I could have sworn I'd posted something this month...

 Apparently that's not the case at all.  I wonder what happened to all those posts I wrote in my head?

Anyway.  Remember when I had that squirrel running through?  Well, it made another pass.  The diamonds that I'd made and set aside kept catching my eye.  I liked them, but I really wanted more purple.  I started scrumbling around in my 1.5" strip bin and pulled some colors.

I like this one a whole lot better.

And since those previous diamonds were just lying around taking up space, I set them around the new star just to see what would happen.  (The lime isn't quite that limey in real life, but it is a bit bright)

And then, because I've never been one to let well enough alone, I pulled some fabrics to audition for borders.

Then I had to pick it all up and hide it from myself because I'm trying to work on this:

(That's the first 20 blocks done.  I'm actually up to 26 done now, with the red lozenge parts done on seven more)  (Remember that part about writing posts in my head?  Apparently I'm also taking pictures in my head)

And then, because I can never let well enough alone (see above), I had an idea for borders that I had to try.

Running those stringy bits all the way around the perimeter of the quilt is generating an awful lot of extra work for myself, but once I saw the effect I was a goner.  Right now I'm thinking of sewing together red squares for an outer border, then binding in either red or black.  Or maybe I'll just take an easier way out and run another of those narrow black borders instead of the squares.

Ah, dithering.  My favorite part!

Halloween means the end of yellow

It's the last day of October (aka Halloween) which ends the month of yellow for the RSC.  All I got done this week is the cake stand that I showed laid out last week.

(That Kaffe print makes me happy!)

The other big deal about Halloween is that Bonnie Hunter announced the colors for this year's Mystery:  Grassy Creek.

I've been admiring the colors in her Appalachian Autumn quilt since the day she posted it, but had been trying to resist its charms.  As it turns out she made it out of the leftovers from Grassy Creek.  

Resistance was futile. Looks like I'm in!

I've got plenty of oranges (because I've never met an orange I didn't like) and I've got a ton of reds on hand from making Sand Castles 2 for my grandson.  (Red has been his favorite color practically since birth, so I'm stuck with it)  I'm pretty sure I've got golds left from Allietare and En Provence, and lime greens just seem to magically turn up in every nook and cranny.

I'm still debating whether I want to go with the grays (gray is so gloomy and I'm trying to chase gloom, not embrace it) or to substitute with blues.  I've got plenty of time to dither between now and Black Friday!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come along and embrace the scrappiness!

It's still October

How is it that time is simultaneously flashing by and dragging by?  I'll be so glad when this year is behind us.

Most of my sewing time has been going to Sand Castles 2.  I've got 11 of the 48 blocks done and up on the design wall.

I've got several more reds cut out and kitted up and have been diligently sewing 4-patches. And then there are the string triangles for the corners - I've got them piling up and ready to go.

Once I get all the components lined up, the actual blocks go together pretty fast.

I did manage to sew a couple of RSC cake stands in yellow,

and I have another cut out and plated up.

Given how close we are to the end of the month, that'll probably be the last yellow cake stand until next year.  (Though there are no guarantees of that - they're such a lot of fun to plot and sew that it's quite hard to restrain myself...)

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

October continues to be yellow

 and covered in squares.  Here's my second yellow postage stamp block all done up and ready to go.

And another yellow cake stand, too.

And then because I just can't resist the magic of orange (and October is a pretty orangish month after all, what with all those leaves turning out there) or the magic of plaid (because seriously, who can resist the magic of plaid?), here's another cake stand.

The rest of my time was spent stitching 4-patches and b/w strippy triangles for Sand Castles 2, but since they basically all look alike I didn't think to take any pictures.  Now that they're starting to pile up, though, it's almost time to start assembling blocks.  I can promise that that will be a little more interesting!

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

I must have left a window open

 Because a squirrel seems to have sneaked in...

I'd been admiring Ann's Lone Stars for quite a while,  and Angie recently made one into a pillow.  

How could I resist the call of the star?

Of course, I constructed the diamond sections from memory instead of hunting up a reference to work from.  And being me, I needlessly complicated it by making the points of them different colors.

But here I am with diamonds to play with. 

Trying out different layouts.  Yellow to the inside, or purple?

Or why not both?

And now that I've got that out of my system, I can get back to my regularly scheduled programming.

(I have no idea what I'll use this for.  Maybe a center for a medallion quilt?  Ah, well, that's for the future.)

Yay - finished with red!

 And now on to the RSC color for October - yellow!

I'd cut squares for a yellow postage stamp ages ago, so that one went together quickly.

So quickly in fact, that I felt a little guilty about how easy it was, so I cut more squares for another one, this time in a deeper shade of yellow.

Meanwhile I got a cake stand assembled, too.

And that's where I stood three days in to the new month - a postage stamp and a half, and a cakestand done already.  October is looking up.  I'll be pulling my bin of yellows to see what else I can come up with. 

(Yellow was my mother's favorite color, so I feel like I should really commit to it when its turn comes up!)

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I love to see all the scrappy goodness!

Even my squirrels are procrastinating these days

Though even my tangents are starting to develop tangents, I think.

I did get a few more Jacks blocks sewn for the RSC.  Since I'm cutting out red squares and triangles for Sand Castles 2 anyway, it's easy to just cut a few extra and make another Jacks.

I really need to get the Jacks bin down and count my blocks, though.  Seems like I decided long ago that I had enough blocks, but here I am still making them...

While I was scrumbling around in my fabric looking for RSC candidates, I came across the bacon fabric I got for the back of my dad's quilt.

 It just hooted and waved at me until I agreed to make a cake stand with it.  Who can argue with bacon?

My other sewing time pretty much went to sewing more 4-patches for Sand Castles 2,

and I've started string piecing the corner triangles for the blocks, figuring it will be less onerous a task if I get a head start on it.  (My method is here.)

In my typical mingy fashion, when I have strips that are too short, I just sew them together to make a longer string.

And then this squirrel came out of nowhere and I ended up watching a metric butt-ton of rulerwork quilting videos.  I have a bunch of quilts that I want to get quilted where working with a ruler would be perfect. (Especially as wobbly as my free-motion non-skills are...)  Had to give it a try!

I was smart enough to keep it small scale.  I cut two 10" squares of scrap fabric and backed them with squares of batting.

My first experiment was on this fabric where the quilting wouldn't show.  (Am I not wise in the ways of quilting?)  I didn't mark anything, just practiced sewing along the edge of the ruler.

For side two, I actually made some marks to keep me in line.  (That's what those little flashes of orange are - a washable marker)

You can see the quilting better from the back sides where I'm marking darts.

And ta-da!  For my practice piece, I actually made something useful!  A microwave bowl cozy, which is something that I'd been coveting all along!

And since it was a practice piece, I won't even mind if I spill gravy all over it!

Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  I'm late to the parties as usual, but come see the fun!