well as leader/enders as I've kept up the push to finish Frolic. 
At the end of my afternoon's sewing I laid out the last Frolic block (tada!), ready to sit right down and sew at my next opportunity.  (This strategy has worked really well for me.  It really cuts into my dither time - "What shall I do first?  This?  Or this?  Or maybe this?")

And while I was at it, I set up another doodad.

Can't have too many doodads, after all.


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see what everyone's been up to this week!

Oopsy diddly oopsy deux

When you make two mistakes in the same half-block in a two minute span, it's time to call it a day.

Ready for next time.

*sigh*

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!

What do you mean, December is almost half over???

Somehow writing posts in my head doesn't exactly equate to posts being posted on the actual blog.  Argh.  Though I guess it's just as well that my computer isn't reading my mind, come to think of it...

When last I typed at ya, my design wall looked like this -

Well, that was just a bit too chaotic, even for me, so when I finished piecing November's Goosey Temps column, I pulled the summer's columns and moved October and November to the left as I started December.  This gave me more room for the last Sand Castles as I build them.

And here's a good thing that I've been doing right along -

I write the month in the seam allowance of the top goose, so I don't get the months confused when I assemble the quilt.  THAT's a boo-boo I saw coming from a mile away.

And since it's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Time, I've been squeezing in a little bit of Frolic here and there.
Here's the start of Clues 1 and 2,

which left my cutting table looking like this -

and here's the first HST stacks for Clue 3 which just dropped this morning.

I'm basically just getting a few of each clue done, just to keep my hand in, as I pursue other sewing projects.  (Mostly of the gifty variety, since I hear there's a major holiday coming up soon.)  (Don't tell me how many days I have left la la la I can't hear you...)  When priorities allow, I'll catch up with the frolicking.

In the meantime, I'm linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday (because I'm bound to finish those Sand Castles soon, no really)  and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I'm even going to post a photo or two to Instagram for the Bonnie Mystery, though I'm not a fan of Instagram at all at all at all.  (I'm mangofeet_on_ig if you're looking for me.  I've got one photo so far.  sigh)

Geese in the Sand Castles, possibly Frolicking

Or possibly dueling.  Tough call.  The design wall is definitely filling up.

Though I seem to have warped the space/time continuum as far as my Sand Castle blocks are concerned.  I counted them and found I needed four more.  So I made a whole bunch of blocks and counted them all up again, and I still need four more.
I'm starting to suspect the Sand Castle bin has a black hole in the bottom...

Eventually I'll have enough blocks.  Really.  I'm sure of it.

There hasn't been as much time to sew lately, what with Thanksgiving and other holidays crowding the calendar.  I've got a lot of gifty projects going on behind the scenes, but I can't show them off yet.  (If I remember to take pictures, I'll share them after the holidays.)

I did get some fabrics pulled and cut for Frolic.  I've been digging through my scrap bins and gathering strips and generally getting ready for the clues to start dropping.

Clue one appeared yesterday, and though I didn't get any time to sew, I did get some strips ready for assembly.

Tomorrow the stitching will commence!  Four-patches are always full of fun!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.  I'm even going to try this new-fangled Instagram thing and post a pic or two.  Modern times, eh?

Beginning to Frolic

Bonnie Hunter announced her Mystery Quilt for 2019 yesterday and I'm already pulling fabrics.  Preparing to Frolic!

When I first saw her colors, my mind insisted on seeing purple in place of her blues.  I kept scanning down through her list and going 'hmm.'  Blues - check; fuchsia - always a good choice; aqua - eh I guess; limey green?  Starting to pause here.

But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and started rooting around in my stash.

And, well, okay.  It looks a little better in this photo than it did on the cutting table, but...

I realized that my heart was still yearning for those purples I'd first imagined.  Back to the stash I went and grabbed the nearest purples.  And then I decided a bricky red/orange would look good with them, so I grabbed those too.  Then a couple of blues took the place of the aqua, and a golden yellow jumped in to sub for the lime-ass green.

Oh, yeah.  That's floating my boat a whole lot better.

And then I found a 2-yard piece of a nice butter yellow which would look good and be a great plenty for that yard and a half of constant.

I think I'm ready!

Though I had a funny deja vu feeling the whole time I was pulling these fabrics.  Then I had to laugh when I realized that I'd done this pull before when I was planning a(n as yet unstarted) bag.

I may be frolicking down a yellow brick road!