Quick Question!

Does this look like a sunflower to anyone besides me?

Or is it back to the drawing board?

April has ended!

Finally.

Continuing with the light 6" blocks that we've moved on to (which seem huge and bright after all those 3" dark blocks for the first set of borders), here's April 28th

which required a huge amount of trimming to bring it to size.

April 29th wasn't so wasteful,

and April 30th was lots and lots of happy little pinwheels, for a true celebration of the end of the month!

(I was certainly ready to run around the house with a pinwheel in each hand and one clutched in my teeth at this point.  Sorry, no pictures...)

A sweet little basket kicks off May

and I'm tickled at how that star turned up in the little red triangle.  Yeah, yeah, I did that on purpose, uh-huh, yep.

And what day is complete without a monkey?

I swear I don't know how they're getting in...

Scrappy is as scrappy does

Not much to show in the 365 Challenge arena today.  I finished this block for April 27th,

and got a start on this one for the 28th.

Though I did kick myself for not reading the directions more closely.  The designer has you making the hourglass blocks from 3.25" squares, then trimming them down, and you can see below just how much trimming has to be done.

The hourglass on the right is the freshly pieced one, and the one on the left has been trimmed to 1 15/16 (which is a wonky size no matter how you look at it).   I don't mind trimming off a sliver in order to have had a little elbow room during the sewing, but this is a huge amount to trim.  I'm way too stingy for this to slide by my notice.  The part where I kicked myself was when I realized that I could have gotten hourglasses that size starting with 2.5" squares (rather than the 3.25" ones) because that's the size I was using to make the 2" hourglass components for my Ohio stars last year.  Argh!

Pay no attention to the monkey.  I don't know how he snuck in here...

As I've mentioned before, I like to multi-task when I'm cutting fabric.  Why cut pieces for one project when you can push several of them further along?  (I've heard there are people who work on one project at a time.  I don't see how that could be possible.)

So, while I'm cutting out pieces for the 365 Challenge, why not throw in some monkey bits and piggy pieces?

Not to mention a little glitter.
As I pull each fabric I cut a 3.5" strip with the fabric folded either right sides or wrong sides together,

and cut a couple of squares.  One will go into my Quilty 365 box for my orange peels and backgrounds

and one will be cut into quarters.  Each Glitter block needs four 1.75" squares, and 1.75 is exactly half of 3.5.  How handy is that?

With the fabric still doubled, I cut at 4.25" and line up my template to cut out the background pieces.

Each block requires two pieces and two reversed, so by doubling the fabric, I end up with just what I need.

And as long as those were laid out anyway, I tested some other pieces to see how it would look.

Not that I was going to sew the block together.  Really.  Because I'm totally not starting this project.

Oops.

Just for grins, I cut out this stripe for the focus fabric for another glittery block.

A little more concentration was called for, but it worked out fine.  I laid it out just to see what it would look like.   Had to pick some fabrics to go with it, of course.

Anyone care to wager how long it'll be before this one is sewn together, too?
Yeah, me neither.


Linking with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and Mrs Sew & Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday, because Scrappy is my middle name!  (Well, it could be...)

Two pigs and a Monkey

That title sounds like the beginning of a joke.  I'm drawing a blank on a punchline, though...

This little piggy says her name is Kitty.

And this one hasn't told me his name, though I suspect it's Kaffe.

And this little monkey insisted he be included in the aqua parade.

Pigeon butt and all...



Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday!  Come enjoy all the watery fun!

Yessir, yessir, three bags full. Well, two, actually...

I'd promised a reveal on that secret project, so here we go.
Last month Cynthia from Quilting is More Fun than Housework was featuring May is for Makers, and one of her posts highlighted Love from Beth's storage pods pattern.  While checking out the pattern on Craftsy, I saw something else by the designer.
This pattern is the one that caught my eye.  I no sooner saw it than I clicked on it to purchase.  It was absolutely what I had been looking for, without even knowing I was looking for it!

These bits 

(I thought I had more progess shots, but I was wrong)

were assembled into a hexie-shaped basket that I gave my oldest daughter for her birthday.  As you can see, she's already put it to use holding her needle-felting supplies.

The pattern was a bit more fiddly than I expected, but the result is truly satisfying.  I'll be making another in the not too distant future.

So, flushed with success, I moved on to making my third Sew Together bag - this one for me!  Once again, I thought I had more process shots.  Wrong again...
Here's the inside ready for the zipper-handle installation,

and here's what the outside looked like at that point as well.

The inside all finished -

and put to use.

This one will be my hand-sewing/applique organizer.  You can see some of my Quilty 365 orange peels already living inside.

If anyone is planning to make this bag (and you all should be - it's a terrific bag!), I found this tutorial really helpful.

So that's two bags full.  Now I'm ready for a third.  Anyone have a favorite bag pattern to recommend?
I'm always up for a new challenge.



 

Favorite stars, galloping horses, and nasty little bowties. Oh, and a monkey. Because there's generally a monkey.

I'm still whacking away at the 365 Challenge blocks.  The end of April is near!  Here's April 16 (fresh from his triumph over the monkeys) through April 22, which is the last of the 3" blocks for the first dark border.  (I should have 96 of these little devils, if I haven't skipped any.  Though I've accidentally made a couple of them twice, so it may all average out...)

Speaking of little devils, this little block gave me fits.  The designer calls it 'Electric Fan', and I was ready to throw myself into one by the time I finished it.
I ripped it out 3 times to sew that center,

and it never got any better.  So I called 'galloping horse' (If you can't see it from the back of a galloping horse, it doesn't exist) and moved on.
Five minutes later I was twitching so hard at the thought of that ill-formed block that I couldn't focus on the one I was trying to work on.
So since the seam ripper wasn't enough (and I stabbed a couple more times just to make sure), I remade the whole block.

There.  That's better.

Here are the bowties referred to in the post title.

That's four bowties in one 3" block.  Which is ridiculous.  Seriously.

This little sweetie made me all kinds of smiley, though.

I love Ohio stars, and making a 3" one wasn't much harder than making all those 4.5" ones I made for last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And whoopee!  On to the 6" blocks!
These sawtooth stars are another favorite of mine, and making four 3" stars for this block was a hoot.  (The cow butt is an added giggle.)

Though I did figure out that the over-sized Four-Geese-at-Once given in the directions weren't necessary (and were weird measurements to boot) - I made each of these sets with a 2.5" square and four 1.5" squares.  I'm getting fonder of this method of making flying geese, especially when working this small.

A Card Trick took a bit of concentration.  (Note to self: Do not be tempted into ever making this block again.)

And while I was focused on all those triangles, this little guy sneaked in somehow.

Looking at that range of fabrics tells me he's more than a little confused...

Gwennie Inspired Medallions

Today's the day for the first link up for the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL, so I'll post my photos again.

Me being the Queen of Dither and all, there's an applique:

and a pieced version:

I don't know if this increases or decreases my chances of actually finishing a quilt in this quilt-along...


Linking to Humble Quilts for the party.  Come see all the fabulous baskets!