Slow Stitch Sunday - some down time

I was up at 5AM with Paul's alarm again.  And again, coffee was brewed, dishes were completed, and a bagel was eaten before heading downstairs by 6AM...

All of Bonnie's CS step 5 are now prepped for the final stitch, and sitting next to the sewing machine, acting as leaders-enders for whatever project I wanted to work on next...

My design wall has LITERALLY been unchanged for over a year!

This was the picture from November, 2012!  Alright....since then, the Hawaii Sunset blocks (lower section) have been completed, and are now awaiting sashing.  The Jack in the Box blocks were removed at one point, but have been resting on a shelf, untouched.

But the strings.... yup.  They are still up there!

I can't remember the last time when I actually worked on my 2011 or 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  But with 2014 looming, and my 2014 RSC sample hanging out in the lower right, it was time to clear the wall!

And then.... designer's block returned :\  The rainbow string blocks are cool, BUT...I never had a plan in mind for them.  I just pieced 'em.  Cuz they were cool.  

Therefore, lesson #1 for my 2014 RSC -- Have. A. Plan.  (which I think I do) :)

In 2012, when I pieced the Jack in the Box blocks in addition to the String blocks, I cut off the bonus triangles and turned them into some scrappy diamond units.  

I thought they'd be perfect to use as a filler block (see the sample block on the left).  BUT, one slight problem --- I never squared up the bonus triangles to 2" before piecing the diamond units.  Their sizes are simply....wonky, and inconsistent with each other.  I tried to make due anyway.

But, it just isn't going to work.  Plus, I didn't like the look of the sample. 

So then... I played some more and came up with the current look.  I know it would help matters if I would piece two more string blocks -- to make the quilt be a little more symmetrical.

Eh.  

Therefore, I'm GLAD it's Sunday!  More specific, I'm glad that it's Kathy's Slow Stitch Sunday.  After the marathon quilting day yesterday, and the silly designer's block affecting me right now... I'm simply in the mood to sit with a crochet hook in my hand!

I haven't worked on any Granny Squares in awhile, so... that's my game plan for the next couple of hours.

Happy Sunday.

Orca Bay and Hawaii Sunset; two colorful quilts!

After about three hours of quilting, I was ready to give it a rest with about half of it complete.  It's at least up, off the floor now.

So then I broke open Ann Marie's package!  WOW!!!!!  LOVE LOVE these colors!

And the back!  Super awesome rotational symmetry!  Oh Ann Marie;  you and I have so much in common.    I tried out some threads and decided on a stand-by blendable taupe color.....

...but I only had a little bit left on my last spool.  Naturally, I had to stop everything, and take a quick trip up to the quiltshop!

And, of COURSE, more than just a backup spool of thread was purchased!

I figured, after making two green/purple/orange quilts lately, I had to replenish the dents in the stash.  Gosh, I love these three colors together!!!!

Once back home, I was no longer "feeling" my quilting frame, so Andee's package was opened straight away :)  Fun, fun, fun Hawaii Sunset units!  {{And DOGGIE TREATS for Shadow!!! Awwww.}}

Since Bonnie was on quiltcam, I sat and joined her for a couple hours of sewing.

All of Andee's 9-patches received hugs by some inner borders...

and then a couple of a few blocks were pieced.  My favorite 9-patch:  the white one in the upper left corner, with the mustard center!  LOVE LOVE that little touch of a 3rd color in the 9-patch!

My Rainbow Strings were rearranged to the upper area of the design wall;  every month was completed except for the "neutral" month.  That string block may still happen;  either that or maybe I'll do something stringy with neutrals for sashing units.

Candace swiped the camera to take some pictures of all the activity outside today.  The sun was brilliant, yet still a very chilly day!  Low 40s (??)

Last weekend, Paul added some bells to the goats' collars.  Goodness golly, they are a hilarious duo!  They just come-a-runnin' whenever anyone heads outside.  If the girls simply crack open the door to peek out, they try to nudge and head-butt their way inside.

And Paul....?  I'm not really sure if he was cleaning or making a mess!  It's that time of year when he (I would say 'we,' but we all know that's not extremely truthful) tidies up the yard and garage to prepare everything for the winter season.  He worked on organizing and storing the potatoes into the root cellar, among other things.

Golly!  7:26 PM!  Where did the day go?

The girls and I are sitting with a movie;  nothing else much planned for tonight.

Jamestown Landing - flimsy!

Oh! The gems we find when working with scraps!

This one certainly was a fabric of Grandmother's;  I certainly wasn't sewing in 1991 :)

My "handwork" today consisted of de-papering twenty 8"x11" string blocks for the borders of Jamestown Landing.  (Is that considered "real" handwork?) :D

AND LOOK!!!!!!!!!  After spending most of the day with strings, the border is finished!

Jamestown Landing (84" x 97")

 

AND, I even managed to find enough string varieties of "teal/aqua" for Angela's August Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

I don't know if I'm "done" for the day, or not.  Hmmm......we'll see.

Late night & Early morning sewing

Hm.  10:00 PM + Cup-of-coffee = late night sewing for Amy!

Around 10:30 PM, I told Paul I was heading downstairs.  He took a double-take and asked me what I had said.... LOL

Nothing too ambitious planned for that time of night;  just some putzing and cleaning up.  I had loads of twosies sitting next to the machine that had been pieced and stored in my 1.5" scrap box, so I pieced them into 4-patches----maybe destined for Linda's block-help I posted on a few weeks back?/....

Then I spied this!!!!   THIS has been sitting in my sewing room since before Cassie was born!  Over 11 years!  Could that be right??!?!?  Hmmm.....nope, don't think so.  I wasn't big into quilting yet before Cass.  So, maybe it was before Caitlyn's birth??  Anyway, it was gifted to me by my mother.... :}  

I suppose someday I need to make it up!

The back calls for a simple 9-patch, but....eh!  Kinda boring?  My plan (someday?) will probably be to turn it into a Disappearing 9-patch :)

Hmm..hmmm.hmmmm.....11:00 PM...what to do?????

String blocks---easy enough.  Yup...so....I strung away....

and I looked up at the clock "a little bit later" thinking it MAY be nearing 11:30-ish......

HA!  It was 12:40 AM!!!!!

So, after bidding goodnight to Andee via FB, I hit the hay.

And I'm back up at it again.....more strings; border of Jamestown Landing in the works.

Later today----"handwork" in the form of paper removal.

Happy Sunday.

Some scrap work...

Something new to play around with this morning: Rainbow Scrap strings. This block is the 12" March BOM through the Craftsy BOM, so I grabbed my red, green, and pink strings to create another style of block for Angela's monthly rainbow scrap challenge (in addition to the Jack-in-the-Box blocks).

And with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge still on my mind, I pieced together the bonus triangles from the pink blocks yesterday.

My leader-ender area has started mounding up with Jamestown Landing units, so I pressed them up to have a neatly organized area next to my sewing machine again. (Hm, think I need to wash my ironing board cover??)



More tidying consisted of piecing together a few more Scrappy Pieces. They certainly don't make me Ohh-and-Ahh, but I'm hoping if I continue with these, the sheer amount will make the quilt seem cool-n-amazing. Besides, they are super easy and burn through all those icky-yucky scraps that have been sitting and sitting in some of my boxes.

The 2011/12 NYE mystery was also loaded onto the quilting frame and one pass completed. (I actually did this yesterday afternoon). :0)

For those of us in the northern part of the USA, we are now on our fourth day of AMAZING weather!!!!! 80's today......absolutely GORGEOUS and record-breaking temperatures. In fact, we slept with the windows open last night......MARCH SEVENTEENTH, and the WINDOWS are open at night. Cah-razy!