You little hoop popper, you!

I set my hooped quilt down for a bit while I answered a call of nature.

I came back to this:

Considering there were three threaded needles parked in it, it's a wonder he didn't stab himself...

I could have sworn I'd posted earlier in the week...

Apparently this hot weather we've been having has melted portions of my brain, because I was sure I'd thrown up a post on Monday or Tuesday.  Hmm...

Anxious to finish up June, I made a few aqua kaleidoscopes this week, which will soon be followed by some pink ones (because kaleidoscopes, ya know?),

 and some whatchacallit stars for both June and July.

And little Scribbles, here, nosed her way to the front of the line.

What could be cuter than those polka dot ears?
Well, that polka dot tail, I guess, but still.

My other big time-consumer this week was playing with logs.  Specifically, a bunch of courthouse steps blocks to see how they would look with my medallion quilts.

Since I'm also playing along with the other Log Cabin Loonies, a bunch of log cabin blocks can never be a bad thing.  If they don't go into the medallions, I'm sure I'll find a good use for them.  In the meantime, they're a soothing block to work on when it's too hot to think.  And following Julie's excellent tip, I'm making the logs with 1.25" strips, which are easily made by slicing a 2.5" strip right  down the middle.  Since I have buckets of 2.5" strips, this has made log rolling a whole lot simpler!

And I've made the opening moves on another quilt.  (Because it's already a week of July gone and I hadn't started a new quilt yet, right?)  This is going to be a bed-sized Storm at Sea in scrappy blues and greens.  So far I've just started cutting pieces for it, but I had to make a few components to make sure everything fit together right, of course.

Can you imagine how much fun I'm going to have, dithering around with arranging all those hundreds of block parts?  It'll keep me busy for days and days.  And days.
Though it occurs to me that I'll be a lot happier if I have a design wall by then...


Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  Come see all the pink fun!
And since so much of this is about scraps, I'll also link to Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!
Between the two of them, they make my weekends a blast!  Always so much pretty to look at!

The hottest pink I've got...

The color for July is Watermelon Pink - so a hot pink (or should it be cold pink?) or a dark pink.  Now I've never been a fan of pink,  but I have made an effort to add some pinks to my stash.  One of the best parts about the RSC is that it encourages me to use colors that don't come naturally to me.  Pink heads this list...
So I had a piggy that I made back in April that involved pink

and also has my favorite background of any piglet so far.

My other piglet says her name is Dorothy,

but that I can call her Dotty.  I wonder where she got that nickname?


Linking with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and to Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the scrappy fun!

Cuz I'm a Sunflower from the Sunflower State!

I've had that song stuck in my head for days and days and days, and it's all Gwen Marston's fault.  Well, the Gwennie Medallion QAL, actually, not Gwen herself.

After we all made basket blocks for our starters, the second prompt was 'childhood'.  It took me a while to come up with an idea.  Childhood?  Hmm...  Bikes.  Those endless summer days with flipflops and picnics.  School.  Nothing really grabbed me or even offered much traction.
Then I thought about my childhood in Kansas.  Just like the song says:

I was born in Kansas, I was bred in Kansas
and when I get married, I'll be wed in Kansas.

(Well, not that last part.)

But you can't hardly swing a cat in Kansas without whacking a sunflower.  Besides the real ones growing everywhere, there are sunflowers stuck on everything big enough to carry a logo.
Sunflowers.  Now there was something I could work with.
But which approach should I take?  I hadn't brought much for yellow (just two really light fat quarters) and no golds at all.  Not even much for orange, believe it or not.
I tried a non-traditional sunflower, to mixed reviews.

Stash enhancement was absolutely vital.  What a shame, right?
So I made test blocks with different stars and flowers, questing for just the right sunflowery look.

I even tried foundation paper piecing.

I ended up with an abundance of blocks, but no clear winner.

On the other hand, I ended up with a whole field of sunflowers, so I just decided to use them all.  There were 5" blocks, 6" blocks, a 7.5" block, and even one that was 4"x8".  It gave me a run for my money.

I love it.
A lot of the assembly process went completely against the grain for me.  I like all my seams precise and lots of measuring and matchy-matchy.
I didn't work that way for this.  It wasn't easy, but I did it.
I estimated stuff and sewed it on.  If it was too long, I chopped it off.

If it was too short, I sewed on another piece of something.
I decided to ignore any crunched points or wonky seams.
This view of the bottom corner shows the clusterfluffle of partial seams I ran into.  I'm still amazed it all fit together in the end.

It was very freeing, actually.  I may do it again sometime.  After I go lie down for awhile.

In other news, I also finished the 'childhood' round for my applique basket block.  One of my treasured childhood memories is spending time at my grandparents' farm.  They always had chickens, ducks, and geese, along with the occasional cow.  I liked the cows and the chickens well enough, and I loved the ducks, but the geese were not my friends.
As a matter of fact, the geese hated little kids.  Like me, for instance.  They delighted in escaping from their pen and attacking every little kid in sight.  Like me, for instance.  Many's the time I ran for the house yelling "Grandma!  Grandma!  Help!" as a goose chased me through the farmyard, beating me with its wings and biting the backs of my legs and my butt.  By the end of summer, I was usually carrying quite a collection of black and blues.
So, to commemorate those ghastly creatures, such a part of my childhood, I made flying geese to go chasing around the medallion.

Or rather, a bunch of biting geese chasing around the border.   (And I gotta tell you, nothing ever tasted better than the roast goose Grandma would serve for Easter dinner...)

So here's my two medallions, ready for the next chapter.

Next up is log cabins.  I can do that.  Log cabins surely won't bite me on the ass, right?

Linking to all the Gwennie fun.  Come see!

Builders gotta build

In the four weeks I was gone, my dad did this:

Yep, new barn.  It's even bigger than the one he built last year, which you can see on the left.  (He sometimes claims that 'this' will be the year he doesn't build a barn.  We just all nod and say "Sure, Dad.  Yep.")

But then, (woohoo!) I won this book, which I'd been coveting ever since Julie started talking about it.

Looks like I'd better get cracking.  Dad's got such a head start on me...

Finally home again

My visit ended up being a bit longer than originally planned, but finally I'm home and reunited with my stash.  Oh, and with my folks, of course.  And the cat.
Now that I'm back on my own computer, I'm going to try to tie up a few loose ends for June as July bears down upon us.

First, the last of June's piggies, which I would have posted on Saturday for ScrapHappy Saturday...

 And I think these are all the rest of the May 365 Challenge blocks I've made, including some I'd forgotten to show.

I think I'm caught up through the 15th of May, which sounded pretty good to me until I remembered that it's nearly the end of June...
Though it wasn't all sewing while I was in Maryland.  There was another trip to the botanical garden (I could go every week, I think, and enjoy each visit just as much as the last!)  I did a lot of stopping to smell the roses,

while my grandson took a more active approach to the day.

There's a terrific maze next to the Japanese Garden, which most people walk.  Our young Mr C preferred it at high speed.

Back at the ranch, there was an interesting foray into the realm of rhubarb cocktails -

though I stuck with beer.  Pink is real nice and all, but not what I want in a beverage.

There were several monkeys, but this is the only one who stood still long enough to get a picture.

And I completely missed the boat on Log Cabin Loonies.  I did manage to get a few thrown together.  Though you'll notice that one of them is one log short of a cabin.

That may be my new favorite euphemism...

Aqua, teal, turquoise - not your ordinary pigs

Still far from the stash (and my ruler collection, which I inexplicably left behind when I came for this visit...), so I'm continuing with June's piglets in turquoise.  Or aqua.  

 This little stripey fellow has the aqua and lime green already combined!

And there's a pushy little monkey, as usual, clamoring to be included.

Just can't say no to a monkey.

I've been diligently working on my 365 Challenge blocks, but I'm pretty much giving up hope of ever catching up.  My new goal is to finish, no matter how long it takes.  My 365 Challenge will just last a little longer than 365.  A 459 Challenge?  712? 

And my little piles of Glitter bits continue to grow.

Because as long as I have a piece of fabric in my hand, I might as well make it glitter, right?



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