no scrap is safe

I caved.

I dumped out and re-sorted my scraps bags.  I saved anything that might be large enough for a wonky star.

No scrap is safe any more.  Not at my house.

There many not be any more string quilts.

But there will be wonky stars.

That sticky note?  My Monday goofing off at work math project.

1080 blocks to make a queen size quilt.  No sashing.

I'm up to 14.  I haven't made it into the sewing room tonight...at least not to sew.

I made a little calendar counter today.  My goofing off for today.

(These goof offs take about 4 minutes, so no real lost work time.  We'll call that my "cigarette break for a non-smoker" okay?)

If I make 3 blocks a day, I'll be done by the middle of May 2018.

Can I go the distance?

We'll see.

In other news...other news of caving...  I bought some florals for my sheep.

They were harder to find than you'd think.

But I got the 9 I need on Monday.  And I washed them on Monday.

While they were washing, I auditioned borders for my May UFO.

In the photo here, I like the black better than I did up close.  But it turns out the black I thought I could get more of isn't the same.  And there's not enough of any other color left over either.  Not even for binding.  So this quilt won't have borders.  I don't think it will look bad, I just liked the idea of stabilizing it a bit more with borders, as it's set on point.

I also made a few wonky star blocks.

No, wait, those two were made on Sunday.

These six fabric combos were selected and cut on Monday.

And sewn all up.

I also go happy mail!

I had entered a stash-reduction giveaway over at The Objects of Design where helpers Molly and Buddy were helping Staff by giving away some of the fabric.  Bundles to be selected by whichever cat the entrant felt would do a better job.

I asked that Molly choose fabrics for me, mentioning I have a dot problem.  I think Molly did a fantastic job.  She even threw in some cat-themed fabrics.

This is my favorite:

Many thanks Molly and Sally!  I'm so excited about my new fabrics, but I'm going to try to hold onto them in full-piece form for at least a little while before chopping into them for my latest harebrained idea of making over 1000 3" wonky star blocks.

Tuesday, I couldn't wait to get home from work and make more wonky stars.  But I forced myself to make a floral sheep first.  The wonky stars will be my reward, though I was excited about the floral sheep, .  A little apprehensive, as florals are definitely not my thing, but once the fabric had been bought, there's nothing left to do but dig in, right?

Now I know some of you will probably still prefer the grey, but if you see this through my eyes, you'll know that I absolutely adore my floral sheep.  The grey one is cute, yes, but the purple flowered little guy?  I'm in love!

And my reward?

It's hard to see because of the size of the pieces, but that white one on the far right is a script/postmark type print that I used for the background of my guild paint chip challenge.  I love the fabric and am so excited to have it here.  Even if I'm the only one who knows what it looked like before wonkification.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to put in a bunch of ugly fabrics (at least not yet - I might get desperate!), but there are definitely some that I love and others that I merely like.

So that puts me at 14.  By my tally, I need to have 21 by Sunday.  I'm doing well!  But I know there will be weeks where I fall off the wagon for one reason or another, so I might as well keep going while I'm excited.

As this project goes, I'm developing a plan.  I've been sewing these with thread that matches the star points.  That means a lot of thread changes.  So I could either buy a spool of dark grey (I'm thinking all my backgrounds will be a medium to dark grey - hopefully all from my stash) or I could just sew a batch of like-colored stars.  Since I'm not planning to make a trip out just for thread, I'm going to do the like-colored batches.  At least for now.

Tonight is going to be a red night.

Unless I pass out from exhaustion before I make it to the sewing room.

Today was a trying day at work.  My boss is out for the week and she has a few duties that, over the course of time, have become mostly just hers.  So bits and pieces are here and there and assigned to others when she's not there and it's just a headache.  We'll all be glad when she's back.  But it's a lot the same for me and my job - everyone is happy when I come back, too!

But that means today is REALLY a day I need to spend some time playing with fabric.

So off I go.

Happy quilting,

Katie