well now, let's see - where was I?

 I seem to remember that I have a blog laying around here someplace.  Let's just dust it off a bit and see what happens.

I don't think I got much done in the way of RSC sewing, or at least I didn't think to take many photos if I did.  June's blue was a pretty abysmal showing - just these two sad little fellas.

But there was quite a bit of faffing around with purple all spring.  

This - 

and this -

became this -

 

and this.

The second one is a completed top, and the first one is awaiting borders.  (I'm still dithering)  (You know me, right?)

Of course, that makes this mess on my cutting mat a real treasure for July's RSC color - purple!  (Thank you, Angela, for picking such a perfect and well-timed color!)

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, anyone remember these blocks?

After making them for a couple of years for RSC, I decided that I had enough for a quilt, so I sashed and scrambled and got them to this stage.

All the rows are sewn together, and some of them are sewn to each other.  I've just got three or four more long seams and three corners to sew on and it'll be ready to go.

Unless I go with some crazy kind of stripe for a border...

I'll just dither for a bit, shall I?

While all that row-sewing was going on, I used these blocks for leader/enders.

Here's the first four blocks of Hawk's Nest (from Bonnie Hunter's book "Scraps and Shirttails II")

Why, yes.  I did start another quilt.  Is anyone surprised?

And it wasn't all just piecing going on.  There's been some quilting, too.

Notice what's in the extreme right of that picture?

Yeah.

I've got Moxie.

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see where the RSC is leading us next!

Also linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  There's another fun crowd!

Still puttering along

 Well, after November's abysmal showing, let's see if I can do a little better in December.  At this point in 2020, it's getting a little hard to rub two thoughts together, so mostly I've continued with projects already underway.

One thing I've been looking forward to is Bonnie Hunter's Mystery - the first clue dropped last Friday.  As usual, I'll be making roughly half(-ish) of the necessary components as we go along.  (I don't really need another humungous quilt top sitting around!)

(And also, I'm still not 100% convinced about this whole 'gray' thing, despite y'all's best efforts to tell me it'll be fine)

My biggest effort has gone into Sand Castles 2.  I've now got 40 done out of the 48 blocks needed.

I've been diligently putting together 4-patches and string corners, so the final push should go fairly quickly.  Then I'll just have the endless stringy borders to stitch - see this post for the wonderful awful wonderful idea I had for borders.

And I finally got a bit of RSC sewing done.  It's always hard for me to keep any kind of RSC momentum going in November and December.  Technically I should be trying to get a finish done, but since my blocks tend to run small and take multiple years to gather enough for a quilt, I'm highly unlikely to be thinking 'flimsy time'.

But, ta-da!  Here's a light green PSP postage stamp for January, which means I've got blocks for the full year of 2020.  I think I'll need at least another year to make these lovelies, so look for a flimsy no sooner than 2022...

I've been cutting mountains of 1.5" squares for my 4-patch collection and postage stamp blocks, plus those needed for Easy Peasy. (Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge for this year, which is actually called Easy Breezy, but my brain rejects that in favor of Easy Peasy every single time so I give up)

Speaking of Easy Peasy, I've been thinking ahead to how I'll set them.  (I know, but I swear I can't help myself)

My first idea was just to set them alternating with a plain square, which would be easy and quick and not overly complicated.

But you know me - overly-complicated is my middle name.  So I got to thinking about another Bonnie leader/ender challenge - Shoo Fly Shoo, which was last year's block.  I'd managed to skip that challenge because those little blocks are OMG-cute, and I know a trap when I see one.

But, hey - what's the harm in just making a couple of the little things, just to see...

I think I'll need to make a few more shoo fly blocks before I decide.  (It probably won't work - it looks like too much work with just a load of mush for the payoff)  

Worst case scenario is that I might have started another quilt.

Oops.

(ETA:  I'd been planning to add links to ScrapHappy Saturday and Oh Scrap when the weekend got here and now here it is the weekend!  So here I am rushing back in here to link up!)

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!

How Green Was My Sandcastle

Pretty darn green, as it turns out.  Here's one I finished last week -

and the two I got done this week.

That gives me four green ones so far, so I'll need two more to cover my goal of six blocks per month.  I need 64 total for the quilt, so at six per month for ten months, I'll be pretty close to that.  Make four more blocks?  No problem.  It's fun (and way too easy) to pick out a fabric and cut the squares and triangles necessary for a new block. 
Sand Castles may be the best leader/ender quilt ever, too.  The four-patches have been my go-to leader/ender for years, and the assembly of that middle unit works for l/e, too.  Even the strippy triangles lend themselves well to the process.  Those last two blocks went together as I was stitching up my triangle stars top.  (And hey, since I finished that top, I get to start four new projects, right?)

My other long-range project is still cooking along, too.  Here's my Goosey Temps strip for March so far.  (I haven't done yesterday or the day before yet - hoping I'll get to the sewing today)

This month has been a roller coaster, with temps varying between the 60's and below zero.
Sometimes on the same day...


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!  Come see all the green goodness!

♫ ♫ One of these ends is not like the other ♫ ♫

I barely squeaked this last top in under the wire - the last finish (well, semi-finish anyway) (a top's close enough to a finish, right?) of 2018.

Yay for Checkerboard Rails - a Bonnie Hunter leader/ender challenge from last year.  (Or possibly the year before.  I've lost track...)
In my zeal to get it done, I made things a bit more complicated for myself than necessary, however.
Here's a look at the top of the quilt -

and a look at the bottom.

That's where the "one of these ends" song comes from.  Somehow I'd extended the checkerboard section at one end, but didn't match it at the other.  (That's what I get for setting projects aside for months at a time, without leaving notes for myself.)  (Note to self:  leave notes to self)

By the time I realized what I'd done, I was too far along in piecing those whacky side triangles for this on point setting and I wasn't going back.

I left the corners for last, because I knew there were problems coming up.

Yep.  Every corner is different.  I had to resolve them one at a time.  There might have been some cursing involved.

Frankly with all those monstrous bias edges, I'm just happy the quilt turned out to be a shape that I didn't have to look up the name in a geometry book.  (Geometry was my favorite subject, but it's been several decades since I had to remember what a rhombus looks like.)

With that quiet little border added, it measures 52"x60", so a nice little lap size.  I'm happy with it.

So, happy quilt for a happy new year!  Best wishes to all!

What was I thinking?

Just popping in with a quick post - busy busy busy!
Somehow I got so excited with finishing those two quilts last month that I started casting around for another one to finish.
If memory served, checkerboard rails (my last leader/ender project) was closest to being done.  I knew I had taken photos of the last time I'd laid it out, so I could remember how I'd decided to resolve the edges, but it took me a while to find the pics.

Luckily they were on the SD card that didn't get accidentally erased.

So I pulled out their bin, laid out the blocks, and started finishing the bits that were already cut and partially sewn.

And Tada!  Not a finished top yet, but the upper right is sewn together and the rest of the diagonal rows are assembled and awaiting attachment.

Corners will be added, and a simple stop border, and then it'll be done!  Woohoo!

And I squeezed in a bit of sewing for Clue 5 of Good Fortune.

I've got lots of triangles cut and waiting by the machine.  My strategy is to make them in pairs so I don't get confused about how many I've made of each.  The less thinking I have to do this time of year, the better off I am.

Linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap! and probably this will serve as my Good Fortune linkup post as well.  (I don't foresee me getting any more sewing done until after Christmas...)
Happy scrappy, everyone!
And happiest of holidays, too!

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!