keeping track?

I'm not sure how I manage to keep track of all my projects, but I suppose having each one in a clear storage box helps.  (Except the hammocks - that is a whole other disaster, but too large to ignore.)  Usually each day I get to head into my sewing room, I have a goal for the day - the latest quilt along has a new prompt or the cat rescue group has asked for more hammocks soon.  It's better that way.  Otherwise I just go in there and wonder what I should do next.

(My boss noted in my latest review that I'm very task oriented.  It took her 5 years to figure that out, but I'm guessing you all figured that out just by reading that previous paragraph!)

Anyways, on to the quilty content - that's why you're here, right?!

First we'll start with the 100 day stitch book project.  My interest on this continues to wane, but that's the nature of not-new projects.  I'm keeping at it, though.  The book at the end is taunting me and I want one, so I must keep going!

Day 53

Day 54

Day 55 - end of page 11.  This doesn't have much stitching, but it's still okay.  Going over those butterflies took forever.

Day 56 - this little flower was stitched by a quilty friend and then we painted them in a guild class many years ago.  It's been sitting around with no purpose since and when I found it, I knew it needed to be included here.

Day 57 (smaller, apparently)

Day 58 - I wasn't sure what else to do and I tried to stitch the year, but without anything to follow, it quickly got out of hand, so I unstitched that.

Day 59 - smaller again - I have no idea what my phone and computer are up to, but whatever.  I got the date sketched and did a few more X stitches.  I think I'll finish up this page with a few more green X stitches and this will become my cover, since it has the date on it.

The Bramble Blooms quilt got some attention, too.  Remember I told you I'd sewn the squares into rows, but the rows needed joining?  That happened!

This is a LOT.  I started to worry here about how these would look on the quilt.  Too busy?

But let me tell you how to quickly decide about row placement without worrying too much about matchy-matchy pieces touching.  Get two cats.  Maybe three.  At least one needs to have razor sharp claws and no self-awareness.  Another can have some self-awareness, but still get crazy.  And the third, bonus cat, should have self-awareness, but also needs intent to disrupt.  You will work much faster and make quicker decisions this way.  Or you will spend more time adding bandaids to your hands than sewing.  It's all about choices.

(though this was later in the day, this is the self-aware culprit)

So once these were sewn, I added the gold border to the center and laid it all out.

(I don't understand how my phone can auto-correct colors (incorrectly), but cannot figure out how to even out shadows...)

This is BUSY.

Like kitchen sink I hate it busy.

So the borders got set aside and I worked on what will be the cornerstones.  Perhaps they'll tame it?

Since this is her quilt, Salem posed with the start of the cornerstone blocks.  I'm just doing the same flowers that are in the center.  A few pieces are missing here, but they're cut.  It's easier to applique when you don't have ALL the pieces layered!

The quilt is also smaller than I had hoped, and will be a larger wall-hanging size, rather than a couch quilt, at this point, so I'm also pondering how to make this larger.  Maybe it just needs more patchwork squares?  (I don't think so!)

The Two Colour Mystery quilt had another prompt come out Thursday and while I didn't get to it for a few days, it was another easy step (making the baby size has been a nice perk in that way). 

Although it was half square triangles, I dug out my Angler and made the best of it.  Joanne offers a couple of options of ways to make these units, but I went off on my own and did it my way.  In the end, a half square triangle is a half square triangle.

And the trimming monster wasn't too large this time...

(See what I mean about my camera and color correction - these are all the same fabrics!)

Cat hammocks were constructed, but no proof.  And the Rainbow Scrap Challenge purple blocks are done for the month.

That leaves me with my newest project only to share.

A few weeks ago, my local quilt shop shared a post from Modern Quilt Studio about a quilt along they'd be hosting (starting) on Saturday in honor of National Quilting Day.  The quilt intrigued me, so I got the pattern and started thinking.

And thinking.

And thinking that I didn't need another project.  But they claimed this could be a scrap buster?

Then it hit me - my coworker, the one whose daughter got the whale quilt, is due to be a grandma again any day now.  And her dad is in the hospital with pneumonia (he was supposed to come home today, but I haven't heard for sure if he's been sprung) and she is having a rough go of things.  So why not dig out all my pink fabrics and make a crazy menagerie of pink quilt?  (The baby is a girl.  Obviously.  Or maybe not.)

I wasn't going to do this, but I really wanted to give this pattern a go.

So on Saturday...

While I listed to their livestream about the quilt along, I worked on getting started.  There are plastic templates available and there are, as with the half square triangles above, many methods to complete this madness.  I opted for freezer paper templates that can be ironed onto one layer, then pinned and cut multiple layers.

I got four blocks finished on Saturday:

And got a bit discouraged because the arcs aren't lining up as perfectly as I'd like.  (Also annoyed AGAIN at my phone-camera because it doesn't want to see pink as pink.  What the hell Google?)

But I decided to press on and make at least five more because that would be large enough for a dolly quilt and the arcs could all go one direction, despite how the pattern looks.

But the layout like this looks okay.  There are some that won't match as well, but I think I can make it work.  And for a baby quilt, it's less of a worry that it's perfect, right?

Some of the pinks in my stash are strips that are not wide enough for the largest piece(s), so I may have to supplement some.  First, though, I need to re-raid my stash.  I think I'm going to make this 6x6 blocks, which should be a quilt about 42x42.  Smaller than the pattern, but who said it had to be just like the original?

The first livestream was interesting (I learned a few things!), but by the end of it, I was seriously second-guessing myself and my choices.  Thankfully, I was able to pull myself out of that funk, reminding myself that this is MY quilt and I have been doing this for something like 30 years and my vision does not have to match that of the designers.  I'm glad I did because I'm really liking it now that I've got nine blocks done.

Nine more blocks are cut and ready to sew, but we'll see if that happens any time soon.  Today is lunch with friends day and while I'm itching to sew, I also haven't seen my quilty friends in over a month, thanks to illness and such, so I think that is more important.  This quilt isn't likely to be finished before the baby gets here anyways.

And one last photo...of Gabby.  She is obsessed with paper and cardboard and I think she's part gerbil.

She steals bookmarks.  It is her favorite thing to do while I'm trying to read.  This one had a tassel and bead at the top.  Now, as you can see, it barely has a top and she is working on the bottom.  You cannot leave a bookmark sticking out of a book in her presence because it will no longer be marking your page, but probably be under the bed or in her water bowl.  I tried for about two weeks with this one before she got a good hold of it and destroyed the tassel.  Two nights ago she got it again and chewed the bead off (I took all of these parts away from her as soon as I realized - we DO NOT need another trip to the emergency vet for this very expensive free cat) and now I just give it to her when I read.  It's easier that way.

Time to go get a few more chores done before I get to have lunch out!

Happy quilting!

Katie