A flimsy excuse

 Huzzah!  Flutterby is a flimsy!

It measures about 52" square, so a small lap quilt or a large baby quilt.  What with the Glitter flimsy last month, that's two Jen Kingwell designs in a row.  Time to file away her book and give another designer a chance, eh?  

Now to decide between finishing a project I've already started or going with one of the umpteen new ideas that are squirreling around in my brain.  What to do, what to do...

In between all the fluttering I got a couple more Cake Stands done.  Our RSC color for July is dark blue or dark neutrals.

I admit the gray above isn't actually "dark", but it's neutral so I'm calling close enough.  I love that feather print.  Since I did a bunch of darkish blues back when light/bright blue was the color, I should probably use this month to scrumble around in my browns, blacks, and grays.  I've got a lovely (though dreary) hoard of those just waiting for a chance to come out and play - maybe it will cheer them up!

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

Wrapping up the purple

 June is starting to dwindle away, taking purple with it.  Here's the last of my RSC blocks for the month -

One last Antique Tiles block,

a purple PSP20-21,

and a nice little batch of chips.

As usual, I'm startled by how many of these little gems I end up with by month's end.  I thought I'd only gotten 8 or 10 of them done, so I was surprised that there are really 18!

I thought I'd cut out another purple cake stand or two, but apparently I've buried them somewhere on my cutting table.  While looking for them, I found the parts for this Jacks 'n Sixes that I'd cut out for last month and then misplaced, so I sewed it right up.  Maybe the cake stands will turn up when I'm searching for whatever blocks I manage to lose next month...

And in big happy news, I've got all my Flutterby blocks done and thrown up on the design wall.

After the successful use of Cathy's Random Method for my Glitter top, I went random again while laying out these blocks.  I'll leave them up to look at for a day or two, but I don't see much that I'd want to rearrange.  Given the size of the pieces and the general busyness of the pattern, I don't think moving blocks around would even be noticeable.  I've already got the borders half assembled (More spikes!  Yay!), so I'm well on the way to a completed top.

And I can hear those squirrels starting to rustle around behind me.  Uh oh....

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

I keep losing track of time

 I can't decide if I'm living in fast-forward or extreme-slow-motion...  Either way, time keeps getting away from me.

When last we met, I'd hung up Glitter and was testing a border idea.  To me, the edges of the top looked like they were just frittering off into nothingness, so I wanted a bit of a frame to contain them and hold them into the quilt.

I realize borders don't float everyone's boat, but I'm happy with the way it's turned out.  It's only an inch wide so it won't be screaming for attention, plus there's the added benefit of pushing all those points away from the binding.

So, off went Glitter to join the mountain of tops that are awaiting quilting.  (I'll get to them someday.  I have A Plan.)  (Don't laugh.  Sometimes my plans work out okay.)  (Well, sort of...)

That left me free to start a new Main Project, right?  I reached for those HRTs that I've been cutting for the last couple of months for Jen Kingwell's Flutterby, 

and used them for leader/enders while sewing together all those Glitterbits.  

Once Glitter was fully assembled, I could really buckle up and go.

I think I'm going to like it!

Now if I can just do something about that runaway time issue...

How is it the middle of March already?

I haven't been getting a lot of sewing done, but it looks like I'm getting even less writing...

The last two weeks have given me one more yellow cake stand for last month's RSC color (I'd cut it out right at the end of the month but didn't get it assembled until February had expired),

and the first two green ones for March.

(Sharp-eyed observers among you may have noticed that I'm flexible on using the RSC color for the background or for the cake stand itself.  I think this gives me a whole lot more variety in my blocks)

My first green Antique Tile block has a real pickled zucchini vibe going on.

(That green and pink batik in the center is probably supposed to be Queen Anne's Lace, but it sure looks like dill to me...)

I dug through my solid greens and found one that I didn't use last year for a postage stamp block.

Sometimes sewing those little squares together is all peaceful and meditative and relaxing, and sometimes it's more "%&*# I dropped another one!  &%$#@ I sewed two solids together!  *&%^%$"  (I won't tell you which this one was, but I will admit that if my mother was still alive I'd be tasting soap right about now)

And then there's been a veritable Glitter Tornado going on here, with all these blocks practically throwing themselves together.

Things have definitely speeded (sped?) up since I figured out a good sewing/pressing plan.  If only it hadn't taken me 47 blocks to work it out...

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

A few more yellow bits, just under the wire

I'm wrapping up the last of the yellows for February's RSC.   (And I just saw that March is going to be green!  Huzzah!)  (My third favorite color!)  (After orange and purple, of course!)

Cake Stands are a happy block, no matter which color.

And I've got a dandy bunch of chips ready to go.

The chips made a good leader/ender for some more Glitter blocks

and since I found the other bag of blocks that I'd kitted up last year, I guess I'll carry on piecing some more of them.  They're tricky enough that I can only make about three of them before my eye starts to twitch and the swearing starts to get almost too loud, but three by three will continue to add up!

I also try to spend a little time each session just cutting pieces for future projects, like my tumblers for instance.

That bin doesn't look very full until I take a photo from the side -

cutting twenty or so pieces every time I'm handling fabric will eventually start to add up.  When I'm ready to start the quilt, it's going to go pretty fast, even if it ends up as a leader/ender.  (This is the same approach I took for my Triangle Stars - cutting pieces off and on over the course of a year or two, then starting the sewing.  That top really whooshed itself right together!)

I also continue to cut strips for 9-patches for my Jack's Chain, squares and rectangles for Easy Peasy, 4-patches just because I like 4-patches, and triangles for my future Ocean Waves and Tree of Paradise.

And then of course, there are the pieces I cut for quilts I'm not actually starting at all, like Flutterby.

I sure hope my great-great-great-grandchildren like finishing quilts, because I think I have enough starts to keep several generations entertained for years...

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

I know February is a short month but this is ridiculous

 Where does the time go?  Three weeks into February and this is my first gathering of the yellows for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

In between finishing those two tops I showed in my last post, I got a couple of Antique Tile blocks done,

and a couple of yellow chips as well.  I've got several more of those cut out and sitting next to my sewing machine since they make dandy leader/enders.

And I really got carried away with my postage stamp blocks for PSP20-21, making not one,

not two,

but THREE blocks.

(Admittedly that last one was kind of an oops.  I'd lost track of how many I'd made and thought the third one was merely the second.) (This is not a bad oops.)

And while I was doing all that postaging, I finished up another pink that I'd cut out last month but hadn't gotten stitched.

It's been a good month for postage stamps!

I only got one cake stand done so far,

but I've got two more cut out and ready to go.

After working so relentlessly on Grassy Creek and Sand Castles 2, I was a little lost after finishing them.  What to do, what to do?  Get back to a UFO, or start something new?

You'd be proud - I dug out a little bag of Glitter bits that I'd kitted up a long time ago, then set aside and mostly forgotten.  (Somehow in my mind, I'd taken the 'there, that's done' of setting up the kits, and transmuted it into 'there, that's done' as in 'no further action required')  I spied a few sets that had yellow incorporated in them and pulled them out to stitch right up.

And there I was, feeling all virtuous for resisting the siren call of starting a new project.  So strong! 

And since I was being so good, it surely couldn't hurt to just look up that other Jen Kingwell quilt that I want to make.  You know, for after I finish Glitter and all.  It's always good to be prepared - everyone says so.

So I pulled out the book and just looked at the pattern.  And then I read the directions and noticed that she used an odd measurement for the grid base for the blocks.  Next thing I knew I was translating the pattern into sizes of strips and squares that I already cut and use, and then this happened.

Not that I'm starting a new project.  Nope, not me.

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

A Tale of Two Finishes

That's right - I finished TWO quilts this month.  That's a new personal best - I typically don't finish two quilts in a YEAR!
Y'all knew I was pushing to finish On Ringo Lake - last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, but I had another quilt in motion, too.  I had to wait to brag on tell you about it until after it had been presented.

Long Time Gone!

I had wanted to give it to my youngest daughter (the one who convinced me how wonderful a color orange is) for Christmas, but I just couldn't wait.  Nothing wrong with an early gift, right?
(And now as I look at that quilt, I have a crazy yen to make another one.  Such a lot of fun!)

We had planned to take photos this afternoon, before she headed out for home, but we hadn't planned on the rain.  So here we are squeezed up on the porch (my other daughter is hiding behind the quilt) trying to get a pic or two without getting wet.

Here's On Ringo Lake being unfurled -

and here it is all bound, sealed and delivered.

The last stitch of the binding went in this morning so I could give it to my stepmom for her birthday.

Two finishes means I can start four new quilts, right?

One will be started tomorrow for sure.  Easy peasy four-patches for Good Fortune are on the agenda.
Now what three other projects can I choose?


Since these quilts are both scrappy magic, I'm linking with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the scrappy fun!

Not there yet, but trying to catch up!

Busy busy busy!  I kept thinking I'd get a post thrown up (not in the vomiting sense) (well, considering how many pictures this post has, maybe it kind of is...), but didn't get it done.

I've actually been madly knitting and sewing here in the background, but some of those projects are for gifts and I don't want to spoil any surprises.  But I did manage to get some blogable stuff done.

I'd fallen behind on the Temecula Marvelous Monday Minis, but am now all caught up again.
This Anvil block from the beginning of the month was fussy, but doable.

 But when I saw the next week's mini log cabins using a 1" center square and 3/4" strips, I noped right into another plan.

Sewing together the ends of two 1" strips, I then trimmed the red square to 3/4" from the seam (to be that 1" center) and cut the light 1/2" away from the seam.  That was a whole lot easier than sewing a 3/4"x1" strip to a 1" square, I'll tell ya.

I proceeded with that same strategy, sewing my block-in-progress to progressively wider strips,

and trimming them to size afterward.

And just because I can't leave well enough alone, I made a second block using the traditional half-light/half-dark sequence.

And ended up with two rather nice log cabins, which gives me an extra block if I need one.

Then a quick shoo-fly for this week's block, and I'm all caught up.  Yay!

I even managed to get some blocks done for the 365 Challenge that I started (and floundered) last year.

That takes me almost to the end of May, so I'm only a summer behind now!  This could still happen!

And there was considerable work done on Are We There Yet, even though I made some epic fails that slowed things down a bit.
Like this block that I knew perfectly well what size grid was needed, but grabbed the bin of the wrong size strips anyway.  Directions?  Who needs directions?

Once I made the block the correct size, things went a lot smoother.

Of course, they weren't going quite as smoothly as I thought they were, since I discovered I'd left another mistake in my wake.

 There's a strip of checkerboard that's 1x14 (the blue arrows show the top and bottom of it) that I sewed in upside down, so some of the checkers are incorrectly boarded.
I went back through my photos and discovered that I'd laid out that section right, but had flipped it somewhere in the process of sewing things together.

My seam ripper is my best friend...

There.   That's better.

And now -

It's together, except for one last long vertical seam that joins the left side to the right side.  My original plan was to quilt it in sections and sew that seam afterward, then add the borders and quilt them.   But I just saw a tutorial the other day on quilting in a square spiral, and now I'm thinking that maybe that's what I want, instead of the straight vertical lines that I'd intended.
You all knew that I'd have to have one final dither about this quilt, right?

And I have a few leftovers from all the effort.

There's that too-small pluses block,  and there's an extra log cabin which I'd purposely made in case there was trouble in making the blocks show up against whatever sashing color I ended up with.  Then there's that leftover pineapple, which is a sad sad tale.  I'd been working on the pineapple blocks as I went along, since they're so labor intensive and fiddly that I know I would have burnt out on them if I'd done them all at once.  But they'd gotten a bit scattered, what with being a leader/ender among all the other Long Time Gone blocks.  When I had them almost done, I counted them.  Then I counted them again because I was one short.  Then I counted them again because I couldn't possibly be one short because that would mean I'd have to make another one.  From scratch.  And I was one short every time I counted.
Some of you may have heard the sound I made at that point - it was a cross between a scream and a sob.
But I pulled myself together and made a whole 'nother pineapple block, grumbling all the way, and added it to the stack.
And then counted them again.
And had one extra.
And then I made a whole different kind of noise - a sort of high-pitched keening that set all the local dogs to howling and made all the babies cry...


Linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for this week's Oh Scrap!  Come join the fun!