White Motivation

The sky was falling yesterday.

This white stuff is like a herald, proclaiming the season, telling me to get my butt in gear - Christmas is not far away and I have many, many projects to complete before then!

I almost like the first snow of the year. After that it gets monotonous.

The Shorties have no issue with the seasons changing. Icicles are a delicacy, don't you know?

My motivation has forced me to almost complete a stuffed elephant - named "Flumpy" by my Pixie - but I need a bit o' felt to give him eyes. Reveal soon.

Also, I had a minor fail when sewing up the backing for Rambo Bright. You know that saying, "measure twice, cut once?" It does not apply when you had the wrong measurement in the first place. I measured correctly according to the figures floating around in my head....but I came up 6 inches short when the pinning was done. Wha...?

Turns out, I measured the correct length for the quilt itself, and not the backing. It was easily corrected with a piece sewn on to the ends of the short panels. I used my fail to my advantage and mixed up the prints a little, instead of matching like colours. It is a scrap quilt, after all. Have you noticed that I don't "do" matching very well?

Set aside that backing! Up next is a cover for my diary, made with very carefully hoarded oriental prints.

And after a concert in my living room.....

I feel the need to make lists. In fact, I could make a list of all the lists I need to make.

List of Lists:
- list of Christmas sewing to do
- list of areas in my home that still to be cleaned, downsized, and reorganized
- list of books I need to own
- list of groceries to buy at the farmer's market on Saturday

Too much!!

Back to the concert.

These girls sure know how to sing!

Top!

Presenting the Rambo Bright flimsy!

 I love it. I hope the bride and groom love it too.

 The quilt top is 91" square. The groom is 6'4." It might fit him.

 Although I refuse to apologize for poor pictures (I blame the camera), I will absolutely not post pictures of the completed quilt unless I can find a lighting solution that will work for my pathetic camera. I'm still accepting donations for a new photographic device.

What else should I say about this quilt top? So many things went well: the math worked out, the colour distribution is pleasant yet jumbled, and it is scrappy and huge - exactly the way I designed it.

There shall never be a pattern written up for this quilt - I couldn't if I tried hard. T & H are getting a thoroughly unique item.

The Push

I've been working hard to get Rambo Bright together, and get it over to Cathy Tomm for quilting. I've been pushing myself pretty hard, and my body feels it in a big way today. When I'm done writing this post, I am jumping into a hot bath and then taking Sunday the way it's meant to be - a day of rest.

Yesterday, I put un-sashing on every alternate block. Way back when I was working out the pattern for the quilt top, I decided that I would corral some of the chaos with a bit of neutral to rest the eye. I chose a mottled grey because this couple has a bit of a darker personality than white would allow.

The centers of the alternate blocks are only 6.5" square, while the block A's are 9.5". This won't give me much "sashing" to equalize the sizes, but it should work to contain the colour and give each construction seam at least one on-grain side. After trimming, I had this pile:

Here is a shot of all the quilt blocks gathered in one place. There are 49 block A and 36 block B. If you calculate that, it will give you an area of, well, more than my husband or I can calculate this early on a Sunday morning.

63.75 square feet! And that's not including the setting triangles!! This will be my very first quilt set on point. I did all the math for the setting pieces a year ago when I drafted the pattern, so all I did was trust my math and cut. All of the proper elements are in place and tomorrow I should be able to find some floor space and decide on a layout. Here's a teaser:

Aaaand I'm loving the grey! It seems to be the perfect sized speed bump for all that colour - just slowing the eye enough to notice block differentiations. It's not enough to overpower, and not enough to make it bland (as if anything could make all that colour bland). I also noticed that, should I not be able to find the space to lay it out, I could just randomly pick blocks to sew together and it will still look great.

I am going to love this!!! So will the Bride and Groom, crazy artists that they are.

Hey, Bride!

Dear Bride and Groom,

This is the last block I've created for your quilt. It might be a fail, or it could be homespun genius. Do I keep it in the lineup or ditch it and make a new one?

Down To The Wire

I have one block left to sew. It's a very special block, so I'll finish it today and show you tomorrow. Here are the other new blocks.

These almost finished off my scrap box. I had just enough to do some with a colour theme. Since this is a belated wedding gift, I had to include the colours they had *actually* asked for: Purple is the groom's favorite colour. Not sure about the bride's favorite, but I'm fairly certain it is red or green. Bases covered!

Lastly, two more Jacob's Ladder blocks. Whomever came up with the idea to use precut patches as leaders and enders was a friggin genius. I would never have the patience to create this quilt if I wasn't forced to work at it slowly and methodically while powering through alternate projects. Even the cutting is done whenever I feel like it or as I have need for new pieces in the cigar box.

Tomorrow you can expect the very last block. You can also expect subsequent posts to have pictures of sashing....layout...finished top. I think I'm on track. Nothing like a deadline to motivate!!

Three

Good Work

I spent a day cutting.

I cut setting triangles for Rambo Bright, strips for block B frames, and I filled up my leaders and enders box with basics. The fabric on the left is pressed and ready to be cut into more B strips.

I created two new blocks for Rambo Bright. The race is on to see if I can complete this top in a week or so. The block on the left is mostly my Pixie's design, helped out by a little extra piecing to bring it up to size.

Another Jacob's Ladder block has emerged from leader-and-ender zone.

Remember this journal cover? I never did like the fit. The book slid around inside.

So I did some research and remade the cover.

This shot shows the practice piecing I *had* to do. I need the technique for a few future Rambo Bright blocks, and we all know that practice makes perfect.

Not shown is my extreme desire to piece some blocks today. Also not shown is the hairball that was coughed up on my sewing machine chair. I washed the chair, and it has been drying for a few hours.

Instead of piecing, I did something I've never done before: I pressed and sorted through ALL my scraps. I sorted into categories, instead of colour:

a) "Crumbs" went into the jar, destined to be transferred to their holding bag, waiting for a tiny piecing or ticker tape project.

b) Small pieces were stacked (more or less) and returned to my cutting table to be puzzled through and emerge as Rambo Bright blocks.

c) Medium sized pieces and d) pieced units are also on the chopping block.

e) Large pieces are now sitting on the bottom of the bin, along with

f) Strips, and

g) flannelette strips and h) flannelette pieces.

I may be brave enough now to put a towel on my chair and get some piecing done!

Saturday

On typical Saturdays I take my girls to the Farmer's Market for veggies and gluten-free baking. Today was not typical....The Pixie slept in and both girls wanted to hang out in their pj's for a few hours. So I let them.

By the time they had been sufficiently fed, dressed, and allowed to have unreasonable tantrums it was too late to hit the farmer's market. We still wanted to go shopping, so we went to a fabric store we don't usually shop at because they were having a sale. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have no idea what these are but they're pretty and they were immediately chopped up and added to stash.

The other three huge cuts were purchased with the House Of Love in mind. Remember House Of Love? I has been waiting to be finished for months. I still love it.

These are destined for backing and binding. What do you think? Will it look good? Do you have any great ideas about how to quilt it? I have no clue....help!

I've been on a roll with blocks for Rambo Bright...the total number of large blocks is now 37 out of 49.

 I have also been toying with the idea of starting a long term piecing project....so long term it would take a year just to make the top (one block per week).

 Or maybe I could get a little feedback from the couple who will be receiving Rambo Bright. Maybe they hate it and I have to keep it.

 Perhaps I should consider entering it into a quilt show. I think all local quilt shows happen in the fall, though.

 I may just content myself knowing that the recipients thrive on colour because they are crazy artists. They will love the quilt.

 If I end up showing off this quilt it will be brought to my LQS for brief admiring. And more pictures will have to be posted here, of course.

So, what do you think? Love them? Hate them? Passively indifferent?

Saturday's Free Confession of the Week: I have a new addiction. I can't help myself. It's kale chips. Cheezy Chipotle Raw Vegan Kale Chips. Ask me for my recipe if you dare. You'll get addicted, too.

Counting

I have been busy!

More blocks for "Rambo Bright" are piling up every day.

I am loving how some of these turn out....and others are kinda blah. But they will all look fabulous together.

I need a total of 49 large blocks and 36 small (alternate) blocks.

This set of six brings my large block total to 31.

The end is in sight! I also have seven of thirty-six alternate blocks ready to go.

Perhaps I will meet my invisible goals!

Improvments

This darling little sho-fly block came together very nicely considering that nothing was measured. It is also so boring that it would suck the life out of Rambo Bright.

I had to chop it up. Much better, yes?

I also made this one:

And these two:

While I was working on these, something wonderful was happening with my leaders and enders. I've been using little cast-off pieces, and trimmings....just sewing them together into long chains. This is what I ended up with after two days.

They are pretty long and very random. They have inspired me.

So I pulled this chocolatey coloured batik from stash....

I have the best idea! I'm crossing my fingers that it looks as good translated to fabric as it does in my head.