Well, maybe just one new project. Or, umm, two...

Did anyone else accidentally start Bonnie Hunter's new leader/ender challenge?  (Well, some of you might have started on purpose.  I just sort of seem to fall into these things without really noticing...)

I'll just make one block, I told myself.  You know, as a sample.  

You can see where this is going, right?

Bonnie is calling this "Easy Breezy", but my brain insists on saying "Easy Peasy", so I guess I'll be sticking with that.

Because it sure was easy peasy to end up with a whole plateful of blocks cut and ready to go.

In RSC news, I got another catch-up block done for PSP20.  (I completely deny this was so I had an excuse to sew some new leader/enders together.)

Now I've just got January's light green to do and I'll be all caught up!

And you know how in my last post I showed you I was a winner?  Well, I'm an even bigger winner now - Sally T drew my name for her Table Scraps giveaway and sent me a huge stack of solids.  (You know how Joy's middle name is Whoosh?  Sally's middle name is Enabler.)  I see a lot more postage stamp blocks in my future.  (And maybe zippers) (and cake stands) (and maybe friendship stars?)

And then apparently Molly decided to add a few scraps of her own, so I've got some lovely kitty bits to play with, too.

And since the fabrics were all just Right There -

I may have to stop kidding myself about whether I've started that Cake Stand quilt or not.

Sally's last laugh was this print -

just to make sure I don't run out of squirrels.  (I think that one might make a good background for when the RSC gets around to red month.)

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

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!

Finally catching up with the Mysterious Libby!

Finally got some sewing time to devote to Clue 4 for Libby's Mystery Quilt.  It was an easy clue - just some HSTs.   In moments I was done!

So then, of course, I had to play with these new toys a little.

And another just like it, only with values reversed.

How about two more?

Oh, and throw in some yellow while we're about it.

I didn't have time to add another color, but I plan to do that after the reveal.  I'm looking forward to seeing what the Mysterious Libby has in mind!

Company's coming, so I've been picking up stuff in the studio, so there's room to walk around.  And the great organization project continues, as I fold and stack.

My new rule is that if I touch a piece of fabric, I fold it neatly and add it to its proper stack when I'm done with it.  And I spend 15 minutes here and there just grabbing, folding, and adding to stacks, in between working on fun stuff.  Little by little, I'm going to get my rainbows in order.
I've already found some bits of favorite fabrics that I thought I'd used up.  It's like running into old friends!

Linking with Libby for Mystery Clue 4.  Always late to the party...

Slim pickings for green

For as busy as I've been, I sure don't have a lot to show for it.

A couple of Chantal's Pinwheels

and a plain kaleidoscope block are the only things I have for my greens this week.

Oh, and those silly wee boats I posted the other day.  I had hoped to get to my Whatchacallit Stars this week, but it didn't happen.

Some of my time was spent fanning out these fabrics that I picked out as my prize for Scraptastic Tuesday's May drawing.  I picked out this collection of fat quarters from Mad About Patchwork.

I spy a fair bit of orange in there, so apparently I wasn't quite done with last month's color.  Though I freely admit that my younger daughter's admiration for orange has really rubbed off on me.

And I pulled some fabrics that I'm going to use for a Sew Together bag for me me me!

I'd made my oldest daughter one in Australian prints and it was really really hard to let it go when the time came.  So I've grabbed a few more fat quarters and will make it up to and for myself.

And I've also spent some time on a still-secret project which I'll soon be sharing pics of, so stay tuned!


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

Oink!

So, I finally untied that pretty bow on my fabric stack from yesterday.
Most of what I got was for stash and for Allietare.

But some was for a particular project I had in mind.  Pigs!

Way back in August, I made an experimental block that I set aside for a future project.
Welcome to the future!
A little sewing, 

a little quilting,

and a little more sewing.
The last scrap of that green background fabric went into making these pockets.

 And tada!

Front, back,

and the inside view.

My Wicked Good Stepmother's* birthday is Tuesday.  She needed a bag for important porky business.
I'm quite taken with it myself.  I hope she likes it.


* A Vermontism:  When something is especially good, it's said to be 'wicked good'.  My stepmother is wicked good.  8)

No rainclouds, but fodder for Allietare

My sister-in-law and I set out for our favorite quilt shop this morning, looking for a little stash enhancement.  (It's the pre-holiday sale.  Everything in the store is 25% off.  Including sale items and clearance.  This could be considered a form of entrapment, I think.)
My primary goal was to look for that raincloud fabric that I found on-line.  I try to support my local quilt shops when I can, because I appreciate them being right there handy where I can fondle the fabric see exactly what I'm getting.  Unfortunately, they didn't have what I was looking for, so I'm going to go ahead and order it online.
And I feel that I did my bit to support them...

 
*ahem*

I did find a few things with Allietare in mind.  Which I needed anyway, of course.   Because who has enough reds, blacks, golds, and creams?
And pigs.  Had to buy the fabrics with pigs.  Because pigs.  And because I didn't see any monkeys.

And somehow I found myself checking out with this.  Because I am a sucker for rulers. 

Not because I'm going to start a hexie project.  Absolutely not.  No hexies for me, no way, unh unh, no sir.
I just liked the ruler.  Honest.

Thank you, Bonnie, because I clearly don't have enough projects already started.

So, the other day Bonnie Hunter ran the Official Trailer for her next Mystery Quilt.  I'd been on the fence about whether to participate or not (it would be my first), and then she flashed the colors.
Red, gold, black, gray, and buckets of neutrals.
Oh, my.
Color me enthused!  The only color scheme that could have sucked me in any harder would be...  um...  Well, I can't think of anything right now, but if it occurs to me, I'll be sure to share with y'all.
I started pulling colors, to see what I had and what I'd need.
Golds are looking better than I would have thought.

Though most of them are darker in real life.  And I think I've still got a couple more somewhere.  Maybe.

Black?  Not so good.  I've got a few more than these, but not a lot.  But that's okay, since I've been planning to build up my stock in black anyway, inspired by what several quilters have been doing with black and white prints.

.
And red?  I definitely need reds.  I'd added a few since I discovered my woeful lack of red for RSC, but I still don't have a lot.  (And, as I discovered when I stared poking through them today, most of my reds involve either Christmas or cows.)  (Moo.)

And who doesn't need more neutrals?  Ever?

So, I've got enough to start the mystery, and the gaps I have are ones I had planned to fill anyway.

I think it's fate.  Clearly.
Sign me up.

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?

How Now, Brown... er... Star

Brown is the color for October, and since I'm finally home with my stash, I can make a brown Ohio star or two.

The smaller one is for my rainbow Ohio quilt, and the larger one is an experiment that got away from me (geometry is usually my friend, but will sometimes betray me...), so I went with it and ended up with a larger star.  It will end up in my growing pile of orphan/digression blocks.  (There'll be a quilt in there eventually.)

And as a Public Service Announcement -

When Lee Anna recommends a quilt shop, run, do not walk.  While I was on vacation, she told me not to miss a visit to Capital Quilts.
I'm ever so glad I listened to her.  I found a couple of things.  8)

My daughter and I spent a happy chunk of the afternoon looking at everything (and I do mean everything), gathering treasures, and enjoying all the pretties.  And, oh my, were there a lot of pretties!

You might notice a kaleidoscope ruler in that pile.  I wasn't going to buy that.  But I'd been drooling over some kaleidoscope blocks (I'm looking at you, Cathy), so when I saw it, I picked it up.
Then I thought about how many quilts I have already in progress, plus the ones in queue, and I put the ruler back.
My path through the store took me past the ruler section again.   I thought that by the time I was ready for that ruler, I might not be able to find one.  So I picked it up again.
Then I thought about how I'd want to play with it as soon as I got it home, and I'd end up even deeper in diversions than I already am.  So I put it back and wandered off to look at other things.
Then I found myself back at the ruler section again. I thought about the fact that it will be more expensive in the future.  So I picked it up again, because clearly that's the sensible path.
Then I thought about the fact that I would have to hide it from myself in order to stay on task, and then I'd forget where I put it and it would be gone forever, so there was no sense in getting it at all.  So I put it back.
And then somehow I found it back in my hand as I was headed for the checkout line. 

I know when I'm licked.

Still teasing with that pig block

I have it in mind to make something for my dad for his birthday, and naturally my first thought is that it needs a pig.

And those postage stamp yellows on the right are going to be an ear of corn, because pigs and corn just go together like, well, pigs and corn.

The plan is for a seat cushion for the bench he sits on when he changes shoes.  I even found some pig fabric to work in.  Updates will follow.
And there are other projects in motion, that will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Chain quilting is a thing, right?

Bindings applied and being hand stitched in the evenings.

And check out this great monkey fabric I found while going on a quilt shop jaunt with my sister-in-law on Friday.  I'm turning into a real sucker for monkeys, as my Silly Monkey blocks continue to pile up. 

A yard here, a fat quarter there....  I'm sure I won't end up with too much, right?
After all, how many monkey fabrics could there be?




Linking to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework because scraps!

I've got more blues than I thought...

I didn't get a lot of sewing done this week, though I did throw together a couple of blocks.  Even though I said last week that I wasn't going to make any more Ohio stars for RSC until the new color was announced, I made one anyway.  Because habit, I guess.  Another black background with multicolors, though this fabric is something that I've had for decades. 

And there were monkeys, of course.  Because there are always monkeys.  I need to count them again at some point, since I've completely lost track.
But my big time sucker consumer was my effort to get a little more organized.  I hauled in a folding bookshelf that I had stored in the garage and started sorting fabric.  These are the ones that I've already cut strips and squares from, in my efforts to have materials ready to go for scrap quilting.

Here are some piled high on a chair that I still have to sample/process.  Some are fat quarters that I picked up on my birthday binge, and some are old fabrics that I've pulled from storage boxes.

And there's another boxful to go.  And a couple of boxes out in the garage still that contain mostly heavier weight fabrics that I use for bags, though there are probably a few quilting weight cottons mixed in. 

At least the end is in sight.  Organizing has got to be my least favorite thing.  I'm more of a run and fling kind of creator, so this whole fold-it-up-and-put-it-away thing is a real drag...
As a reward for all my hard work (and to keep me from repetitively banging my head on the wall because it was more appealing than organizing), I allowed myself to make a pig block:

I've got a project in mind (because pigs!) which I'll post about as I go along.

Last of all, I have to share my favorite highway sign EVER...

Seen in Pennsylvania, where apparently they have a DOT with a sense of humor.


Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, where the fun never ends.
And since the new color for RSC2015 has been announced (Orange!!  Hurray!!) at So Scrappy, I'll link my last indigo/black block with Angela as well.