Chasing orange piglets

Finally orange!
That orange fabric transfusion has really made it easier to make orange piglets, I'll tell ya!  I'll get back to my stash of orange scraps in a week or so, but in the meantime these spiffy fat quarters are making me smile.
I started this little piggie yesterday, as a leader/ender while making those itty bitty 365 Challenge blocks, then finished it up today.

And his little friend was also part of today's playtime.

And since I didn't get to flash any orange last Saturday for RSC, I figured I'd better make up for lost time.
A Jacks and Sixes (aka Hovering Hawks, aka Charlie, for all I know)

and a couple of Buckeye Beauties.

Though technically I'm in Maryland, not Ohio, so should they be Crabby Beauties?



Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, where I'll be happily hanging out with my fellow scrappers.  Come see all the fun!

Macro is a thing

After happily clicking along taking lots of pictures of the 365 Challenge blocks as I worked on them, I realized that I'd taken my camera out of macro mode when we went to the zoo, and hadn't reset it.  (Since most of my camera work is close-up stuff, I tend to use macro as the default.  This works great as long as I don't go to zoos.)
So bear with the first few pictures, as they're a bit blurry.  I just don't want to remake that first block in order to get clearer photos, since it took me the better part of a morning to make it in the first place.

When I first saw this block in the email, I gasped and said something along the lines of "Are you kidding me?!?'  (Not my exact words, but I usually try to keep this blog G-rated.) (Usually.)
Because we've been merrily running along making 3" blocks for the last 3 months, and this

is what presented itself as the next block.  Luckily, before I had a complete meltdown, I saw that this was a SIX inch block rather than a three inch one.  Whew!  Still a challenge, but not a heart-stopper.

So I kitted up some blocks, and got ready to sew.  That's March 12-15 laid out in a nice and orderly fashion.

Starting with that scary star, I sewed flippy corners for the outer geese components, and made the bonus triangles, too.

Since for a true bonus, those little triangles

could be squared up to be the 1.25" HSTs that I needed for the star - which meant I had half of them put together for free!

 

So HSTs became this (I used triangles instead of squares that would later be chopped off, because I'm stingy frugal that way)

which became this

(after I took the precaution of lopping off the corner, since I don't particularly like trying to do flippy corners with one triangle and one square corner) (And I saved the triangle because I'm stingy frugal that way)

And then this

became this, and I had a lovely finished star. 

Though it took forever since I had foolishly decided that I would break for lunch when it was finished, fully forgetting that that would guarantee errors and unpicking and unacceptable points and more unpicking.  My stomach was getting downright testy with me as I snapped that pic.
The next three blocks went together much more smoothly, even with all those mitered corners.

Here's a closer look at the one on the upper right.  Because I decided that if I was going to be mitering four corners, then by golly,  I was entitled to make it show.

And I invite you all to scroll back up and take a look at the next to last picture of the pinwheel star.
On the right, you'll notice some fabric creeping into the shot.
When Angela announced the RSC color for April, I was already six hours away from my stash.  My excitement that orange(!) is the color was definitely tempered by the fact that I hadn't brought any orange with me.
Clearly steps needed to be taken.

There.  That's better.

Flushed with success, I'll attempt another post

Okay, that last post worked, with pictures and everything.  I haven't figured out how to crop them or do any sort of adjustment, so you're getting raw from the camera, but at least there are pictures.  I don't imagine I could do a quilt block justice with just a verbal description.  ("Hey, look, red!  Oh, wait, you can't look.")

So now I'm ready to tackle the mysteries of my daughter's sewing machine.  It's an older Kenmore and is a good solid machine - no whacky whimmydiddles to confuse me as I tried to figure out things like 'Where's the Lever for the Presser Foot?' and 'How do You Set the Stitch Length?' 
I used the 365 Challenge March 28 block as a test piece.  (Getting way ahead of myself, but it was the easiest one in the stack.)

I figured out where the 1/4" seam allowance was accurate and set to work.

Another 365 block - this sweet little flower basket, which I really like.   Enough so that I had a crazy idea to make several of these blocks and make a small quilt.  Then I went and drank a glass of water and came to my senses.   Those are 1/2" HSTs, folks...

(Sorry the picture is sideways, but I haven't yet figured out how to rotate photos.  I'm still just happy that I can make them appear at all.)

And for a leader/ender while I was assembling that itsy basket, I made the last of the purple piglets for March.

Though it may not be the last purple piglet ever, since I also made another blue one in the January blue/purples, which implies that no color is really off the table.

(I'm going to have to ask where the iron is, so I can press these poor lumpy things...)

And you know how it is - where there are piglets,

could monkeys be far behind?

Don't know much about MacIntosh, don't know much laptoppy-speak...

What a wonderful world it would be...
(Some of you may now have a song stuck in your head.  You're welcome.)

Having a wonderful time!  I'm going to try to post some pictures.

Did it work?  (I think it did!  Nobody breath...)

We went to the National Zoo in Washington DC on Saturday, the whole gang of us.  My daughter and son-in-law, their two kids, my brother and sister-in-law, their son and his wife, and me.  Party of nine to see pandas, please.
The baby was having a nap, so all we saw was baby panda butt lolling on a log jungle gym in the outside enclosure.   But inside, the grownups were having afternoon tea, so we watched closely as they munched bamboo and

ate panda snacks out of a trick snack ball.  (The ball was designed to give them an activity, but this panda was way too smart for that.  He just laid on his back and shook the snacks out into his mouth.)

We also watched orangutans crossing way overhead on rope lines.

That last guy perched there for several minutes, posing for the many people taking pictures.  Though the way he was staring at us, it was a little unclear just who exactly was on exhibit.

And then I apparently put my camera back in its case and completely forgot about it as we spent the afternoon looking at all sorts of wonderful critters.

I did remember to haul it out when I saw these wild pigs, though.

Because, you know.  Pigs.

Over the river and through the woods, to granchildren's house I go!

Woohoo!  I'm currently packing for a visit to see my daughter, son-in-law, and the grands.  I'll be gone for a bit over two weeks.
Lets see - what to take, what to take?
I've definitely packed up my Quilty 365 project.  I keep it in a carrying box anyway, so this time it's just going to get carried a little further.

And I've packed up my 365 Challenge blocks, along with an assortment of fat quarters, fat eighths, strips, and charms in reds, blues, and browns.  My daughter has said I can use her sewing machine, so maybe I'll be able to catch up.  And maybe even keep up.  Hey, it could happen!

And of course, while I was sorting and packing those challenge fabrics, this little piglet insisted on being made.

Because piglets can be just a bit pushy, you know.
And since I was making a piglet anyway, it made sense to kit up a few more, just in case I had a sudden urge to pig it up.

And since it's the end of the month and I don't know what April's color will be, I made another kit.

Just in case Angela picks green for the April color.
Of course, pink is a possibility, too.

You know.  Spring type colors.  Just being prepared.  (And check out the background fabric in the pink block.  Heehee!)

So, adding a couple of knitting projects to the pile means I'm all packed up and ready to go.

Oh, wait.  I should probably pack some clothes, too...

For some reason, that block bothered me...

That star block I showed in my last post irked me every time I looked at it.  Something was wrong.

Too much yellow in the background.  And that plaid block in the center (much as I love plaid) (and orange) was too loud and too dark.

Not right.  Not right at all.

So I put my thinking cap on (it's green, btw, with tassels) and decided to tone the whole thing down a bit.
Rummaging in my various piles of fall colors, I came up with this lovely batik that had all the colors from the center, and was dark enough to do the job.

There, that's better.
I didn't take anything apart - I just made flippy corners.  Nothing wrong with fast and lazy.

And feel free to point out that my idea of "toning it down" involved adding a vivid batik.  Yep.  That's me.

Just another scrappy day

Before I forget again, here's the second star block I made for our town's fundraiser quilt.  After all the Ohio stars I made last year, I think I could make this block in my sleep.  (We're not limited to making stars for the quilt - I just really really like stars...)

 I'm continuing in my efforts to catch up with the 365 Challenge, with another 5 blocks done today.

One thing that's helping me at this point is that I'm starting to accumulate a backlog of pieces leftover from other blocks.  Half square triangles, for instance, are getting easy to come by.  And several of today's set of blocks called for 1.25" squares, which happily can be cut from a 2.5" square. 
So now I'm caught up through March 10 - only 16 days behind!  I would have plowed forward with another block, but the next one in the sequence is a real bear.  I decided I'd tackle it with a clear head.

Next in line was a little boat I had cut and prepped yesterday.
I checked it carefully for stowaways...

Looks like we're all clear!  Not a single monkey on board.


But little did I know that the contagion could spread to piglets.

This poor little guy has the worst case of monkeys I've ever seen...

Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come see what all us scrap enthusiasts are up to this week!