Gnawed!

Hurray hurray!  I got all the Ohio stars sewn together today.

And once more, with feet!

Well, a foot, anyway.
Now I can set it aside for a little well-deserved dithering about the borders.  (And a name.  I'm still trying to come up with something involving storms and rainbows and Ohio stars.  "After the Storm"?  "Stormy Ohio"? "We're not in Ohio anymore, Toto"?)   At present it measures 39 x 45, which to me is too big for a wall hanging and too small for a lap quilt.  So, a border or two is going to make it the perfect size.  For something.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it - I just wanted to join the RSC, and the next thing I knew I had this quilt top.  Odd, right?

Speaking of joining in, clue 4 for Allietare came out today and I managed to get a couple of the knotless-bowtie/funky-hourglass units done.

I have no idea where this quilt is going.  It's a really weird feeling to be working on something without knowing what it's going to look like.  I think I'm starting to see now why people like doing mystery quilts.  It's a bit unbalancing, but in a good way.  We'll see what I think at the end of this whole process.

Oh, the post title?  Well, let me tell you a little story.
Last time my wonderful daughter visited here from Vermont, she brought me a Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory chocolate bar.  Dark chocolate.  One of my Holy Grails of chocolate.  Recently I decided to take it down to the studio with me, grabbed it on the way out the door, dropped it into the pocket on the car door, and forgot about it.  Well, forgot until yesterday, when I remembered to grab it as I was getting out of the car.
However.
Some vile little despicable nasty thieving mouse had found it in the interim and had gnawed right through the wrapper in multiple places and had eaten vast quantities of my chocolate.  My lovely Lake Champlain chocolate.  My. chocolate.  Mine.
I was so mad.  "You damn mouse!  You ruined my chocolate!  You &*%#$((& mouse!"  And I took the chocolate in and threw it away, so now neither one of us had any chocolate.
Damn mouse.
And I thought that was the end of it.
Until I got into the car today, that is.  When I pulled on the seat belt to buckle up, I encountered resistance.  I tugged harder, then harder.  It wasn't like when the belt locks up when the brakes have been applied - it felt like there was something interfering with it.
As it finally freed itself up, I looked back at it to see what the problem was.

WTF?

I guess Mr Mouse decided that if I wasn't going to let him have chocolate, then he'd just have to kill me by gnawing through my seatbelt.
I'd never really thought of mice as vengeful creatures, but this has really opened my eyes!
Chocolate-thieving murderous little monsters, the lot of them, I tell ya.




I'll be linking with So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday!  Come see what we're all doing to wrap up RSC2015!

I can show you rainbows

Well, at least a part of a rainbow.  I finished today's project, prepped for the next one, and had a bit of time to sew some more setting triangles to my stormy rainbow.

 At the upper right of the photo is the warm corner where I started.  Now I'm building up from the opposite corner with the cooler colors.  I'll be meeting in the middle with the greens and yellows by the time I'm done.  I love how the colors seem to glow in the middle of the quilt.

And while I can't show off the project yet, I have to admit that the piglets kept calling to me until I used the sample blocks to make something fun.

Complete with a freehand quilted heart.  I promise I'll show you what I did after the holidays.  8)

And I pushed to get Allietare caught up.  My neutral rectangles are all cut, my decapitated geese are done, my 4-patches are done, and I only need 30 more HSTs for clue 1, of which I've got 28 cut out.  (I have to get out the gray to cut one more  2" strip in order to cut those last 2 triangles, so I decided to wait until clue 4 came out.  Chances are I'll be cutting gray for something, so I'll hit the triangles at the same time.)  And I've got way more black squares cut than I need, since I had it in my head that I needed 200 of them, and I only needed 98.  I have a feeling I won't have a hard time using up 2" black squares, so I'm not fussed about it.

So bring on Clue 4!  Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm so ready!

Stars setting with raindrops

I got this far with the setting triangles.  The batik for the triangles is a bit lighter than I wanted, but the pattern itself is perfect, so I'm going with it.

I'm thinking a dark/black batik for an outer border will do this right up.  And maybe a multicolor confetti rainbow binding?
I'm happy to be wrapping this quilt up, and totally looking forward to next year's RSC.

And Angela?  Thank you so much for all your work providing us with rainbow inspiration.  Without the RSC, I would never have made this quilt.  I wouldn't even have thought of this quilt.  This is all due to you!
I can't wait to see all the rainbows that 2016 holds!


Linking to So Scrappy for Rainbow Goodness.  Come see all the fun!

A little this, a little that

I got a little bit of sewing time in today.  The day always goes better when I get to dig around in my fabric.

There was Allietare happening.

I'm up to fifteen decapitated geese, with three more cut out.  So that leaves 2 more to cut and 5 to sew, and then clue 2 will be done.  Still plugging along on the clue 1 HSTs, but since I'm past the 2/3rds point on those, I'm not sweating it.  If all else fails, those little triangles make dandy leader/enders.
So, for a little change of pace, I went on to the extra credit portion of clue 2 and started cutting black and gray squares.

It was a nice break, not having to cut any angles sharper than 90 degrees...

And there was a little other sewing going on, but since it's in the realm of gift-giving, I'm just going to share a glimpse of scrappy colors coming into play.

I promise I'll share after the holidays.  8)

And the fabric for my setting triangles for my RSC2015 Ohio star quilt finally came!  (I'd waited to order it until Black Friday, hoping there might be a sale.  It was a good call.)  Now I just have to finish a few time-sensitive projects, and then I'll be able to finish the top!  (And think of a name for it.  *sigh*)


Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday, for the December Linky party.  Come see the scraptastic fun!

Rolling up the rainbow

All the rows of the rainbow Ohio stars are sewn together.  (And, man, I've got to think of a name for this quilt soon...)

With everything pressed good and flat, seams pointing in opposite directions, I stacked the rows neatly in order, from one corner to the other.

And in the hopes of not having to press them all again next time I get ready to lay them out, I rolled them neatly up into a sausage.
Mmmm...  sausage...

And then I got out the vacuum cleaner and spent an hour slurping up all those little thready bits that you can see in the backgrounds of these photos.  Oh, and those little dogear bits on the floor by my sewing table.
Not that quilting is messy or anything.   I put all that stuff on the floor on purpose.  You know, for decoration.
And because I like vacuuming.  Uh huh.



I'm going to be using this as my post for RSC this week at So Scrappy.  Come see all the rainbow fun!

Still playing with blocks

Now I know I've been dragging a lot of ideas through here lately, as I dither over choices for RSC2016.  (Not that I'm excited or looking forward to it or anything.)
But believe it or not, I've also had a bunch of ideas that I scratched off the list.
Like this one:

 which can also be spun and arranged like this.

But I decided I had to draw the line somewhere, and that some of my ideas had to go, just so I don't end 2016 gibbering in a corner buried in unfinished quilts.
Then I saw a quilt using this block, done up in blue and white, that would be even better in rainbow colors.
The block may have gone back on the 'possibles' list...

Another contender is this one:

I think it's called Hovering Hawks, though it's an old traditional block that probably has twenty different names, so I could just call it Charlie if I felt like it, and who could argue?
Not only is it a pretty block, but it's dirt simple to piece.  I'm given to putting blocks on point, and this would look good set that way, but I'm thinking this would be a good one to stray from my usual approach and let it hold onto that diagonal line.  The backgrounds would carry the rainbow colors, and I could use a lightish or medium sashing.
So, what am I up to now?  A dozen quilts?  Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, I can do that.

In other rainbow news, I've started sewing rows of Ohio stars together.

I'm going fabric shopping with my sister-in-law Saturday and will be looking for that rain-spatter gray for the setting triangles, and a darker gray/black for an outer border.  (I think.  Maybe.  Still undecided on the border.)
Family is coming for Thanksgiving and my design floor has to go back to being a floor floor.  Since I don't want to try to stack up those blocks and then have to lay them out again later (and arrange and rearrange them because that's what I do), I'm going to at least get the rows assembled.
Anything that reduces the dithering is a good plan...


Linking to So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see the rainbow fun!

Hot diggety doorknobs!

All the blocks are done!  All the blocks are done!
I finished the last two Ohio stars

and popped them into place.

Cue the Happy Dance!
These aren't the last Ohio stars I'll ever make, since it's one of my favorite blocks.  (And I also am getting ready to start another project involving them.)  But I do admit I'm glad to have all the blocks for this quilt done.
And remember yesterday's post, when I was wondering if I would be able to find a fabric that looked like what I had in my mind's eye?
I googled.
I found this print at Fabric.com in under two minutes.

It's almost exactly what I'm looking for.  Like almost mind-readingly exactly.  Stormy raindroppy splatters.

I don't think I'm going to have a problem finding what I want.


Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework - come see all the fun!

Saturdays are full of rainbows

Though I've made a bunch of Ohio stars lately, I seem to have forgotten to photograph them.
This is the only picture I can find.

There were some more blue ones done, and now I'm down to only needing two more stars to finish. 

I've got them cut out and ready to sew, and hope to get them done before the weekend is over.

Which means I'm ready to start dithering on the final setting.
The current plan is to find a gray/black, probably a batik, that looks sort of raindroppy and then using it for setting triangles.  The basic idea being one of showing a rainbow coming out of a storm, so the edges of the quilt would be the rainclouds. 
Well, it makes sense to me.
Or I might just take the easy way out and set with black triangles that make the colors pop.
Kind of depends on how fast (and whether) I can find the raindroppy fabric of my dreams.
Hmmm...  Fabric shopping needed.  And one of my favorite local quilt stores just sent me a very nice coupon.
I think I sense a plan in the works...


Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday, where the rainbows gather every week.

Narrowing down the RSC2016 list

Well, a little, anyway.
Since I love stars, I definitely want a star block, but quite frankly it would be a relief to not have something as fiddly as Ohio Star.
Here's a possibility:

And here's a slightly scrappier version:

Oh, yeah.  Now we're talking. 

I like the positive/negative-ness of this design.  The fact that I can make it out of stock 2.5" strips and squares is a big plus.
This one makes the short list.
The only problem?  I don't know its name.  I worked out the block pattern from a picture of a quilt I saw somewhere online a while back.
Anybody out there know?  I don't want to spend all of next year referring to my umm-err-umm star blocks.
Though I will if I have to.

Another strong contender is the Broken Dishes block.  Easy peasy to make, again from 2.5" strips, and full of  possibilities. 

.
If I made a bunch of them from each color, I could have a lot of fun laying them out.  There could be dithering galore!

Okay, so far there are -

Kaleidoscopes (definite yes)
Chantal's pinwheel blocks (definite yes - I've been in love with her blocks all year)
Broken Dishes (maybe)  (probably)
Umm-err-umm stars (maybe)

I've still got several a few several blocks to sample, so my eventual orphan block quilt is going to be well-fed by the end of the year.
Hey, I could name it RSC Rejects!

Stitchety do dah, stitchety yay

No origami for me today - I stuck with what I know.  And, you know, the actually possible.
Ohio stars, for instance.
I made two more -

one in orange and one in purple.  It could be argued (not by me, of course) that I don't really need any more orange, but I pulled one of the black background blocks which are scattered around the edges so I could move it to the lower right corner, where it would look and balance better.  This gave me an excuse made it necessary to make another orange block to fill in the hole.

Well, I finally got the right edge of the quilt into the picture, but now I've lost the left edge.
All I need now are a few more blues and/or purples to fill in that last corner, and I'll be all ready to start dithering on settings, setting triangles, and borders.   You all know how I like a good dither.  8)

And I've started auditioning blocks for next year's RSC.
Kaleidoscopes are a definite yes.  The only up-in-the-air part is size - 4", 6", or 8".  I'm inclined to do the 4" ones just because I like small blocks.  (We all have our little quirks, right?)
And, as an excuse to get more use out of my tri-recs rulers, I'm considering these stars:

In this case, I'm wondering if I want to do them this way, or to reverse the colors and background to make light stars on a dark background.  Or maybe I should do both kinds and alternate them?  Size-wise, these are big blocks - they're going to finish at 6"!

And while I was stitching the above, and another twinkly star as well, I caught another monkey sneaking in.

At last count there were around sixty of the little rascals bouncing around the room.  Or maybe more.
It's hard to count something that won't hold still.


Linking up to Oh Scrap!  Come see what everyone is doing!

Blocks and more blocks

Nice productive afternoon today -

A twinkler (I'm trying to make at least one each time I sew),

 some green Ohio stars for my RSC quilt,

and a couple of blue ones while I was at it.

I fiddled for a while with my layout.

I'm getting downright grumpy that I can't catch that right-hand edge. (I took a ton of pictures with absolutely no luck whatsoever, so finally gave up.  I gotta get a design wall.  This design floor is only going to work if I can grow longer arms.  And longer feet to stand tiptoe on...)
As far as I can tell, I need only seven more blocks to call this quilt a wrap.
Now, shall I sash?  I'm thinking maybe a really narrow (like .75"-1") in scrappiness that echoes the backgrounds of the blocks - lights in the center with lightish cobblestones, and darks in the proper colors amongst the dark background blocks.  Maybe with even darker cobblestones?  Or neighboring color cobblestones?
Or should I just set them next to each other and call it a day?

As I promised yesterday, I did take a moment to hunt for monkeys.  I snagged these two as they were trying to hide under the couch.  If they hadn't started giggling, I never would have found them.



And, against all odds, I spent the entire afternoon playing with fabric and didn't make a single kaleidoscope block.
Yeah, I'm surprised, too.



Linking to So Scrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Go green!

Back to the Rainbow

With my Main Event

well under way, I laid out my RSC Ohio stars to see where I stand with that project.

I fit in the brown stars for October, then made a couple more orange ones, just because. (Not that I have an orange problem.  I can stop using orange anytime I want to.  Right after another orange project I'm plotting with an orange-appreciating friend.)

Somehow I had it in my head that I needed more blocks on the warm side of the quilt.
Then I realized that I'd laid the blocks out in a square, and the plan was to make a rectangular quilt.  (Sizewise, a rectangle was going to be more useful and pleasing to me, so rectangle it will be.)
So I rearranged.

I didn't need more warm blocks at all.  The deficit is on the cool side, so I'm going to have to make more greens, blues, and purples.
Gee, how sad, eh?
Angela just announced that November's color is lime green - how fortuitous is that?!?  I've got more blues than I know what to do with, so that's an easy one.  I may have to scrounge for some more purples, but that's hardly a tragedy.
This one is in the home stretch.  Now I can go back to dithering choosing between the 37 possible projects I'm considering for next year's RSC...



Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday and Oh Scrap!  Weekends are just the best!




.

In case there was a pool...

The time I officially succumbed to the lure of the kaleidoscope ruler was:

Friday, October 23rd, at 1:45pm

You all knew it was coming, right?

I resisted through the process of making brown Ohio stars for RSC.

I resisted through kitting out another monkey.

But then.

But then.

That 'psst' from the ruler got really really loud and it stuck in my brain and before I knew what was happening, I had this:

I made the two brown ones first, because RSC, right?  Since I'm auditioning the block for next year and I absolutely had to test out the ruler, right?  You're all nodding, right?
Then an orange one, since I have orange scraps all over my table anyway.  And I really needed to make sure that the test was thorough and rigorous.
And then, because I enjoy working small, and because I had suggested to Cathy the other day that itty bitty kaleidoscopes would be fun, and the idea came back and bit me in the ass -

I ended up making this one.

 Just to see how small I could go.  And I had a crazy thought - 'Wouldn't it be fun to make a whole quilt with this tiny little block?'
And then I came to my senses and corrected that to - 'Wouldn't it be fun to make a whole quilt pincushion with this tiny little block?'

Because I needed a pincushion more than I need another quilt-in-progress.  I'm doing a little handquilting each sewing day, trying to build up the callouses on my under-the-quilt fingers.

And, yes, I have owned that packet of quilting needles for a long time...



Linking to SoScrappy for Scraphappy Saturday  and OhScrap!, too!  Come see all the fun!

I made it through another day without starting a Kaleidoscope!

Though I know it's just a matter of time.  That new ruler's 'pssts' are getting louder and louder.  We're now up to 'PSSSSST!', with 'PSSSSSST!!!' soon to come. 
*sigh*
In the meantime, I got a nice little fabric bump in the mail this morning:

I was a September winner in the Scraptastic Tuesday linky party.  There were a couple of glitches along the way (email is a lovely thing when it's working correctly...), but I'm now the happy owner of a stack of Tim Holtz fat quarters.  (One of my very favorite designers, and I was woefully lacking in that department.)
And I spy some browns in there, for this month's RSC blocks.  Win win win!  (I thought I had a lot of browns in my stash, until I went looking.  That's been happening to me a lot this year.  Apparently I have delusions where certain colors are concerned.)


Sharp-eyed readers might have spotted the pattern in last post's photo of my loot from Capital Quilts - the Sew Together bag is now figuring heavily in my plans for fall sewing. 
After all, everybody needs about ten of them, right?  (Note to self:  buy a lot of zippers)

Remember way back when, when I tossed out some hints on projects I was working on?  Gifts have been gifted, so I'll do a quick reveal.  (Yeah, I know you were all just dying of curiosity...)

Here's what I was chain quilting:
 

Improv birdie coasters.  These were a lot of fun, though a real challenge because I found it hard to let go of rulers and precision and matchy-matchy.  (I really admire wonky and carefree piecing - I just don't feel like I'm very good at it...)

The other teaser was for this project:

 Beer bucket! 
It's heavily padded, and there's a removable insert, so it can be used for growlers or for individual bottles.

This was a gift for my oldest daughter and her husband (the ones I just visited), who are beer aficionados and will put it to good use.
Though I wish I had taken notes while I was building it, since younger daughter expressed interest in having one, too.
I'm sure I can remember exactly what I did, right?