sewing the wrong things

Since I'm doing a few quilt-alongs with deadlines, that is what I should probably be sewing, right?

Well.

I did manage to get those blue and turquoise pieces sewn into rings before I got sidetracked.

The look pretty, don't they?

I SHOULD have been cutting purple and green pieces.  Or I SHOULD have been cutting sashing for my 100 blocks.

But those fabrics my mom got me were screaming.  Since they are really not something I would choose, I decided to try to keep them together and make a charity quilt out of them.  And since I am trying to do one per month, it seemed this would be a good October choice.

I went looking and found a scrappy Hunter's Star pattern that seemed like it would work.  And I have the special ruler.  But the ruler?  Well, the instructions are literally a 24x36" sheet of paper printed on BOTH SIDES.  With no clear quilt instructions.  Yes, it tells you how to make the block.  Yes, it allows you to make about four different sizes.  But what it does not tell you are how many blocks you need or how much fabric you need or anything about borders or how big your quilt will be.  Now, don't get me wrong, I can do all that.  But it seems that on a poster-board-sized sheet of instructions, that MIGHT be there.  Maybe it was.  I gave up.  The book has templates.  SO.  I put tape on my ruler and drew lines where the templates would be and used that.  My dad would be proud.  (I promise to try to remember to get a photo of my quilting ruler hack!)

But since I had fat quarters and not a jelly roll and layer cake (as the book called for), I drew myself some pictures how to best cut everything and moved forward.  Of course, I got rolling and took no photos of that part.

At first, I was sewing the blocks one at a time.  It really makes two at a time the way the instructions work, but I was worried things would get messed up.  So I took it slow.

But, after a while, I decided to try mass-production.

Turns out, I did just fine.  Twice.

I easily had enough fabric to make 30 blocks (15 sets of doubles).

Gabby helped me lay them out to decide how it would all work.  She has become VERY adept at being completely in the way.  And not caring one bit.

(see what I mean?)

(but note the fun leopard print wallpaper border - that will go away soon!)

I think from a distance they look less crazy.  In general.  There are still a few wackos in there.  But it's looking better to me than it does up close.

But with blocks that finish 8.25", this won't be a very large quilt.  And I still have ALMOST enough fabric to make another 14.

So...sew those bits together and "make" fabric.  It made me use up a lot more and all that I have left is a single square and strip from the fabric that didn't make the cut (I had 15 fabrics, but you can't pair an uneven number!).  And yardage, which I plan to use for borders, binding and backing.  My goal is to let as little as possible of this make it to the stash and I think I'm doing fairly well.

And there they are - 44 blocks.  It means two extras, but with such wild prints and limited colors, having two extras to swap around will be nice.  And the extras?  Well, I hear there is this thing called "orphan blocks"...

While I was sewing, Gabby finally gave up helping (and demanding pets), and went to see what her brother was doing.

Freddie has been with us just 10 months now (he is a year old today if his foster momma is right!) and this is the first time I've seen them snuggle together.  They were touching, though I think more like sharing the chair than snuggling.  But I'll take it!  I've been waiting for these two to figure out they can play and be friends and I think we're finally getting there.  They've also been chasing each other through the house and wrestling some, and my heart is so happy for that.  They both need this.  But it strikes me as funny because both of them came to us unafraid of other cats, so I expected this bonding would happen quickly.  Regardless, I'm happy it IS happening and look forward to it continuing.

Time to go find some dinner, put my bed back together and then maybe go get back to sewing the things I'm supposed to be sewing?  (I think the fat quarter project can sit in a box for a bit now...the screaming has lessened significantly!)

Happy quilting!

Katie