Marching to the end of March

 Well March certainly seemed to whoosh by - at least it did for me.  And while we don't have spring flowers yet, I'm hopeful for them soon since all the snow has melted off this week.  Bring on the daffodils!  (I'm so ready for daffodils...)

Since it's the last Saturday in March, here's the wrap-up of green sewing for the RSC.  (I don't plan to make any more green blocks, but I'm not exactly famous for following my plan)

A few Antique Tiles got made,

and then a few more, because it's really hard to stop cutting squares and rectangles for these.

At least when I have parts left over, they can always go in a block in another month down the line.

And Cake Stands continue to bounce onto my ironing board.

Even when I was absolutely sure I'd made enough green ones - here's just one more.

And then I gathered up all the green Chips blocks and got a big surprise.  I had thought I'd made eight or so, maybe nine at the outside.

Imagine my surprise to find that I'd actually made 18!  I've been making them as leader/enders all month and they really added up!

Is everyone tired of looking at Glitter blocks yet?

That was this week's production.  I've been trying to make at least two of them every time I sit down at the sewing machine, and as many more as I can squeeze in.  At least I've got enough experience with them that I no longer tear out my hair while I'm trying to sew all those y-seams.  At this point, I think it's taking me longer to pick out colors for the blocks than it is to sew them together!

I'm somewhere between the halfway point and 2/3s done with these.  I had thought I was further along when I most recently pulled this project out of time out, but either I've misplaced some blocks or I was just being hopelessly optimistic.  Either way, I'm going to try to just keep going and going.

I've got about 20 more blocks all kitted up and stacked by the sewing machine, with one already in progress.  And there are all kinds of glitter bits on my cutting mat, just waiting to be thrown into the mix.

Isn't that the way with any art project - you just end up with Glitter absolutely everywhere?

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March seems to be full of Glitter

Glitter, glitter, everywhere...

as well as a few odds and ends,

and a couple of cake stands, too!  (And more glitter, because glitter glitter glitter)

It's a little unclear which is a leader/ender for what at this point.  But as long as the blocks keep turning up on my ironing board, I'm rolling with it!

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

(In that variety shot, you'll see 3 nine patches for my Jack's Chain, 2 Easy Peasy/Breezy blocks, a couple of green Chips (I've got more which I'll gather for a group pic at the end of the month) and a Jacks block that I made from squares and triangles I had left over from cutting too many Sand Castles 2 blocks)  (Not that I have a lot of ongoing projects or anything)  (I also made a metric butt-ton of four-patches and HSTs but I didn't bother to photograph them)

How is it the middle of March already?

I haven't been getting a lot of sewing done, but it looks like I'm getting even less writing...

The last two weeks have given me one more yellow cake stand for last month's RSC color (I'd cut it out right at the end of the month but didn't get it assembled until February had expired),

and the first two green ones for March.

(Sharp-eyed observers among you may have noticed that I'm flexible on using the RSC color for the background or for the cake stand itself.  I think this gives me a whole lot more variety in my blocks)

My first green Antique Tile block has a real pickled zucchini vibe going on.

(That green and pink batik in the center is probably supposed to be Queen Anne's Lace, but it sure looks like dill to me...)

I dug through my solid greens and found one that I didn't use last year for a postage stamp block.

Sometimes sewing those little squares together is all peaceful and meditative and relaxing, and sometimes it's more "%&*# I dropped another one!  &%$#@ I sewed two solids together!  *&%^%$"  (I won't tell you which this one was, but I will admit that if my mother was still alive I'd be tasting soap right about now)

And then there's been a veritable Glitter Tornado going on here, with all these blocks practically throwing themselves together.

Things have definitely speeded (sped?) up since I figured out a good sewing/pressing plan.  If only it hadn't taken me 47 blocks to work it out...

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

A few more yellow bits, just under the wire

I'm wrapping up the last of the yellows for February's RSC.   (And I just saw that March is going to be green!  Huzzah!)  (My third favorite color!)  (After orange and purple, of course!)

Cake Stands are a happy block, no matter which color.

And I've got a dandy bunch of chips ready to go.

The chips made a good leader/ender for some more Glitter blocks

and since I found the other bag of blocks that I'd kitted up last year, I guess I'll carry on piecing some more of them.  They're tricky enough that I can only make about three of them before my eye starts to twitch and the swearing starts to get almost too loud, but three by three will continue to add up!

I also try to spend a little time each session just cutting pieces for future projects, like my tumblers for instance.

That bin doesn't look very full until I take a photo from the side -

cutting twenty or so pieces every time I'm handling fabric will eventually start to add up.  When I'm ready to start the quilt, it's going to go pretty fast, even if it ends up as a leader/ender.  (This is the same approach I took for my Triangle Stars - cutting pieces off and on over the course of a year or two, then starting the sewing.  That top really whooshed itself right together!)

I also continue to cut strips for 9-patches for my Jack's Chain, squares and rectangles for Easy Peasy, 4-patches just because I like 4-patches, and triangles for my future Ocean Waves and Tree of Paradise.

And then of course, there are the pieces I cut for quilts I'm not actually starting at all, like Flutterby.

I sure hope my great-great-great-grandchildren like finishing quilts, because I think I have enough starts to keep several generations entertained for years...

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

I know February is a short month but this is ridiculous

 Where does the time go?  Three weeks into February and this is my first gathering of the yellows for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

In between finishing those two tops I showed in my last post, I got a couple of Antique Tile blocks done,

and a couple of yellow chips as well.  I've got several more of those cut out and sitting next to my sewing machine since they make dandy leader/enders.

And I really got carried away with my postage stamp blocks for PSP20-21, making not one,

not two,

but THREE blocks.

(Admittedly that last one was kind of an oops.  I'd lost track of how many I'd made and thought the third one was merely the second.) (This is not a bad oops.)

And while I was doing all that postaging, I finished up another pink that I'd cut out last month but hadn't gotten stitched.

It's been a good month for postage stamps!

I only got one cake stand done so far,

but I've got two more cut out and ready to go.

After working so relentlessly on Grassy Creek and Sand Castles 2, I was a little lost after finishing them.  What to do, what to do?  Get back to a UFO, or start something new?

You'd be proud - I dug out a little bag of Glitter bits that I'd kitted up a long time ago, then set aside and mostly forgotten.  (Somehow in my mind, I'd taken the 'there, that's done' of setting up the kits, and transmuted it into 'there, that's done' as in 'no further action required')  I spied a few sets that had yellow incorporated in them and pulled them out to stitch right up.

And there I was, feeling all virtuous for resisting the siren call of starting a new project.  So strong! 

And since I was being so good, it surely couldn't hurt to just look up that other Jen Kingwell quilt that I want to make.  You know, for after I finish Glitter and all.  It's always good to be prepared - everyone says so.

So I pulled out the book and just looked at the pattern.  And then I read the directions and noticed that she used an odd measurement for the grid base for the blocks.  Next thing I knew I was translating the pattern into sizes of strips and squares that I already cut and use, and then this happened.

Not that I'm starting a new project.  Nope, not me.

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

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'...

On the Banks of Grassy Creek

It's no secret that I love Bonnie Hunter's quilts.  I've made several quilts from her books - and in the case of Sand Castles I'm almost done with my second one - and have participated in her mystery quilts for the last several years.  She's inspired me to work with color combinations I never would have tried on my own.

But when she first announced her mystery quilt last fall, I looked at the fabric requirements and thought "wow, that's a lot of gray."

And as we stitched various components each week, I again thought "wow, that's a lot of gray."

And when she did the big reveal earlier this month my first thought was "wow, that's a lot of gray."

Now I had my doubts going in.  Gray isn't a color I like to work with, even though people assure me that it makes colors pop.  I'll admit that dark charcoal grays function that way, but they're essentially black which really does bring out the color.  Maybe it's just the way my eyes/brain perceive color, but for me gray just leaches all the life out of any color near it.

I assembled the first block to see how it would look.  I really love this block.

Still quaking at the gray, I decided to take some of my spare bits and make up one substituting blue for the gray.

And again, I really really love this block.  As a matter of fact, I can foresee making a happy scrappy version of these blocks for a whole quilt.  (But not today.  Too much to do today already.)

Side by side.

Given the fact that I didn't dislike the gray, and I already had enough components ready to make 12 blocks, I went ahead and started assembling.

I had only made four of the sashing strips that Bonnie had set us onto, because I'd had a bad feeling about them.

And when I laid the first four blocks out with them on the design wall, I was glad I hadn't made all 99 gabillion of them that I was supposed to.

So much gray...  And so many strings.  While I love the look of string sashing, I've been sewing string borders for two Sand Castle quilts and I'd frankly like a break.

I decided that I needed to go in a whole different direction.  I'm making this quilt to please myself, after all.  After a quick toss through the oranges I found a big enough piece of something that would work for the sashing.

It's not perfect - I wish it was a shade or two darker - but like I said, I'm pleasing myself, and the lighter softer look pleases me a lot.  (And of course I always think that more orange is always the best answer.)

I've got columns put together and borders started.   Just trudging along on the banks of Grassy Creek.

It's still a good ways from being done, but I'm happy with the direction it's going.  It's going to end up as a nice smiley throw.

Linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the scrappy goodness!