The geese are flying over Ringo Lake!

Are we at part 5 of the ORL mystery already?!

It seems we just started; the clues are coming in fast, just like Christmas did!

All the units for parts 1 thru 3 are finished, and I made 120 of the 218 units we need for part 4.

And then I made 4 of the flying geese for part 5 just to get my beak in, so to speak.

Whew!

I'm definitely using the Deb Tucker wing clipper for these geese, they fly along so much faster.

While we were working on the coral-and-neutral geese for part 2, I ordered a 4-1/2" Accuquilt die from Amazon.  It came too late for then, but I have it for now and boy am I glad I ordered it!

The die made cutting the 50 4-1/2" squares I need to make 200 flying geese a breeze!

Paired with my 2-1/2" die for the wings and I'm on a roll!

I'll join the Part 5 linky party over at Quiltville, so you can see what the dozens of other quilters are sharing.

Have a great Tuesday, sew forth and sew on

Changing direction

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a moving target
(2) fall foliage
(3) pigs in blankets

I like the two yellow scrappy blocks I started making for the December guild meeting but they're very piecing-intensive!  They'll take more time than I want to devote right now because I also need to make a challenge quilt for December.  I can either make two pillow covers with what I've pieced, or make two more blocks for a small hanging.

Some years ago I made this house wall hanging from gifted scraps that I never quilted.

The point of making a scrap project was to show other guild members what can be done with small pieces .... this will do what we wanted.  I need to decide on an outer border and quilt it, plenty time to finish it for the meeting.

Now for my challenge quilt (music theme) I can use this silhouette couple that I've had for a very long time, it even has fusible on the back.

My idea was to name the quilt "Dancing in the Street," but buildings drawn in perspective had me stopped in my tracks!

Then yesterday I took a different direction - how about "Dancing in the Moonlight"??  Anybody remember that song remade by Van Morrison?

I'll hang the moon behind them so their heads aren't lost on that blue background, but it needs to be larger I think ...

I like the idea of their partial shadow cast by the moon, might have to cut it off when I do the ground, though.

The border will be made from neutral and black quarter-square triangle - or hourglass - units.

I made a lot of these sometime last summer when I was just doodling around, so I have a pretty good head start!

.

Twirling my seams, pressing in a counter clockwise direction...



Gotta love that dry iron from the Vermont Country Store!

Have a great Saturday, sew forth and sew on

Ganging together

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Monday mornings
(2) cell phones
(3) polka dots

The gang's all here [honk honk]

Honker and Dinger are excited about their colors all together in a quilt - with a French name, no less:  En Provence, ooh la la!

Can you tell they're happy?

Me too, it's a gorgeous quilt, full of happy scrappy fabrics and the smell of sunshine!

When step 7 was posted and the finished quilt was revealed, I wanted to jump right in and start sewing my blocks together!

After finishing step 6, it was easy enough to cut the 3-1/2" yellow squares in step 7 using my GO die - piece 'o cake!

I tossed in all the yellows that wanted to come along.

So, now I'm piecing the main blocks, but also piecing the green/yellow/neutral units as leader/enders.

Ooops, what's wrong with this picture?

I did this twice - slow down!

The blocks sew up easily and I'm loving the way they look all sewn together!

I made two so far, I haven't sewn any of the sashing units yet.

Looking good!

Thanks for stopping by, now go on over to the En Provence linky at Quiltville and see what everybody else has done for steps 6 and 7!

Enjoy your Monday, sew forth and sew on til later

More Grannies

Three things to be happy about:
(1) leftover Halloween candy
(2) caramel apples
(3) knitting a scarf

Actually I used to knit, long before I discovered quiltmaking!

My granny squares are looking great so far, but it's not as many as I thought I'd be able to do.

My PC is having problems, which means time spent with the Geek Squad, so I was more or less unable to sew for a good part of the day.

Fourteen blocks done, lots more to go...

That 2-1/2" Accuquilt die is my friend!

Stacking  and cutting four 8-1/2" squares gives me enough white background pieces to make three blocks.

A timesaver for sure.

I'd like to add sashing to the blocks as I get them trimmed, but they're not all coming out the same size if I trim 1/4" from the corners.  That naughty quarter-inch seam will getcha every time.

I might just wait til they're all sewn then trim down to the smallest block size.  No biggie!

They look great all laid out together, though!

I definitely want to stick with these blocks; maybe I can get most of them done before Thanksgiving!


That's it for now, have a great day, enjoy the sunshine, sew forth and sew on...

Giveaway winner, hourglass blocks

Three things to be happy about:
(1) vacationing at home
(2) bee balm
(3) turning off the TV

First I want to congratulate stitchinpenny on winning the crumby opportunity blocks; she wrote:

Crumby opportunity would allow my granddaughters to make a fun charity quilt. The bright colors will keep them happy and they won't have to sew a full quilt's worth of crumb blocks which would test their childish patience.

Congratulations stitchinpenny, you'll receive your crumby opportunity blocks soon!

Meanwhile I've been playing with my fabrics while I'm waiting for the Quiltville mystery to begin...

Out of all the fabrics I bought on my Lancaster trip earlier this month, I think this one is my favorite!

I love words anyway, but this piece of Project Linus fabric by Quilting Treasures says it all:  "Security is a thumb and a blanket"

So true!


When Bonnie of Quiltville announced that the leader-ender challenge for this year is the hourglass block, I knew I wanted to make some because I like hourglass units.

I hunted for my companion angle ruler but I couldn't find it, so I went out and bought another one.

Then I realized that a die that came with my Accuquilt GO would work just as well!

But guess which one I chose...

Yep, that big ole 6-1/2" half  square triangle die!

A bit large, isn't it??

Back to the drawing board...

I actually have a quarter square triangle die that's what I really need.  At 4-1/2" it's smaller and the corners are blunted, which makes it easier to sew.

Sometimes the pieces cut with the companion angle ruler would wiggle when I sewed close to that sharp end, and my seam would go wonky!

See the big difference between the two sizes?

I'll go with the smaller one, it allows me to put lots more scrappiness into the quilt!

Easy to cut, easy to sew...

This is what I've made so far, looking good!

And I've even been using some of the new fabrics I bought!

I got this piece of Downton Abbey at a quilt shop in Frederick, MD, back in August.  I wasn't really looking for this fabric but it was on sale for something like $5.99 a yard, so it came home with me!

So that's what I'm doing while waiting, waiting for the Quiltville mystery colors to be announced!

Have a great Tuesday, get out and enjoy the fall sunshine, sew forth and sew on...

Another UFO

Three things to be happy about:
(1) scary movies
(2) finding hidden treasure
(3) buying fabric online...

... which I haven't done in more than 2 years!

I was going through a bag of scraps (and discards) looking for large hunks to cut down when I found a zippered bag with these cute little blocks!

I vaguely remember participating in a half-square triangle block swap when I used to hang out on the quilting forum at About.com.

Oh my that place has changed in the last 15 or so years!  It started out being called something like "the mining company," covering any and all topics before it evolved into what it is today.  Well, it still does that, but now it's more organized, and Janet Wickell does a fantastic job as their quilt expert!

Anyway, I don't remember how many of these HST's I collected, they're probably scattered here and there among my stuff, but at some point I pieced a few blocks and even joined three sets of pairs together...

There were eleven blocks in the bag, made from 2-1/2" squares with muslin as the background part.

I like the look of these set flush together; this will make a great leader/ender project!  I have lots of 2-1/2" color strips, so as I'm cutting fabric I'll cut some muslin strips to use for HST's.

My Easy Angle ruler will make cutting triangle pairs easy enough.

That's it for now, have a great Monday -  sew forth and sew on til later!

Cutting mostly done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) big red balloons
(2) orange popsicles
(3) strappy sandles

I've done a lot more cutting to clear off my cutting table, and I cut the fabric whether it was Alexander Henry or not!

This 1-3/4 yard piece is hot from JoAnn's that was on their remnant table at $4 a yard!  Had to get it, you know what I mean?

I sliced a 7-inch piece and cut some neutral strips!

Here's a piece that used to make me s-s-stutter!

I've had this for so long, I mean SO LONG, and couldn't think of a project to use it in ... and I didn't want to cut it ... then a few days ago I looked at the fabric and realized I didn't like those flowers anyway!

I'm not a sweet and flowery fabric kinda gal; however, I did fussy cut this piece to get 3-1/2" squares for my x and plus project.  There's more of it left, it'll come out of the box and go under the 2" blade next time I cut!

Wanna see what that messy corner of my table looks like now?

Ta-daaa - big difference!

Just dribs and drubs that I need to neaten off out of the way.

These are some of the scraps I created during the cutting process...

More scraps!!

... and some of the many strips I cut, all a-tangle...

All I managed to sort so far - just the tip of the iceberg!

There's a lot to be said for sorting fabric strips as you cut them:

(1) you save time at the end...

(2) they don't get all tangled up...

(3) you avoid fuzzy edges...

(4) it's more efficient...

(5) they're ready to use in case you want some before you finish cutting...

(6) sew forth and sew on...

Cutting up

Three things to be happy about:
(1) purified drinking water
(2) Jesse French pianos
(3) making your own trail mix

It's not exactly trail mix, but lately I'm snacking on a mixture of raw almonds, Craisins, and crystallized ginger.  One day I was about to get some pre-packaged trail mix from Whole Foods when I realized that little $7.99 bag of stuff only had two things I liked, so I started making my own!  How healthy is it?  I dunno, but at least none of it gets tossed out!

I'm cutting fabric now and I just realized it's taking me away from what I was doing with the Scrap Crystals UFO.  It all started when I really looked at my cutting table...

How does it get that way???

what a mess!

I just started grabbing pieces and cutting 2 inch strips, and those 3-1/2" squares I talked about for the x and plus project.  Then I realized I should be using my GO cutter for the squares, since I have the die!

Well, one thing led to another... I was digging in my container for the 3-1/2" die when I saw a 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" die that came with the set - it was still sealed in the package, had never been used!

So then I decided to cut 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" pieces for the lozenge leader-ender project that I very gently shoved aside a few weeks ago.

Long story short, I now have a stack of 3-1/2" squares and 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" rectangles, ready to be used when I pick the project back up again.  I don't know how many more I need, but I know I need lots!

Did I finish cutting all the fabric leftovers from the cutting table?  Nope - I don't think the pile went down at all!  Today there will definitely be more pressing and cutting and sorting.

Have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on til later!

A post about nuthin'

Three things to be happy about
(1) a new calendar at 75% off
(2) pretty business cards
(3) finding something to be happy about!

Hi everybody!  Yep, it's snowing today, that's my car all snow covered, sheesh!

I think they're calling for 2 or more inches, but I think it will be the "more" from the looks of it.  Federal government is open "with unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework," so you know what that means.

At least, I know what it means - a big ole mess today.

I started off the year right, but the last couple of days I haven't felt like sewing, isn't that awful?

I would pick up my Texas Tumbleweeds pieces and put them back down.

Pulled out the GO cutter to cut more 1-1/2 strips from some ugly fabric... then I put that down. Couldn't decide which pieces were ugly enough, I guess!

These few leader-ender stringy log cabin blocks are all I've completely made and squared up.

I have more than half a dozen that are in different stages of completion; even that's getting boring.

My furnace is making a loud groaning noise, I had the serviceman out here and he replaced the air exchange valve that he assured me was the problem, at a not-cheap price I can assure you!  I've had him back twice but the furnace is quiet as a mouse while he's here.  He's due back today - again.

My blood pressure reading was way higher than it should be and that bothered me, which means it probably went up some more.

On top of all that, it's snowing - in big clumps!  Need to start clearing the snow before it gets tramped down from people walking on it.  What can I say but sew forth and sew on...