Stars, stormy seas, and a bit of clucker surgery

(First off, someone has asked me about where to find the pattern for the silly chicken in my next to last post, and since I don't have an email address for her, I figured I'd share with all y'all.  It's right here.  Enjoy!)

With the end of February fast approaching, I figured I'd better toss together a few more aqua/teal/seagreen blocks.
I made a Whatchacallit Star -

these poor stars fell off the A List last fall, and I feel like I should make it up to them.  Poor neglected things.

And some kaleidoscopes happened.  I managed not to fall completely into their clutches.  Hey, who knew I could ever be restrained about kaleidoscopes?  Certainly not me.

And one of Chantal's Pinwheels, too.

Now these next bits probably shouldn't count as RSC stuff, since they're from the Sea of Tranquility (aka Storm at Sea) which I'm making in blue/green/teal/turquoise, but they ARE February's color and make me look super-productive, so here they are!

And then there was the clucker.
I made one of Sally's chickens with this perfect turquoise feather fabric.
But the wing.

Oh, the wing.
It bothered me.
I kept telling myself that it was fine, and when the whole quilt was together it would really truly be fine.
But.
I wasn't convinced.
I let it marinate a couple of days, then when I saw it today, I decided it wasn't ever going to be fine at all.
So I dewinged the poor little clucker, and grafted on a whole new limb.

I don't know about her, but I feel much better now.

Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see the last seagreen linkup!

If I could think of a title, it would go right here

This isn't much of a year-end post, I admit.  I'm not one for setting goals, and I never make resolutions.  (My last New Year's Resolution was years ago - it was to never make another New Year's Resolution, and it's been the only one I've ever managed to keep.)
That being said, I'm trying to get a little bit more organized by investing in some bins.  And some labels.  (I'm told that labels are very important for organizing.  I'm testing it out and will report back later.)

The monkeys said that bright light hurts their eyes, so they prefer to live in the shoebox.  Privately, I suspect they just like to plot their shenanigans out of sight.  I'm willing to play along, but if they get too rowdy, I'm getting the duct tape.
Most of the blocks I made for RSC2016 will continue into RSC2017 - the Jacks & Sixes, the Buckeye Beauties, the Whatchacallit Star, the Rainbow Regatta wee ships, and Chantal's Pinwheels.  I'm also making Centennial stars, which caught my fancy in October and clamored to be included.  Since I'd planned to stop making piglets after Higgledy Piggledy was done, I figured I could add another block to my rainbow tsunami.  But, I'm probably going to just keep on making piggies, since I have almost enough left over to make another quilt anyway, and besides, I'd miss making the little rascals every month.
And my beloved Kaleidoscopes...

Angela says purple is the color for January, so since I have all those purples out for En Provence anyway, I decided to go ahead and make a purple kaleidoscope.
So, this is either the first block of RSC2017, or the last block of RSC2016.  Tough call.

Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the fun!
And that kaleidoscope means I can link to Kaleidoscopes of Butterflies over at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  Come see!

More kaleiding!

Once I start, it's hard to stop!
I cut six more light 2" strips, and six more dark 2" strips, paired them up and stitched, stacked strip sets light to dark and dark to light, and reached for the kaleidoscope ruler.
Six kaleidoscope blocks cut out.  But if I'd proceeded from here, I would have ended up with three pairs of matching blocks.  Can't have that.
The three sets on the right went to sit by the sewing machine.

The three sets on the left were split up

and shuffled slightly in order to have a bit more variety.

Ready to head for the machine.

I sewed pairs,

and then combined pairs to make halves,

and halves to make wholes.

Tada!

The sharper eyed among you might have noticed something a bit odd in the mix, though.  Take a closer look at that first photo up at the top.  In the stack furthest to the left, there's a funny little seam showing.
Here's a closeup of the two oddballs.

I didn't have enough of the orange polka dot fabric to make a whole 18" length strip, so I sewed some orange chevron on the end to make it longer.  The center of the block in the next photo shows three dots and a chevron.

 And a whisper of the seam shows up in the block below.

A bit closer -

Yep.  Scraps are my life!


Linking up with ScrapTastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew and Sow's.  Come see all the scrappy fun!

October is for yellows and oranges

Luckily for me, when I was planning for this trip,  I had a feeling that yellow was going to come into play for October's color of the month.  I grabbed lots of yellows, golds, and oranges when I was packing up fabrics to keep me out of trouble busy while I visited down here.

Leading with a few kaleidoscopes -

in a range of contrast, from low to high.  I've got more fabrics that I want to kaleid before the month is out, because you can never have too much yellow/orange!

And this is Ziggy.

I'm a little concerned about the tire-tread look he's sporting here.  Or is it bacon?

I even found some of the correct colors at the local botanical garden -

and I made some pumpkin muffins, because there's no more glorious orange than a pumpkin!

(If you're interested in the recipe, it's here - Streusel Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins aka Gayle's Totally Decadent Pumpkin Muffins .  You're welcome!)

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

September has a couple of gasps left in it

Now that I've finished (finally!) both my Gwennie medallions, I can spare a moment for other things.  Like, you know, things I can actually post about while I'm waiting for the last Big Gwennie Reveal.  (Can't wait!)

I pulled out some reds and yellows and tried to get a bit more than the occasional piglet done.  Since Gwennie came into my life, I've sadly neglected the RSC.
Kaleidoscopes were clearly called for, and luckily I'd packed my trusty kaleidoscope ruler.  (Don't leave home without it!)

And a slightly artsier shot -

Yep, there are pigeons in the kaleidoscopes, too...

A few of Chantal's Pinwheels also perked things up. 

Since I'm making these as 6" blocks, I'm going to need a bunch to make a quilt, so I think this block will continue into next year's RSC as well.  Not exactly a hardship, since I love making them.  And the block Chantal is making this year for RSC - Peace and Plenty - is also pulling me in.  I think I'll end up copying her again next year. 
And if you add in all the blocks Cathy has been making that are also drool-worthy, that I also want to make, it's starting to look like I'll be taking on even more blocks than I've got piling up this year.  Especially when you consider how many of this year's blocks are going to roll over to 2017...
Oh, well.  I just won't think about it until I have to.  Or until I run out of fabric.  (Ahahahahahahaha!)

And just as I was putting away the camera, I heard a familiar sounding giggle coming from under a stack of fat quarters...

Apparently there are monkeys in Maryland, too.

Looks like she's got a flower tucked behind her ear, doesn't it?

Butterflies of Kaleidoscopes

Or something like that.

Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting has been running a linky party featuring kaleidoscopes and butterflies for a good while, and I've been trying to keep up with posting my own efforts each month.

Since I got all my piglets out the other day, I was curious about how many kaleidoscopes I've made since RSC2016 started back in January.  I pulled out the bin and laid out the blocks.

The answer is a lot.  Once again, I'm having trouble fitting all my blocks into one shot.  And as expected, I have more orange ones than any other color, with purple ranking second.

How about an artsier look?

I had to fight hard to resist the urge to arrange them (and rearrange them and re-rearrange them) because I could have kept myself entertained for days...

Linking with Sane, Crazy, Crumby for Kaleidoscopes of Butterflies! 

In the Pink

The hot pink continues in this hot hot July.  Though I still don't own a lot of pinks, I managed to use what I do have in a few kaleidoscope blocks.

I'm really enjoying Angela's use of an accent color this year - it adds to the fun each month having two colors to play with.  (Though I don't really seem to have a lot of lime greens, either...)
My pinwheels didn't fare as well as the kaleidoscopes, though.  Only one block to show so far.

And one Jacks block.

But of course there's another pig.  Because there'll always be another pig.

This one's name is Splat.  She's artistic, she assures me.

Since I'm unable to restrain myself in the matter of starting new quilts, I thought that making a push to finish some of the already-in-progress quilts might make me feel better.  I'd been making Allietare blocks as occasional leader/ender blocks, and knew I was close to the bottom of the bin of pre-made components for these block.  I pulled out everything and laid them out.  One big push finished the last few blocks and setting triangles left to do, and now I've got everything I need for final assembly.  Some of the blocks (the upper right corner) are already joined and pressed, and now I just have to decide if I want to finish it now, or hide set it aside for later. 

In the meantime, the bin that held all the Allietare parts is now empty.  Hurray!

So that means I can start another quilt, right?  What with the empty bin and all...



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

I could have sworn I'd posted earlier in the week...

Apparently this hot weather we've been having has melted portions of my brain, because I was sure I'd thrown up a post on Monday or Tuesday.  Hmm...

Anxious to finish up June, I made a few aqua kaleidoscopes this week, which will soon be followed by some pink ones (because kaleidoscopes, ya know?),

 and some whatchacallit stars for both June and July.

And little Scribbles, here, nosed her way to the front of the line.

What could be cuter than those polka dot ears?
Well, that polka dot tail, I guess, but still.

My other big time-consumer this week was playing with logs.  Specifically, a bunch of courthouse steps blocks to see how they would look with my medallion quilts.

Since I'm also playing along with the other Log Cabin Loonies, a bunch of log cabin blocks can never be a bad thing.  If they don't go into the medallions, I'm sure I'll find a good use for them.  In the meantime, they're a soothing block to work on when it's too hot to think.  And following Julie's excellent tip, I'm making the logs with 1.25" strips, which are easily made by slicing a 2.5" strip right  down the middle.  Since I have buckets of 2.5" strips, this has made log rolling a whole lot simpler!

And I've made the opening moves on another quilt.  (Because it's already a week of July gone and I hadn't started a new quilt yet, right?)  This is going to be a bed-sized Storm at Sea in scrappy blues and greens.  So far I've just started cutting pieces for it, but I had to make a few components to make sure everything fit together right, of course.

Can you imagine how much fun I'm going to have, dithering around with arranging all those hundreds of block parts?  It'll keep me busy for days and days.  And days.
Though it occurs to me that I'll be a lot happier if I have a design wall by then...


Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the pink fun!
And since so much of this is about scraps, I'll also link to Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!
Between the two of them, they make my weekends a blast!  Always so much pretty to look at!

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!

There's always room for buckeyes

I've had a fairly productive couple of days, though I don't have as much to show for it as I thought I would.  Partly it's because a lot of time was spent thinking and planning, which is remarkably hard to photograph, and there was a lot of cutting as well, which is boring to photograph.  (Stacks of triangles?  Three and half inch strips?  Your eyes would be glazing.)

I did get a couple of Buckeye Beauties thrown together, as you may have guessed from the title of the post.

And a nice green Jacks to add to the stack.

And there was a kaleidoscope, of course.

As well as another kaleidoscope.

I think I have one more cut out and sitting next to the sewing machine, though I admit I may have lost track at this point.  I get on such a roll when I first start assembling strips for these that I never know how many I'm going to end up with.  It's a good thing Angela changes the color each month, or I'd never be able to stop.  At least picking strips of the new color slows me down for a bit...

And piglets continue to turn up.

(Still not hamburger buns, Cathy.  Sorry.)

It seems like there was something else, but I can't quite remember what it was.  It's right on the tip of my brain...

I almost had it, then I got distracted when I tripped over these logs that someone left on the floor.  




I'll be linking to Angela's So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the rainbows in action!