Multiscrapping

It's no secret that I always have a lot of projects underway.  I'm just not a straight-line kind of person, who makes a clear goal and then diligently works to accomplish it.  It's a wonderful strategy for a lot of people, but I just can't do it.
So, here's a peek at my cutting table where I'm cutting 3.5" strips into useful bits.

The rectangles at upper left will be cut into background pieces for Glitter.  The large triangles are for Storm at Sea.  The squares at lower left are for Quilty 365 (which is currently bogged down and in hiatus, but that's no reason to stop cutting squares for it) and for my new Bonnie Hunter leader/ender hourglasses.  You can see where I've stacked and marked some squares at lower center and have some completed blocks at lower right.

I'd been wanting to make hourglass blocks since I saw them on a couple of other people's blogs, and then when Bonnie announced it as her yearly leader/ender challenge, I was sooooo in.
You can see I've already started to accumulate a few as I work on these whole other blocks.

These star blocks are made with scraps of 2.5" strips that were left over from a couple of other projects.  Because I'm all about the scrappy here.
Speaking of scrappy, a couple of these little guys turned up today.

Lately they've been hanging out down at the creek, trying to beat the heat.  If it doesn't cool off soon, I may join them...


Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come see all the fun we're having with scraps this week!
And also linking with Scraptastic Tuesday with Mrs Sew & Sow.  Even more scrappy fun!

The Last Pigs of April

(Does that sound like the title of an awful novel that we had to Read and Discuss in an American Lit class, or is it just me?)  (It's just me, isn't it?)

Anyway!

I finished my last two orange piglets for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm trying not to think about the fact that I made at least ten of them in orange.  My original goal was to make four of each color for the RSC, and I think I've made at least eight every month.  At this rate, by October I'll have enough blocks to make a quilt that will stretch from here to Iowa.  (Hear that, Cathy?  We're coming for ya!)

Much as I love my kaleidoscopes, these piglets are really my favorite of my RSC blocks.  The Amazing Sally T gets the blame credit for my mad piggy-making, since she's the one who designed this little cutie.  (See the 'Featured Post' in my sidebar for links to her tutorials.)

Though the ten piglets were an easier thing to keep up with than the 30 orange peel blocks of April (Thirty?  //muttering 'thirty days hath September, April...'  Yep, thirty!) that got away from me for the Quilty 365.  I ran out of steam around mid-April I think, with some blocks stitched,

and others just cut out and pinned.

I think with a bit of a push, I can catch up and put this project back on track.  A little snipping, a little stitching - totally doable!
Though sometimes I think optimism may be my biggest character flaw...

I'm starting to feel like the Little Engine that Could

While waiting for The Boy™ to get home from school today, I got several more blocks done for the 365 Challenge.  If I can keep up anywhere near this pace, I'll no longer be weeks behind.  I'm starting to kid myself that I might even get caught up where I'm doing them in real time instead of this time delay thing that I've currently got going on.   (It's good to have dreams.)

Here's a sweet little covey of 3" blocks -

Most of them were fairly easy, but this little fella took a wee bit more concentration.

Oh, but I love a good Snail's Trail.  I'm thinking seriously of making several more 3" Snails and making a small quilt with them.  Yeah, I know it's crazy and ridiculous, but it's crazy and ridiculous in a truly magnificent way!

This next block is a 6" block,  which seems really big after making all the little guys.  I set it aside when I hit it in the midst of the blocks above, because I could see it was going to take a little extra brain power, and I was making the other blocks as leader/enders for each other and cutting pieces on the fly.

It's a Crown of Thorns, and there was only one component that I had to completely disassemble and redo.  Yay?  (I may have used a bit of colorful language, but hey, I've got nothing against colorful...)
That catches me up through March 26th.  A few more blocks, and I'll be working on blocks for the month I'm actually living in!

I even took a moment to put my feet up and applique a few more orange peels for my Quilty 365 Challenge.  (And it occurs to me that between the 365 Challenge and Quilty 365, I've committed to making 730 blocks this year, and that's not even counting all my RSC blocks or the quilts I'm building currently or might start in the near future.  Holy crap!  I might have to go lie down.)

Now y'all know I've got a soft spot for monkeys and for orange, but that's not the only reason this block makes me smile.

Purple and orange.  Purple and orange together are making me smile, and they'll make you smile too when I show what I'm going to get up to.  All shall be revealed in its own time.  Stay tuned.





Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew & Sow's.  Come see the scrappy magic!

Over the river and through the woods, to granchildren's house I go!

Woohoo!  I'm currently packing for a visit to see my daughter, son-in-law, and the grands.  I'll be gone for a bit over two weeks.
Lets see - what to take, what to take?
I've definitely packed up my Quilty 365 project.  I keep it in a carrying box anyway, so this time it's just going to get carried a little further.

And I've packed up my 365 Challenge blocks, along with an assortment of fat quarters, fat eighths, strips, and charms in reds, blues, and browns.  My daughter has said I can use her sewing machine, so maybe I'll be able to catch up.  And maybe even keep up.  Hey, it could happen!

And of course, while I was sorting and packing those challenge fabrics, this little piglet insisted on being made.

Because piglets can be just a bit pushy, you know.
And since I was making a piglet anyway, it made sense to kit up a few more, just in case I had a sudden urge to pig it up.

And since it's the end of the month and I don't know what April's color will be, I made another kit.

Just in case Angela picks green for the April color.
Of course, pink is a possibility, too.

You know.  Spring type colors.  Just being prepared.  (And check out the background fabric in the pink block.  Heehee!)

So, adding a couple of knitting projects to the pile means I'm all packed up and ready to go.

Oh, wait.  I should probably pack some clothes, too...

Kaleidoscopes, orange peels, and a brain full of snot...

Welcome to March.  I got hit late last week with a horrific cold, so most of my time is being spent coughing uncontrollably and blowing my nose, which makes it hard to do any coherent... well... anything. 
I've started assembling the next row of Quilty 365, working right to left across the top.

I ran out of steam getting the last blocks actually stitched, but at least the fabrics are chosen and cut and everything's ready to go.  You'll notice there's bacon for the 28th fabric, and the March 1st orange peel is in the new RSC colors of purple with yellow.
The interesting thing is that the March 1st block is going to be right next to the February 1st block.  Twenty-nine days made a complete lap around.  Whoda thunk?

And in the kaleidoscope realm, how could I resist a bacon block?

It was the last block of February for my calmer gentler kaleidoscope project.

I need to catch up the corners on these blocks.  I just didn't have the brain power to tackle it today.

My other kaleidoscope - the one that grabs me by the scruff of the neck and drags me back and forth through my stash - is now at this stage.

Now, this one, I'm not doing corners until the end.  I've seen all kinds of creative treatments for those empty spots, so I'm leaving my options open until all blocks are made.

Say goodnight, kaleidoscope.  I'm about ready to go lie down, myself.

But first, I'm linking to Quilty Folk for the Quilty 365 March linkup, and with Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting for Kaleidoscopes of Butterflies.

Me and my big mouth

Way back in January, when we were all still finalizing our RSC choices for the year, I saw some boat blocks on Angie's blog and asked jokingly if she was going to make a Rainbow Regatta.  (She wasn't - she had just shown the blocks because they were blue, and that fit with January's RSC color.)
But that Rainbow Regatta stuck in my head, right in that little part of my brain way in the back that starts getting itchy when I have some new idea to chase.
The more I tried to ignore it, the more it itched.
I remembered a little bitty boat block that I had seen on the Quiltmaker site last summer.
If I just made one little bitty boat, I couldn't get into too much trouble, right?

But the block as written was made with flippy corners, and with a block this small (3" finished - you know, my favorite size), the waste generated by that method was almost as much fabric as what ended up in the block itself.  With a bigger block, there are bonus triangles to make, but that's not really possible here.
So I fiddled with the pattern to make it with regular triangles and piecework.
Which means I had to make several more boats as I experimented.

And then, since I had a bunch of blue ones, I figured I might as well make some brown ones, too.

So, apparently, I'm the one who is now making a Rainbow Regatta.

You'll notice that the wind shifted at some point while making the brown ones.  Or maybe those bitty little sailors just know how to tack...


And in other 3" block news, I got some more 365 Challenge blocks done.

Those are for the 13th-18th of February, and I've got notes written up for the next blocks.  I'm saving each day's pattern, so worst case scenario is that my 365 Challenge will turn into a multi-365 Challenge as the years drag on...

And here's my other 365 quilt - the Quilty 365.  I've got the bottom row attached, and the blocks headed up the right side.  I've finished those since this picture was taken on the 23rd, and have kept up with making the new blocks, so the next picture I post will show progress in a row across the top going right to left.

I was going to crop my feet out of the picture, but I showed my knees in that photo the other day, and my feet have now demanded equal time.  Given how slippery the terrain is these days, I want to stay on the good side of my feet, so I'll humor them.



Linking to So Scrappy's ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come join the fun!

This winter has been a real whackdoodle

Yesterday we had freezing rain, so despite the fact that a newly charged battery meant I had wheels again, I sat home.
Today, however, was glorious.  Temperatures in the high 50's, blue sky, mud up to your ankle bones - a perfect spring day.
Of course, it's not actually spring yet, so when all that mud and mushy snow freezes back up tonight, it's going to be slipperier than snot out there tomorrow morning...
Eh, tomorrow can take care of itself.
For today, I got an afternoon of quality sewing time.

First on the list was trying to get a little more caught up on the 365 Challenge.  I tackled those 3" Ohio Star blocks, and they actually went smoother than I could have hoped.  Even the one that had those itsy 4-patches...

Once again, I had a hard time getting those little doozies to lie flat long enough to get a good picture of them.  This section of the quilt is probably going to be bulletproof, given how dense it is with all those seam allowances.  I'm betting it's going to be one heavy puppy, too, when it's done.  Which sounds good for these upstate winters, so I'm not actually complaining.

 I put together some blocks for the RSC - NOT kaleidoscopes.   Though I admit I caught myself a couple of times with 2" strips in my hand, headed for the sewing machine.  Other people have to order themselves to Put The Strips Down, right?  It's not just me?

I had been thinking of these blocks as Hovering Hawks, but that block actually is a 4x4 grid rather than this 3x3.  Bonnie Hunter calls them Jacks, and I've seen a couple of other references to variations of that name.  I like them because they're dirt simple to make and have a lovely old fashioned look.

I might make a couple more this coming week as we wrap up brown.

And one of the things I had to do today was cut some 3.5" squares for my traveling Quilty 365 kit, since several days of not getting to the studio had made supplies dwindle.
As long as I had browns out...

I cut some other colors as well, including this one for today's orange peel.

It came off the end of a strip of border fabric for Big Twinkle, because the border construction has begun!

And last but not least, meet Checkers the pig.  He's sweet, but a bit paranoid. 

He insists that he's being watched...




I'm linking with So Scrappy's ScrapHappy Saturday and Quilting is More Fun than Housework's Oh Scrap!  I can't imagine a better place to spend the weekend than checking out all the scrappy links they'll have.  Come join the fun!

Still waiting for the green

I stayed home today, partly because I didn't want to deal with the fluffy crap falling out of the sky,

(this was taken yesterday when it started)

and because I was kind of hoping the nice UPS man would show up with the greens I'm auditioning for the borders for Big Twinkle.  No luck there, I'm afraid.
So I'll share what I got accomplished yesterday, anyway.
Three more blocks in the Catching-Up-with-the-365 Challenge.  Yay!

A couple more easy ones, then we head into Ohio Star territory.  Three inch Ohio Stars.  Since I made tons of 4.5" Ohio Stars for last year's RSC quilt, I'm not as worried as I could be.  (Or possibly should be.  Hubris, you know.  A Dangerous Thing, hubris.)
Eh, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

I also got three Whatchacallit Stars done.

(Seriously, does anyone know the name for this block?  I tried a little basic research, but google-imaging 'star quilt blocks' retrieves a mind-boggling array of blocks to look at...)

And I had enough Quilty 365 blocks done to join on another row.

The next row will continue along the bottom from left to right - Feb 9th-18th - then up the right side and back right to left across the top.  I really like how my layout spirals out from the center.  Though it's going to get a little unwieldy 'long about September or October, I think.

And I started a couple of Chantal's Pinwheels.  Here they are in progress.

Pinwheels in progress would be PIPs, right?

Please note:  I did not make a piglet.  We will all ignore the fact that there's one cut out and waiting by the sewing machine.  We will also ignore the fact that I've got fabrics paired up to cut several more.
Oh, wait.  Would Piglets in progress be PIPs, too?

Around the bend again

I've been saving pictures of my Quilty 365 'circles' for the February 1st linkup, so that a) I'd have something to actually link up, and b) y'all wouldn't be sick of looking at these here orange peels.  Because I'm certainly not sick of looking at these here orange peels.

I jumped into this project hoping to find out if I could sustain a long-term applique project.  It's been years since I did anything but machine piecing, so I really wasn't sure if I could get enough enjoyment out of the handwork to keep myself focused and going.  But I've been having a bad case of applique-envy, looking at other folk's beautiful work (chief among them Audrey herself), and want to play, too.
One month in, I'm really enjoying sitting in the evening, handstitching while I watch a movie or listen to music.  I think I like it!

Here's a photo I took of progress through January 23rd when I had enough squares done to reach a corner again.

You can see the partial seam at lower left, which is left open so I can add squares to the end of that running strip.

You can also see where I labeled my starting squares - New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
And here we are sewn together and ready to go round the bend again.

I could have sworn I took pictures of adding the squares to the end - squares for the 24th through the 26th - but I can't find any.  Oops.
But here's where Quilty 365 stands today.

The January 27th square is the one in the upper right hand corner, with its partial seam, and the last few days of January ready to link onto this row.
This one, for Jan 30th, cracks me up.  I was digging through a bag of scraps that my sister-in-law had given me when I came across this pink backgrounded loopy floral print that is so NOT ME that I had to immediately cut an orange peel out of it.  I slapped it onto a brown background and loved it to bits.

And then I got home and read that Angela had announced the February RSC color - brown with pink for the accent color.
Maybe I should have run right out to buy a lottery ticket?




Linking to Audrey's Quilty 365 February linky party.  Come see the incredible variety of happy stitching!

It has to be Widdershins

I don't know why I even considered clockwise when widdershins was an option...

Block 1 of Quilty 365 is the red and white one on the lower left.  I've dated it with my starting date 12-31-15, and I dated the next one (to its right) with 1-1-16 (and "Happy New Year!").   They proceed in order to the right, then make a counterclockwise (widdershins!) turn and head off to the left.  You can see that I made a partial seam so I could keep adding blocks to the working end of the strip.

And since I've reached the point where I'll be turning again, I've done a mockup of what I'm up to.  I pulled the starting blocks up a little to get them out of the way, then set down some squares to represent the next blocks .  I'll be running three across the end of the strip I've got going so far, then will turn again and head back around.

And here are my blocks for the first 14 days, all sewn together.

I'll be joining yesterday's block with today's and tomorrow's, and will sew them across the end, using a partial seam again so I'll be able to keep adding blocks as I go.  Eventually it will get a bit unwieldy, but at least I won't be waiting until the end to join the blocks together.  I think it will be fun to watch my orange peels dance in bigger and bigger circles.
I'm alternating light and dark backgrounds (and there will be occasional mediums standing in for either), so each day I'm choosing two fabrics - one for the background and one for the peel.  I do consult the blocks that are already done (like the other day I realized I hadn't used any green yet, and was appalled because I like green!).  At first I wasn't going to do that - it was just going to be a choice based on how I felt at that moment.  But then I realized that in real life my todays are always influenced by my yesterdays, so it made sense for my fabric choices to be affected by the colors already in that area.  (I'm probably overthinking this.  It's what I do.)
If you look closely at those peels, you'll notice they're not really uniform in size or shape.  Since I knew going in that I was going to end up with some variation (it's been a long time since I did an applique project), I decided to just embrace that and roll.
Instead of tracing around my template and cutting out on the line, I'm just holding it on the fabric and cutting roughly around it with scissors.

Or I'll use my rotary cutter if I'm at my studio.

This has the additional benefit of not wearing out the edges of my template, and since I'm going to be using it 365 times, that's a big plus.  (I first learned quilt making techniques back in the Middle Ages, before rotary cutters were invented, where we had to trace around a cardboard template for every.single.piece of the quilt.  The template would wear down and get smaller and smaller as we went along, so that the last pieces cut were a whole different size than the first pieces cut.  Sometimes they were a whole different shape by that time, too...)

And speaking of 365 times, here's my other daily project - the Challenge 365 blocks.
Today's block didn't make it into this picture, but it'll be included in the next batch.

I'm really loving these tiny little blocks.  Eventually there will be 6" blocks to make - they're going to seem huge after 3 months of these little guys!

So, for both of these projects, that's 15 down and 350 to go.  Piece of cake!  (Sometime around the middle of August, I want y'all to remind me I said that...)