Some assembly required

Now that the dust is settling on 2019, it's time to start putting together all those months of flying geese.

The geese blocks finish at 2"x4", and I'm inserting a 1" finished sashing in between the monthly columns.  In retrospect, I should have used a smaller goose to start with, because this quilt is going to be bigger than I had first visualized it.  I was thinking wallhanging size, but we're way into lap quilt territory and growing.  (This was increasingly clear as the months went on, but I firmly put my fingers in my ears and chanted la-la-la whenever I thought about it.  Just call me Cleopatra)

I've decided to put them together as quarters, then join the quarters together, just in the interest of reducing the goose wrestling a bit.  And I'm taking it slow and easy with frequent breaks, because that's a whole lotta triangle points goin' on.  My jaw gets tired from clenching my teeth...

Here you can see the first two quarters flying on the design wall.

Six more months to sew together, then it'll be time to put on headers and footers.  I have a plan!

And now that it's a whole new year, I'm trying to decide if I want to do another one of these things.

I'm trying to ignore the fact that last year when I bought a pocket calendar to record temps in, I could only find this one that was for two years.  I'm not taking that as a sign.  Really.  I'm NOT.

And here's what I'm using for leaders/ender while I'm sewing those long columns together.  (And when I need a break from all those goosey points)

I've got representatives of all seven clues we've had so far.  No way have I kept up with actual counts of each clue, but I'm still Frolicking along.  Even if I'm way back in everyone else's dust... 
Anyone else wondering when the neutrals are going to kick in?  The original list of fabric requirements called for buckets of neutrals and we've used hardly any.  Can't wait to see where this goes next!

The happiest of happy to everyone!

The last stitch is stitched, the last knit is blocking, and the last cookie recipe is ignored, so I guess I'm ready for this thing.

To everyone -
no matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope it's the Best Ever for you!

What do you mean, December is almost half over???

Somehow writing posts in my head doesn't exactly equate to posts being posted on the actual blog.  Argh.  Though I guess it's just as well that my computer isn't reading my mind, come to think of it...

When last I typed at ya, my design wall looked like this -

Well, that was just a bit too chaotic, even for me, so when I finished piecing November's Goosey Temps column, I pulled the summer's columns and moved October and November to the left as I started December.  This gave me more room for the last Sand Castles as I build them.

And here's a good thing that I've been doing right along -

I write the month in the seam allowance of the top goose, so I don't get the months confused when I assemble the quilt.  THAT's a boo-boo I saw coming from a mile away.

And since it's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Time, I've been squeezing in a little bit of Frolic here and there.
Here's the start of Clues 1 and 2,

which left my cutting table looking like this -

and here's the first HST stacks for Clue 3 which just dropped this morning.

I'm basically just getting a few of each clue done, just to keep my hand in, as I pursue other sewing projects.  (Mostly of the gifty variety, since I hear there's a major holiday coming up soon.)  (Don't tell me how many days I have left la la la I can't hear you...)  When priorities allow, I'll catch up with the frolicking.

In the meantime, I'm linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday (because I'm bound to finish those Sand Castles soon, no really)  and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I'm even going to post a photo or two to Instagram for the Bonnie Mystery, though I'm not a fan of Instagram at all at all at all.  (I'm mangofeet_on_ig if you're looking for me.  I've got one photo so far.  sigh)

Geese in the Sand Castles, possibly Frolicking

Or possibly dueling.  Tough call.  The design wall is definitely filling up.

Though I seem to have warped the space/time continuum as far as my Sand Castle blocks are concerned.  I counted them and found I needed four more.  So I made a whole bunch of blocks and counted them all up again, and I still need four more.
I'm starting to suspect the Sand Castle bin has a black hole in the bottom...

Eventually I'll have enough blocks.  Really.  I'm sure of it.

There hasn't been as much time to sew lately, what with Thanksgiving and other holidays crowding the calendar.  I've got a lot of gifty projects going on behind the scenes, but I can't show them off yet.  (If I remember to take pictures, I'll share them after the holidays.)

I did get some fabrics pulled and cut for Frolic.  I've been digging through my scrap bins and gathering strips and generally getting ready for the clues to start dropping.

Clue one appeared yesterday, and though I didn't get any time to sew, I did get some strips ready for assembly.

Tomorrow the stitching will commence!  Four-patches are always full of fun!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.  I'm even going to try this new-fangled Instagram thing and post a pic or two.  Modern times, eh?

Well now, here's a surprise

That chunk of darker red solid finally turned up and I hung it up on the bottom half of the design wall to see which red I liked better.

I had really thought that I was going to like the dark better, but now I'm not so sure.

Here's a closer look at the dividing line:

and here's the light red:

and here's the dark:

Contrary to what I expected, I think the lighter brighter red is the one I'll go with.  It really lights up the colors of all those highs and lows, while the darker red seems to dull them down.

Here's one more look at the contrast, along with three more Sand Castle blocks I got done yesterday.

So if red is the new neutral, then bright red is the neutralest neutral?  Whichever, I'm going with the bright one.

There.  That dither is over.  Next!


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

September now hath 30 days

Well, a quick check of the Weather Underground site (which is my source for my area's daily high and low temperatures) gave me the data for my missing September 30th flying goose.

Ta-da!

And after endless auditions of fabrics for sashing for these columns, I finally found a solution.  (I even dug out my January column and stuck it up on the right to make sure the winter months would look good, too)

I'd really painted myself into a corner with my color selections for this quilt.  Everything was in use:  gray, white, purple, blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange, and red.  That left brown or hot pink, both of which looked awful. (trust me...)
I tried black, but the darker blues disappeared into it.
Dots, spots, and jots didn't work.
Stripes looked weird, whether I ran them horizontally or vertically.
And seriously, with all that color chaos, the sashing needed to be a solid of some sort just to calm things down.

I was really starting to despair when I had a sudden thought.  The only colors that I had to worry about were the ones representing the low temperatures because the 'geese' triangles stood for the highs and never touched the edges.  And since red represents temperatures about 90F, and because the nights (the lows) were never in the 90's (because seriously?  If the nights were in the 90's, I would have already moved to the north pole and I'd have had to start a whole other quilt anyway), that meant red was in play for a sashing possibility.

So, I gave it a try and it works!  And since the world is basically on fire nowadays, it seems like an appropriate choice.

I've got a darker shade of red somewhere in my stash which I'm going to dig out and audition before I start cutting.  But whew!  That's a load off my mind!

Goosey goosies and a pile of sandcastles

Here's a look at my design wall as of the first of November.  I've been plugging away at my Sand Castle blocks for the RSC, catching up with the colors that I got behind on over the summer.

And now that we've started November, I can complete the October column of flying geese for my Goosey Temps quilt.  Though when I hung it up next to September, I noticed a slight problem.  The September column seemed a bit short.  (It's the one next to last on right)

So, I counted up the blocks and came up with only 29.  Not right.  I even ran the old rhyme through my head to double check.  (Thirty days hath September...  yep.  Not right.)

Determined to fix that oversight, I grabbed the pocket calendar that I use to record the temperatures and checked September.

I think I've found the problem.

Did I sleep through September 30th?  It did seem like September was awfully short...



Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come check out all the scrappy goodness!