Three layers deep

Well, not all days are this productive - especially lately.  But after a few mis-starts, I managed to get a few things accomplished.

My Frolic (Bonnie Hunter's 2019 Winter Mystery) was so close to the finish line that I could hear its little footsteps.  I zipped through the last HSTs for the borders and stitched them into nice long strings.

There was an oops, of course, because there's always an oops.

I managed to sew the border strips together wrong way round.  Luckily I'd only done one set before seeing my error.

There.  That's better.

Then it was time for the Math Meltdown.  I'd been willfully denying that there was going to be a problem with those borders.  I'd made my quilt smaller than Bonnie's, so her border lengths were going to be different from mine.  The part that I was really trying not to think about was that I knew from my measuring for that yellow stop border that my quilt now measured an odd number.  Those HSTs finish with an even number.  

I started doing all kinds of mental gymnastics thinking about adding another HST to each border, then adding a second (extremely narrow) stop border to fill the gap.  Multiply this, add that, subtract the other.

Meanwhile, the sensible part of my brain (I do have one - it's usually hiding waaaaaaaay in the back) was trying to get my attention.  

"Go away, I'm thinking," I told Sensible, and returned to trying to remember if I'd allowed for ALL the seam allowances.  Sensible wasn't having any of that, thank you very much, and proceeded to start squawking really loudly.

"What?!?" I said grumpily.

"Not bigger.  Smaller.  Measure and think."

The stop border measured 57".  My HST border measured 56.5".

Oh.

Duh.

Nevermind.

The borders practically sewed themselves on.

I pinned it to the design wall right over top of Unity, which I finished a couple of weeks ago and hadn't put away yet.  (I'm using it to remind myself that I really have gotten something accomplished in this Time of Weird.)

So since I was on such a roll of success, I grabbed Sand Castles and finished the last two seams on that one.

I added it to the design wall, too.

So that's two tops done today, which I'm pretty sure is a Personal Best.

And I've got tops three layers deep on the design wall.

And it looks to me like I can start a few new projects with an absolutely clear conscience...

Of postage and cake

With a new month comes a new color for the RSC - darker blues this time around.

I got right to work on my postage stamp block.

All the while, that imaginary cake stand block was sitting nearby.

"You know," I said to myself, "if I were a smart woman, I would tuck all those little pieces into a little plastic bag and have a kit ready to go next year when I actually start making blocks for this RSC2021 project."

But then...

"But hey, it wouldn't do any harm to just sew those little HSTs together before I do that." 

And despite the fact that I was diligently sewing together little squares for the Projects I'm Actually Working On, I decided that I might as well sew that bigger HST together too, while I was at it.  You know, before putting all those parts away.

And then maybe just sew those little pairs of triangles together so I wouldn't get them confused later when I would take the kit out of its bag and do the real assembly.  You know, next year.

At this point things get a little hazy.  I'm almost certain that cobbler's elves were involved, because the next time I looked I saw this:

I started muttering to myself.  "Squares.  Sewing squares.  Just squares."

And it seems to have worked because I finally had this together.

Though that doesn't explain this:

But maybe it's just as well that I made this second sample block, because I can't find the first one I made.  I know I joked about hiding it from myself, just for my own protection, but apparently I did just that.  

Or maybe those cobbler's elves took it...

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

I'm not saying I cut out another cake stand

But if I were to do such a thing, I'll bet it would look something like this...

Catching up with the overdue postage, and of course I'm not starting another project

I've been cutting the little squares I need for my RSC version of PSP20, figuring I can do one more block a month in order to catch up.  (I've found I can get 36 1.5" squares out of a 10" layer cake square which gives me 4 extra squares as spares. Not that I ever screw things up or lose things.  Probably never need those extras, right?)

(And y'all can bear witness that I managed to clear off my cutting mat this week.  This might be the first time I've seen the full surface of that thing since the day I laid it on the table.)

I've got one of those three done already -

so I can check aqua off the list.  Light green and light blue to go!

I forgot to post this last time - I made another Jacks 'n Sixes block to add to the mountain.

Hopefully at some point I'll be able to stop myself from making more of these...

And in the category of why-no-I'm-not-starting-another-project, I offer you this -

which came about purely because I fell madly/deeply in love with this block when I saw it at Klein Meisje quilts.  (Though Lynn is making hers at 8" and mine are 6", only because I'm happier making that size block.)

I figured this would be a great RSC2021 block, so of course I made a sample.  I'm absolutely NOT starting another quilt.  A sample, I tell ya!  ONE block is not a project.  No, really.  I mean it this time.

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

Unity is united!

And it's huge!  I had to hang it sideways because I couldn't reach high enough to put it up rightways-up.

(And you can see how my 'design wall' is really just a big chunk of flannel clamped to a metal shelving unit.  Fancy!)

The only way I can fit the whole top into one photo is to sneak up on it from the side.

With that squirrel monster project wrapped up, I'll be able to get back to my sandcastles.

I had gotten this far in the webbing process when Unity grabbed my attention.  (There was some mask-sewing going on, too.) (And procrastinating.  Don't forget the procrastinating!)

I've done webbing on small quilts and quilt blocks, so I thought I'd give it a try for this quilt.  Final verdict?  I'm not too keen on it.  I can see the logic of the process, but my sewing machine workspace is small and trying to heft around a whole quilts-worth of quilt blocks over and over again in order to sew the top together is more work than I want to tackle.  I'm gonna stick to sewing a row at a time, even if it means hopping up and down a bunch of times to grab the next batch of blocks.  (It's not good to sit for too long anyway, right?)

In other news, I sewed another doodad - this one is either green for May or pink for June.  Or both.  Why not both?

Then, since my pink postage stamp block for the month is already made, I figured I'd better go back and catch up the months I missed with the late start.

(Of course I picked orange to start with.  Is anyone surprised?)

And here are the three postage stamp blocks  I've made so far:

I think it's going to be fun!

Now, back to the Sand Castles.  And Totally Demented has been waving at me every time I walk by.  Might have to do something about that, too...

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come share in the scrappy rainbow fun!

Pink is for Postage

I'm uncertain why I'm suddenly making postage stamp blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

But here I am...

(I'm pretty sure it's Sally's fault.  Or maybe Molly's...)

And in other news, the stars are starting to pile up for those last Unity borders.

Almost there!

Linking with SoScrappy at ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  (At least I hope I am - I have no confidence in Blogger these days)

I've finally done something interesting

Between a general inertia and a lack of anything interesting to talk about, it's been hard to get myself to write a post...

I finally got the next-to-last border finished for Bonnie Hunter's Unity.  It went from a good sized throw quilt to a holy-crap-this-is-a-big-one in the blink of an eye.

(To be perfectly truthful, there were several blinks involved, but you know what I mean.)

One more to go, but thankfully the last border is only a header and a footer instead of another full turn around.

I've got a start with some star centers done,

and a plateful of starry bits ready to go.

Sincerely not liking the New Blogger.  Is there any way to upload more than one picture at a time?  Because that's getting frustrating fast.  My process has always been to put up all the pictures I plan to use, then assemble my text around them.  They've taken what was an easy one-step process and made it a PITA.

Also getting frustrated with formatting lines between photos.  After centering photos, blogger wants to center the text too, and doesn't want to take no for an answer.  I can click on that left-align symbol all I like (with or without highlighting the text)  and blogger just ignores me.  It took me an hour just to get this very short post done.

#Does Blogger hate bloggers?