Good intentions will only take you so far...

Today's big plan was to write up that tutorial on snail's trails using 1.5" and 2.5" strips.  Since I knew I had all the photos taken, I happily procrastinated until late this afternoon.  Finally, I sat down to write, step by step, loading photos as I went along.
And I discovered that I'd forgotten to document a bunch of the steps.  Critical steps, where a photo would have been helpful.  And that a few of the photos were blurrier than I had thought, so not hugely informative.
*sigh*
So, hey, back to procrastinating, which after all is one of my superpowers.

Instead of snails, I'll share what my wonderful sister-in-law dropped off for me.
Scraps.  One of my very favorite things.
Shoeboxes and bags of scraps.

There's Christmas, and Civil War, and brights, and border bits, and I'm jumping up and down, and already thinking about which quilt they're going to end up in.

The real treasure, though, was this:

It's a project that my grandmother had started and never completed.  She's been gone for twenty years, so I know this dates back even further.
Grandma hand pieced (and hand quilted) every quilt she ever made.  Here's the back side of the patchwork so you can see her tiny stitches.

And there are pieces of the original fabrics, so I'll have enough to complete it.  As is, it measures 11" x 16"; I'm assuming she meant to make a wall hanging or a doll quilt.

Each rectangle is fussy cut to show an animal - lions, giraffes, ostriches, gorillas.

You can guess which one is my favorite...

Hello, little monkey.

Snail's trails

While I was poking around in my fabrics yesterday, looking for the red that was just here (dammit), I came across my snail's trail blocks.  I'd forgotten that I'd been considering them for next year's RSC, too.
I went back through my folders to find these pictures:

Scrappy versions and not scrappy versions.

And I found the photos I'd taken to do a tutorial.  I've probably been procrastinating on that long enough...

Okey dokey, then.  I'd best get on that.  This week will be perfect for it - I'm halfway through the month of posting daily for NaBloPoMo, but I'm starting to worry about running out of things to talk about...
Snails it is!

It's not just Ohio stars

There are other stars shining bright around here.

 I've been assembling Twinkle Star parts

 into lovely stars and stacking them up.

I'm up to fourteen so far.

And I've got ten of the little stars that will be the intersections of the sashing.

Which means I've really got to start working on them, since I'm going to need a bunch.

I'd been doing flippy corners for the blue triangles in the four corners of the star block, but it occurred to me that, while I might have plenty of the blue fabric, it was still possible that I might not.  Since it's something that came out of stash (and someone else's stash at that) I have no idea how old it is and whether I can get more.
So, I decided to be a little less profligate with it, and pulled out my Easy Angle ruler to cut triangles instead of squares.
I worked out that if I put the 1" line of the ruler even with the top edge of the square, I could cut the corners off the background squares,

.

and have perfect corners to stitch up.

(I would brag that I got all mathy and stuff, and calculated where the ruler should go, but the truth is, I just folded one of the blue squares diagonally, set it down on the corner of the block, then lined up the ruler with where the seam allowance would be.  Empiricism is my friend.)

Now my design wall floor is currently taken up by my rainbow Ohio star, but since I don't yet have enough Twinkles to start laying out (and arranging and rearranging and rearranging again), it's not a problem.  Yet.
Gotta finish up that rainbow.
And think of a name for it...
 

Hot diggety doorknobs!

All the blocks are done!  All the blocks are done!
I finished the last two Ohio stars

and popped them into place.

Cue the Happy Dance!
These aren't the last Ohio stars I'll ever make, since it's one of my favorite blocks.  (And I also am getting ready to start another project involving them.)  But I do admit I'm glad to have all the blocks for this quilt done.
And remember yesterday's post, when I was wondering if I would be able to find a fabric that looked like what I had in my mind's eye?
I googled.
I found this print at Fabric.com in under two minutes.

It's almost exactly what I'm looking for.  Like almost mind-readingly exactly.  Stormy raindroppy splatters.

I don't think I'm going to have a problem finding what I want.


Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework - come see all the fun!

Saturdays are full of rainbows

Though I've made a bunch of Ohio stars lately, I seem to have forgotten to photograph them.
This is the only picture I can find.

There were some more blue ones done, and now I'm down to only needing two more stars to finish. 

I've got them cut out and ready to sew, and hope to get them done before the weekend is over.

Which means I'm ready to start dithering on the final setting.
The current plan is to find a gray/black, probably a batik, that looks sort of raindroppy and then using it for setting triangles.  The basic idea being one of showing a rainbow coming out of a storm, so the edges of the quilt would be the rainclouds. 
Well, it makes sense to me.
Or I might just take the easy way out and set with black triangles that make the colors pop.
Kind of depends on how fast (and whether) I can find the raindroppy fabric of my dreams.
Hmmm...  Fabric shopping needed.  And one of my favorite local quilt stores just sent me a very nice coupon.
I think I sense a plan in the works...


Linking to ScrapHappy Saturday, where the rainbows gather every week.

Crafty content will return tomorrow

I'm just not up to posting what I had ready for tonight.  My heart goes out to those in Paris.

You knew there'd be more stars. And monkeys. Always more monkeys.

I first showed these 6" (finished) stars in this post.   I love how they look, and it's a great excuse to play some more with my tri-recs rulers.  They are a Strong Contender for RSC2016.

Now Libby, on seeing them in that previous post, recommended turning them on point.   I have complete faith in Libby's judgement, so I did exactly that.

Oh, my, yes.  Good stars become better. Lots better.
But I also wanted to see what they would look like with the colors reversed, so I whipped up a couple more.

Very nice.  I like these, too.
Now what happens if I combine both kinds?

I think this one just moved from Strong Contender to Definite Choice.

And there were monkeys.  Because there are always monkeys.

I'm pretty sure there was another one here a few minutes ago, but I looked away briefly and then could only find the two.  I'm sure it will turn up eventually.
Probably on top of the refrigerator again...