Scrappy 365

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm hoping to catch up a bit on my 365 Challenge blocks.  I've reached April 16th

but I was working off the blocks in Dropbox on my Kindle, and the next available one was May 4th, so I went with that. 

It was a real shock to go from dark 3" blocks to light 6" blocks.  There may have been some whiplash.
I've now gathered the pdfs of the second half of April's blocks, so I'll be able to carry on from there.  I have high hopes!

And I'd thought that by sneaking off south that I would have gotten away from a certain bunch of troublemakers, but look who showed up:

Yep.

Of course, they immediately challenged April 16th to a wrestling match.

I think he's winning, though...



Linking to Cynthia's Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the fun!

Aqua Away!

So Angela has declared aqua to be the color for June.  It's not a color I have a lot of, but I'll see what I can do.
Though the fact that I'm visiting my daughter and her family again and my stash is five hours north of me is going to complicate things.  That's the second time this year that this has happened to me.  From now on, I'm just going to travel with the whole stash.
Or maybe I just need a rainbow traveling stash...

I did manage to throw together a piglet in aqua -

and I'd had one more in green cut out and ready to sew, so he got assembled, too.  That will finish off the May greens.

I'll have to dig through the fabrics I brought along to see if I've got anything else to play with.  Mostly I'd packed up my reds, blues, and browns for my 365 Challenge blocks.  I'm still dreaming that I'll get caught up with that.
And I threw in some brights to not (definitely not) cut out some more parts for Glitter blocks.  Not.  Because I'm not starting that quilt.  Though just randomly cutting some bits of fabric isn't really starting a quilt, right?
I'm going to need another bin to keep those Not-Glitter bits in, though.

But, hey, there's some aqua in another project I threw in my busy bag - this laceweight yarn I spun years ago from some merino/tencel roving I got at a Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.

I wound it into balls last night and then cast on for a Feather Duster.  What looks like bronze in that photo is really a purple, and the yarn has a real ostrich feather coloration, so I think it will make a beautiful feathery shawl.



Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the aqua goodness!

Slim pickings for green

For as busy as I've been, I sure don't have a lot to show for it.

A couple of Chantal's Pinwheels

and a plain kaleidoscope block are the only things I have for my greens this week.

Oh, and those silly wee boats I posted the other day.  I had hoped to get to my Whatchacallit Stars this week, but it didn't happen.

Some of my time was spent fanning out these fabrics that I picked out as my prize for Scraptastic Tuesday's May drawing.  I picked out this collection of fat quarters from Mad About Patchwork.

I spy a fair bit of orange in there, so apparently I wasn't quite done with last month's color.  Though I freely admit that my younger daughter's admiration for orange has really rubbed off on me.

And I pulled some fabrics that I'm going to use for a Sew Together bag for me me me!

I'd made my oldest daughter one in Australian prints and it was really really hard to let it go when the time came.  So I've grabbed a few more fat quarters and will make it up to and for myself.

And I've also spent some time on a still-secret project which I'll soon be sharing pics of, so stay tuned!


Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the rainbow fun!

Well, *somebody* went to sea...

The cow and the pussycat went to sea...

Wait, that's not right.

The monkey and the pussycat...

 No, that's not it either.

 The pigeon and the...

Oh, that won't end well.

Here we go.
The OWL and the pussycat went to sea,

in a beautiful pea-green boat.

Phew!  Why was that so hard?





I'll be linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Come join the fun!

Monkeyshines

There I was, minding my own business, peacefully (and piecefully) sewing away, when suddenly something started poking me in the elbow.
"Psst!  Psst!" said a little voice behind me.

"Psst!  Go look in the mailbox!  The mailbox!"
There was a chorus of  "Mailbox!  Mailbox!" from several more little voices.

"Psst!"
"Psst!  In the mailbox!"
"Mails!  Look in psstboxes!"

So fine.   I went out and checked the mailbox.
There was an envelope that was both squishy and noisy.  And jumpy.
I opened it gingerly, and look what popped out:

Apparently one of Sue's monkeys had stuffed himself into an envelope and mailed himself to my house.
Needless to say, my gang of hooligans was excited to meet the new cousin.

Why, this little guy started dancing around so hard that he threw out his back.

Or ruptured his collarbone, maybe.  I'm not as informed on monkey anatomy as I should be.
In any case, I rushed him into surgery and now he's as good as new.

There was quite a lot of loudness and hilarity, then they all ran outside.  Last I saw them, they were up in the apple tree, building a fort.

The neighborhood squirrels are starting to look a little nervous...

Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.   Come see more scrappy fun!  (Though not necessarily with more monkeys)

There's always room for buckeyes

I've had a fairly productive couple of days, though I don't have as much to show for it as I thought I would.  Partly it's because a lot of time was spent thinking and planning, which is remarkably hard to photograph, and there was a lot of cutting as well, which is boring to photograph.  (Stacks of triangles?  Three and half inch strips?  Your eyes would be glazing.)

I did get a couple of Buckeye Beauties thrown together, as you may have guessed from the title of the post.

And a nice green Jacks to add to the stack.

And there was a kaleidoscope, of course.

As well as another kaleidoscope.

I think I have one more cut out and sitting next to the sewing machine, though I admit I may have lost track at this point.  I get on such a roll when I first start assembling strips for these that I never know how many I'm going to end up with.  It's a good thing Angela changes the color each month, or I'd never be able to stop.  At least picking strips of the new color slows me down for a bit...

And piglets continue to turn up.

(Still not hamburger buns, Cathy.  Sorry.)

It seems like there was something else, but I can't quite remember what it was.  It's right on the tip of my brain...

I almost had it, then I got distracted when I tripped over these logs that someone left on the floor.  




I'll be linking to Angela's So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the rainbows in action!

Button, button, who's got the button? Well, I do, for one.

I think I need a new category in my post labels list.  Something like "Projects I'm not really starting no seriously I mean it..."
Because you may have noticed a new button in my sidebar - for the Gwennie-Inspired Medallion Quilt Along.   Not that I'm joining that QAL, of course.  Nope.  Got too many other things going on.
But the starting point is a basket block.  Just a basket.  What harm could come from making just one basket block?  I even had a block pattern traced out for an applique flower basket that I'd found in my 101 Fabulous Small Quilts book.  Serendipity, I say.  Kismet, maybe.
I'd originally planned to make the block with Civil War reproductions, but upon further thought I said to myself, "Fork that, let's have some fun!" and went a bit brighter.

I gotta admit, I like it. 
But then I started second guessing myself.  I really like making pieced baskets, too.  I did a scrappy basket quilt years ago that was a ton of fun - maybe I should have pieced a basket instead of appliqueing it.
So, you guessed it.

And since I can't decide between them for my Gwennie Medallion, it looks like I'm making two...

And then there's a quilt that I SWEAR I'm only making a couple of test blocks for and I'm 100% NOT starting it and I promise to put away the templates I made for the weird shaped pieces and not even THINK about Jen Kingwell's Glitter quilt from her book Quilt Lovely which I've had for FIVE WHOLE MONTHS and bought solely because I wanted to make Glitter and have since found that I want to make every single quilt in the whole book but Glitter first.
//stops and gasps for breath//

See?  I only made two blocks.
I think I'm getting a real handle on this Self Control thing, don't you?




Since Glitter involves y-seams, I'm linking to Mary Huey's Y-Seam Warriors at Quilting through Rose-colored Trifocals!   Come see the pretty hexagons!