If they gave out gold medals for procrastination, I'd have a drawerful of them

 I'm two flimsies behind in the Showing Off department.

First - I finished the top for Grassy Creek.  (yay!)

(Disregard those corners on the right - they're flappy and full of mischief)  I'm quite happy with my sashing mods, and I found a perfect border fabric.  

It's a batik with shades of orange and yellow, with tinges of green and red (well, more pinkish I guess, but pink is red-adjacent) and has a leafy vibe that works with the grassy creek theme.  I'm calling it a success, and am now looking forward to this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.

For flimsy two - against all odds I finally finished all the endless string-pieced borders (at least 92 miles, I swear) and finished up the top for Sand Castles 2.

My poor design wall is nowhere near tall enough, and the bottom foot or so of the top is dragging on the floor...

And thank goodness I read about faking a mitered corner just before I tackled the four corners on this top - trying to do a true miter would have left me gibbering!

(How had I missed that a mitered corner is just a half-square triangle in disguise?  You're never too old to learn a new trick!)

This one is for my grandson, so it gets bumped right to the front of the next-to-be-quilted line.

Of course, now for the hard part - clearing off the big table in the dining room so I can get the basting done.

Not to mention that I'll probably have to chloroform the cats to keep them from 'helping'...

Well, golly. January's been a ride so far, eh?

 I'm pretty sure the last time I posted there were still dinosaurs scrumbling around in the underbrush.  I'll try to catch up with what-all I've been up to.

My RSC sewing continued with several pink cake stands,

some pink chips,

and a pink PSP21 block to add to my postage stamp collection.

When I last posted, I showed this pink Antique Tiles block that I had made, inspired by our Cathy.

I made another one,

and then just looked and looked and looked at them.  They're so pink.  So ferociously and unremittingly pink.

After hmming for a bit, I decided to see what they'd look like with a different color for that center ring.

No final decision yet, but I think this might be the way I go with these blocks in the future.  You know me - the more colors the merrier.

Not all my sewing has been pink.  I'm slowly but surely squaring up blocks and sewing together rows for Sand Castles 2.

I've got the bottom two rows of squares to go, then I'll sew pairs of rows together until I have them all assembled.  (It'll be nice to finally be done with all that red)  I'm still slogging along on the (possibly endless) B&W string-pieced borders.  Someday I'll have them finished and I'll do such a happy dance!

I've also been working on a Table Scraps project for Joyful's challenge, but that's going to have to wait for its own post - this one is long enough!

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

Bring on clue 4!

 I puddled together a few more Clue #3's for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery -

and added them to the box with the others.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm just shooting for around half the units each week.  I'll be perfectly happy with a smaller version of the quilt (if possible), and if I change my mind and decide to go for the full size at least I'll already be halfway there.

That's pretty much it for the exciting sewing.  In the meantime, I've also been sewing strings for the borders for Sand Castles 2, which I wish was a little more interesting to do.  Some days I only add a few inches and sometimes I'm patient enough to go a couple of feet.  Slow and steady wins the race and all that.

And just to break it up a little, I've pulled out my plate of HST triangles and am sewing them together a few at a time.  There's a Tree of Paradise and an Ocean Waves somewhere in my future, so I might as well get ready!

Then there's the 4-patches bin which needs to be replenished (two back to back Sand Castles took a toll!) and Easy Peasy and nine-patches for Jack's Chain, all going on in the background.  Seems like these days I'm all putzy all the time.

And where would I be without my diligent little helpers guarding the stash?

I don't know what they're going to do when they're full grown.  I might have to get a bigger bin for my orange scraps...

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!)

I could have sworn I'd posted something this month...

 Apparently that's not the case at all.  I wonder what happened to all those posts I wrote in my head?

Anyway.  Remember when I had that squirrel running through?  Well, it made another pass.  The diamonds that I'd made and set aside kept catching my eye.  I liked them, but I really wanted more purple.  I started scrumbling around in my 1.5" strip bin and pulled some colors.

I like this one a whole lot better.

And since those previous diamonds were just lying around taking up space, I set them around the new star just to see what would happen.  (The lime isn't quite that limey in real life, but it is a bit bright)

And then, because I've never been one to let well enough alone, I pulled some fabrics to audition for borders.

Then I had to pick it all up and hide it from myself because I'm trying to work on this:

(That's the first 20 blocks done.  I'm actually up to 26 done now, with the red lozenge parts done on seven more)  (Remember that part about writing posts in my head?  Apparently I'm also taking pictures in my head)

And then, because I can never let well enough alone (see above), I had an idea for borders that I had to try.

Running those stringy bits all the way around the perimeter of the quilt is generating an awful lot of extra work for myself, but once I saw the effect I was a goner.  Right now I'm thinking of sewing together red squares for an outer border, then binding in either red or black.  Or maybe I'll just take an easier way out and run another of those narrow black borders instead of the squares.

Ah, dithering.  My favorite part!

It's still October

How is it that time is simultaneously flashing by and dragging by?  I'll be so glad when this year is behind us.

Most of my sewing time has been going to Sand Castles 2.  I've got 11 of the 48 blocks done and up on the design wall.

I've got several more reds cut out and kitted up and have been diligently sewing 4-patches. And then there are the string triangles for the corners - I've got them piling up and ready to go.

Once I get all the components lined up, the actual blocks go together pretty fast.

I did manage to sew a couple of RSC cake stands in yellow,

and I have another cut out and plated up.

Given how close we are to the end of the month, that'll probably be the last yellow cake stand until next year.  (Though there are no guarantees of that - they're such a lot of fun to plot and sew that it's quite hard to restrain myself...)

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

Even my squirrels are procrastinating these days

Though even my tangents are starting to develop tangents, I think.

I did get a few more Jacks blocks sewn for the RSC.  Since I'm cutting out red squares and triangles for Sand Castles 2 anyway, it's easy to just cut a few extra and make another Jacks.

I really need to get the Jacks bin down and count my blocks, though.  Seems like I decided long ago that I had enough blocks, but here I am still making them...

While I was scrumbling around in my fabric looking for RSC candidates, I came across the bacon fabric I got for the back of my dad's quilt.

 It just hooted and waved at me until I agreed to make a cake stand with it.  Who can argue with bacon?

My other sewing time pretty much went to sewing more 4-patches for Sand Castles 2,

and I've started string piecing the corner triangles for the blocks, figuring it will be less onerous a task if I get a head start on it.  (My method is here.)

In my typical mingy fashion, when I have strips that are too short, I just sew them together to make a longer string.

And then this squirrel came out of nowhere and I ended up watching a metric butt-ton of rulerwork quilting videos.  I have a bunch of quilts that I want to get quilted where working with a ruler would be perfect. (Especially as wobbly as my free-motion non-skills are...)  Had to give it a try!

I was smart enough to keep it small scale.  I cut two 10" squares of scrap fabric and backed them with squares of batting.

My first experiment was on this fabric where the quilting wouldn't show.  (Am I not wise in the ways of quilting?)  I didn't mark anything, just practiced sewing along the edge of the ruler.

For side two, I actually made some marks to keep me in line.  (That's what those little flashes of orange are - a washable marker)

You can see the quilting better from the back sides where I'm marking darts.

And ta-da!  For my practice piece, I actually made something useful!  A microwave bowl cozy, which is something that I'd been coveting all along!

And since it was a practice piece, I won't even mind if I spill gravy all over it!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I'm late to the parties as usual, but come see the fun!

Okay, I give up. I"m making Cake Stands for this year's RSC.

This is actually a purple cake stand, but my camera struggles with purples so I admit it looks kind of pink.

So now Cake Stand is officially a RSC 2020 quilt and will roll over into 2021.  There.  That's settled.

I was really glad when Angela announced a new color for RSC, both because purple is my second most favorite color to play with and because it gave me something to actually show for all the stitching I've been doing lately.

It's not that I haven't kept busy.  Here you can see my nine-patches-in-progress in the upper left corner, with the postage stamp squares cut for PSP20 for August, light green for January, and yellow for whenever it might turn up on the calendar.  At upper right is a couple of platefuls of Easy Peasy leader/enders, with my four-patches-in-progress all across the bottom of the picture.

And I pulled out the Demented bits and have been diligently getting more demented by the day,

but it doesn't leave much to look at.  The pile of half-blocks on the left is growing higher, but one picture pretty much looks like another.

Four-patches for Sand Castles 2 are appearing, too.  Normally I have tons of these on hand for assorted projects, but the first Sand Castles quilt used up a metric butt-ton of them.  (Well, only 512 of them, but that's pretty close.)  But you know, you've seen one four-patch, you've seen them all...

The Easy Peasies are drifting in, too.  But again, not very impressive as a way to show progress.

Though here we go.

First purple Postage Stamp block.  That's a bit better.

Nothing like purple to give a little flash!


Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday (I'm late again!) and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see what all the scrappy folk have been up to!

(And a New Blogger update - I thought I'd finally figured out and gotten settled in with New Blogger, but tonight it wouldn't let me create a new post.  I've had to revert to Old Blogger in order to post all this.  No idea what the problem is, but I sure wish they'd get their act together.)