bramble blooms progress

Last week I teased you with some blocks under construction for the latest Bramble Blooms prompt...

And though I had little time left on Monday after my adventure with friends, I did press these all in preparation for sewing.  Later in the week, I took a little more time away from kitty sewing and got the blocks together!

Next up was a layout.  I'd figured out how to make these alternate so the light and dark pieces wouldn't touch, but I still needed to mix and match all the center colors.  And hope my math was right!

It looks kinda finished here, but I assure you - look closely - they're not sewn.  I also have included a skinny dark green (reading black again) coping border on one side.  We'll get to that in a second.  First, we have to panic that there are too many going across the top and bottom and squish them together to account for seam allowance and then panic again that there are too many on the sides.  Yes, yes, I can add more coping borders, but sheesh.

But it's going to be okay.  The math did seem to be right and, well, let's just sew them together.  (Bonus that this panic made me think/worry very little about block placement.  I made an effort to keep like colors apart, but, well...)

(Oh look, my computer made this image smaller, despite being taken in the same room, on the same floor, with the same lighting, on the same day - the seam allowance didn't eat up THAT much fabric!)

Upon measuring the quilt center and borders, I realized I had cut the coping border almost an inch too small.  Guess what I don't have more of?  (Had I cut it correctly, I'd have been fine...)  What else is in the bin?  A different dark green - this one actually reads dark green.  I tried yellow and red and even a lighter green, but the dark won.  

And so, this prompt is complete.  I have about a month until the next one, which is fine.

I do like how it turned out, though.  It's got some pops of color, but it's not overwhelming the rainbow blocks in the center.  It definitely made it darker, using that darker green in the blocks, but it's not all bad.  It allows your eye to draw to the center, which is where the fun part is anyways.

Midway through this, with the blocks on the floor, I squirrelled.  I'd been thinking about these catnip mats I've been seeing on the interwebs and decided I'd try one for my kitties.

Of course, I took no in-process photos, but the tutorial I used is here.  It's a bit of a long video, but she shows her process start-to-finish so you can see it's not a long project.  And though it doesn't have a professional polish of so many, it shows the process really well and I'd rather that than pauses to sell me things I don't need.

It looks pretty good!  Let's try it out!

Hubby says Lily is gator rolling it.  He's not wrong.  I had to sneak up on her, though, to get this photo.

Toby also stopped as soon as he realized I was looking at him.  These cats are so self-conscious...

Freddie was more timid about it, but he is my cautious kitty.  Until he gets the crazies, then he about bounces off walls.

The other cats have had a chance with it, too, just not when I had a camera handy.

(And you can see that I really did stop mid-Bramble Blooms in the Lily photo!)

Anyways, in other Bramble Blooms news, I've FINALLY gotten myself to continue the applique on the flower cornerstones.  The ones that got discarded when I made BB Barf blocks and had to tear them all apart and then they didn't fit with the new configuration.  I have decided they will become part of that quilt after all - as cornerstones to a solid (as in not pieced) dark green outer border.

I just wasn't happy with the abrupt ending of the 9-patches set on point.  So I've been working a little on these the last few evenings.  I got all the red petals sewn down, but now have to tackle the smaller yellow insets.  The blocks will finish 6" so you have an idea of how large these pieces might be.  Simple shapes, though, so easy peasy.

This week also saw the finish of two books!

First up:

"The Crown's Game" by Evelyn Skye

Oh my goodness.  5 stars.  So good.

In two words:  dueling magicians.

This is the story of two young magicians in a battle to be the Russian tzar's royal enchanter.  It's set in the 1800s, but most people have either forgotten about magic or don't believe in it any more, but it is a real part of winning wars and keeping the country alive.  While usually just one enchanter is born in a generation, sometimes there are two, and this results in a battle to the death.  The battle uses magic, of course, and you would expect the two young magicians to try to outright kill each other, but their choices are guided and so much better.  I didn't want either to die - they were both so well written!

There is a second book in this series.  I'll be reading that one for sure.

Next read:

"Hippie" by Paulo Coelho

I go to used book sales and pick up a stack of books that, from the blurb on the back, sound like they might be enjoyable.  I reread the blurb again before I start reading.  This one made me scratch my head.  WHAT?  I don't think I would have chosen this.  The hubby denies helping me fill my bag on the sly.  I guess I'll give it a go - worst case I don't finish it, right?

3.5 stars - not bad for something I didn't even know I had!

It is semi-autobiographical, a story about a hippie who joins a bus trip from Amsterdam to Nepal - with many other hippies.  He shares his experience, but we also meet some of the people on the bus.  These people have a variety of reasons for being there and a variety of ideas what the journey will be for them.  These people and stories were the highlight of the book for me.

Being told from his perspective, it opened my eyes to what an actual hippie thinks they are versus the stereotype I've been raised with.  In general, he promotes that they are trying to make the world a better place and many of them are knowledgeable and educated about world events and with that, who wouldn't want to be a hippie?  Of course, he does make mention of those that aren't making good life choices that are among this same stereotype, but as with all stereotypes, the negative often shines brighter than the positive.  It was good to read, learn and remind myself of this.

The blurb on the back mentions a love affair, but it wasn't too much of the story, thank goodness!  (I'm okay for such things in books, but I don't want them to overshadow the story.)  Mostly his love interest just annoyed me.

So I guess whoever put this in my bag didn't ruin my day.  And his writing style was entertaining enough that I wouldn't frown at reading some of his other books.

One more kitty photo...

Lily isn't always a goblin.  Sometimes she gives her sister Salem a bath.

Happy quilting!

Katie