Squared Away is getting (slowly) (but surely) squared away

My method for making Squared Away blocks this year was to make one of each every month, then decide at the end of the year which ones to make more of.

Since the blue block (September) wasn't as symmetrical as the others, I figured that if I made four of them and put them in the corners, everything would balance out.  I got two of them made, then stalled when I got side-tracked with finishing Long Time Gone and On Ringo Lake.

So, getting back to work, I cut some pieces,

and taped a model block to the wall so I wouldn't get confused,

and made a third block (pretend you don't notice that I lost one of the light squares and had to replace it with a almost-close-enough square since I couldn't locate any more of that particular fabric)

and then a fourth one.

They made wonderful leader/enders as I continued to pursue some holiday sewing.

Somebody's getting a new lunchbag for Christmas!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the fun!

It's almost like y'all know me

Yeah, I tried the orange.

I'm still going to try lime green, but it looks like it's now a tossup between the yellow and the orange.

Which do you suppose will win?


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A Tale of Two Dots

I'm on a roll with borders lately.  Since I'm using a multi-colored dots on black background for my setting blocks for Squared Away, I jumped on this giant dots print for the outer borders the moment I saw it.

Now I've got big dots and little dots!  I'm really enjoying the contrast between all those squared blocks and all those circles in the setting blocks and borders.

Naturally I had to make a mock-up.  First I tested a narrow stop border in red,

then blue,

and then a yellow one.

I tried out pink, but disliked it enough that I didn't even bother taking a picture.  I might give lime green a test before I make a final decision. 

While I was fiddling about with the blocks, I tried out setting them with sashing and cornerstones that continued the Irish chain alternate blocks.

Naw.  I think I like the right-up-against-each-other look better.

I don't know when I'll get it to flimsy stage.  There are a couple of big projects in the pipeline ahead of this one, so I don't know exactly when I'll get it put together.  (Maybe I should plan to give it as a gift - that usually motivates me to finish things...)

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see what everyone is doing with their rainbow blocks as the year winds down.

October is squaring up (and away)

I finally got one of September's Squared Away blocks done.

I'm still eyeing it, though, since it's not as symmetrical as the other blocks in this sampler.  Though it occurs to me that I could make four of them and use them in the corners, which would solve the problem neatly.
Ever since I started this sampler way back in January, I had it in the back of my mind to use a Single Irish Chain to set it with.  This week, I gave it a test, whipping up four quick chain blocks.

I think it's going to work!

I've also noticed that I have an inexplicable urge to finish my Centennial Stars.  (It's particularly inexplicable given how seldom I actually finish a quilt...)

A sale on batiks got some auditioning-for-alternate-blocks going.

A dotsy butterfly -

A flashy swirly one that contains every color in the blocks -

And this colorful dotted wonder that makes my stars look like they're bursting out of a night sky.

It's going to be a tough decision, but I think I'm leaning toward that last one.  Well, at least at this particular moment as I'm typing this.  It's hard to pass up a good dither.

Time to count the stars again, so I can decide how many more I need.

Any excuse to make more stars...


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see what we're up to with our scraps!

October Green

It feels a bit funny to be hauling out greens in October, when the world outside is trying very hard to be not-green as fall erupts around us.
But green is always a happy choice to play with, so I made up a block for the Squared Away sampler.  (Have I mentioned how much I've enjoyed these blocks?  Every one of them is tempting me to make a whole quilt out of them.)

When I added this one to the Squared Away stack, I remembered that I hadn't made the blue block for September, so I pulled out my notebook where I keep a record of the patterns.  (I can't get wifi in either of my studios, so I have to transport information the old-fashioned way.)

Well, that explains why I haven't done the September block.  I'll have to revert to an even more old-fashioned way and scrawl the pattern on the back of an envelope...

In the meantime, in between my log-cabin-building efforts, I'm still putt-putting along with my demented project.  I sew HSTs until I'm sick of them, then sew together those little four-patch butterflies until I'm sick of them, then I switch to sewing a light butterfly to a dark butterfly to form a half block until - well, you get the picture.

And when I have a sizable stack of half blocks, I finally start sewing them together to make more full blocks.

And when I get tired of that, I go back to HSTs.  Little by little, the stack grows.  (The fact that I'm spinning every one of those seam intersections as I go helps contribute to the tedium factor.  I know it's making everything easier to sew together, but wowzers it's a pain in the butt.)

When I get to where the count is over 200 (out of the 256 I need) I think I'll start sewing these blocks together into sets of four.  Just to break things up, of course.  (By that time, the seam spinning will be epic.)
I can do this, yes I can.

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

Against all odds

Hey, look!  Finally a post!  There are lots of pictures, too, since I've been sewing a bit here and there.
Last month I inventoried my Centennial stars and decided to make purple ones for September instead of dark blue.  (I had lots of blue stars that I made last year, but only one purple.)
And as long as I was playing with purple, I might as well play with pink, too, right?

And that cleared the way to make some green stars for October

 And as long as I was on such a roll, another pink and a yellow/gold showed up with the last two greens.

Inventory time again.

I'm not done yet since I really like making these, and they're only 6" blocks, so it's going to take quite a few to make a good-sized quilt. 

Next I turned my attention to my Jacks blocks - another block I really enjoy making.

And where there are Jacks, there are buckeyes, since I usually make them in tandem.

When I first fell in love with these little cuties, they were set in a quilt like this -

and that's how I'd intended to use them when I'd accumulated the hundreds that I'd need.  (4" blocks.  Hundreds might be optimistic...)
But after seeing Bonnie's leader/ender  Jewel Box Stars this year,

I'm kind of tempted to set them like that.  I've got lots of time to decide, since I'm nowhere near having a lot of these yet.

When I put away the Jacks and Buckeyes (and you'll notice that they even share a bin - they really are linked in my brain!), I decided I might as well count them up, too, as long as I was in a counting kind of mood.

And a good thing it was, too, since I found a few wanderers hiding in amongst the Jacks.

A 4" broken dishes block.

Two little red chicks that should be in the Cluckers bin.

And a pinwheel and a Hope of Hartford block.  The pinwheel belongs in the pinwheel bin, of course, but the Hope of Hartford doesn't have a home.  (It's a block I auditioned for RSC a couple of years ago.  Looking at it now, I'm tempted to start cutting a bunch more...)

And the real surprise was these five itty bitty kaleidoscopes that I'd completely forgotten about.

Good thing I got my Kaleidoscope Shot so I don't come down with THAT infection again.  Maybe I should make these up into potholders or something so I'm safe from starting a quilt.  (I wouldn't actually need that many more to make just a tiny little quilt though, right?  Maybe a couple of blues and another orange or two...)

Uh oh.  I'd better hurry up and link to SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap before I do something I regret...  Come see all the scrappy fun!

Whoosh goes September!

September has completely gotten away from me.  I did manage to get some sewing squeezed in (finally) but bogged down on the energy needed to post about it.  So, here I finally am, with fistfuls of pictures.

One last blue Jacks for this month's RSC.   I'll be doing a quick paw-thru in the other bins to see what blocks I need to make in blue for the last week of the month.   Jacks, Buckeyes, and Centennial stars are all in good shape.  I need to haul out the clucker bucket and see what would look good.  I also need to make my Squared Away blocks for this month (and last month as well.)

Since I have plenty of blue Centennials, I went back and made some purples.  How on earth I'm light on purples, I'll never know.
I fixed that!

There!  Five new Centennials.  Now I need to hit the greens and the pinks to bring those totals up, too. 
Today was a good cutting day:
Centennials -

and lots of loony little logs -

and a few more potato chips (though I was careful not to get too close to that tray of temptation...)

Also finished this week was Sunflower #5 and I started testing for centers.
Purple, maybe?

This Kaffe print is brighter in the photo than it is in person.  (It seems to have lit up the whole block, for that matter.  My camera got all excited.)

And a green that looks better in real life than this photo shows.

I couldn't get a good bead on that green color until I noticed that photographing this Centennial star next to it brought out the true hue.  (Check out the photo above of that purple star - I left in that green corner when I was editing)

It's hard enough to get my camera to show purple properly - now it's going to mess up green, too?  Argh.

And I'm still plugging along on my Demented bits. 

Because what else could I be but Totally Demented?


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September sings the blues

Well, I revved up my blues this week for the RSC, starting with a Jacks block

and continuing with a Buckeye.  Since the Jacks block needs six HSTs and the Buckeye needs two, I cut them all at the same time with my Easy Angle ruler.  It's just as easy to cut eight sets as six (even easier if you stack double deep like I do - six doesn't come out even, but eight does...), so every little bit of efficiency helps.

That's the same polka dot print in both those blocks, but the color is more accurate in the Buckeye, for reasons unknown.

It's a small start to the month, but I've got my blues bin at the ready, so hopefully more progress will follow!

In the meantime, I also pieced another sunflower block, shown here sitting on top of the fabric for the center.  This is the first of these blocks where I decided on a fabric for the center right at the start and then built out from there.

I kind of miss the dither, though.

I've cut bits for the next sunflower, too.

And look - there's even some blue!

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