The Best Laid Plans

How is it Monday's get to be so ... messy?  After recognizing my errant stitching seam widths on Celtic Solstice yesterday, and tearing out every stitch, yeah, every stitch, I had great plans of getting it all back to where it should be today.  That didn't happen as planned.  

Being Monday, I had to take care of some paperwork, pay some bills, update Quicken.  Also a bit of housework needed to be done, the usual emptying of the dishwasher and reloading with those dishes I let go last night, ahem, yes that happens around here.  The cat litter needed to be scooped too.  Sure would be nice to get some other residents in this house to do that chore!  Other things also had to be done.

Then when I did sit down to work on it, after noon as I sat with my lunch sandwich, and no more than five minutes later the phone rings, and a friend asked to stop in for a few minutes.  She did only stay for a few minutes, all the while as I finished my sandwich.  I get back to the Sanctuary and to work on the quilt units, only a few more minutes pass, and my mom calls, and there goes another huge block of time as she boggles my mind with all that's on her mind, which btw is a bit boggled with decisions for the future - my parents are both 80 so some plans need to be made. Our phone isn't such that I can rest it on my shoulder and work with my hands so I got nothing done while talking with her.  Thankfully, Marty came up and said he was expecting a call for a phone interview - yay, I pray he gets it - so I was able to get off the phone.  That left me with all of about 20 minutes during which I finally got the last of the snipped threads picked off just in time to go pick Nick up from school.  

I was so tired by the time I got home I went in and took a nap.  The nap was about a half-hour and the kitties came and helped keep me warm.  I was still groggy when I got up but needed to get to work on those units.  You can read all about them, and see pics at Webs of Threads.  

Well, tonight, I've finished only a handful, and have one 'flap' added to the center triangle on about 1/3 of the units.

I'm watching/listening to The Voice, still don't have a hand's down favorite - down to the final six contestants and they're all good.

The next few days all have commitments too so at this point, I can only hope to fit in time to work on the units and get them done.

Ninety-Nine Nine-Patches

Yes, indeed, 99 were required, and yes, indeed, I miscounted.  I was nine short so had to pull out the scrap bins again and find enough for nine more sets to make those last 9-patches.  They are now done, and what I need to do next is select the background white or other neutral.  Here are the 90 stacked all neatly and tidy:

The pattern called for light shirtings, but I don't have such things, and I want to reserve as much variety of my white/cream scraps as I can for Bonnie Hunter's 2013 Mystery Quilt and depending on the size I go for on that, I will need anywhere from 2 to 4.25 yards. 

I calculated I need approximately 1.3 yards of neutral background for Gathered Over Time.  That sounds low, but let's do the math:  80 5" squares (25 sq. in. each) = 2000 sq. inches, which, based on 1512 sq. inches in a yard of fabric (36 x 42) divided into 2000 = 1.327 yds.  Of course, that also needs to take into consideration that I'm cutting from scraps and may not be able to cut the scraps into 5" sq. pieces, so I need to allow for more yardage.  Additionally, I need about a half-yard of white/cream neutral for the setting triangles and corners.  I was thinking I'd keep the background more in the white range, and the setting triangles more towards cream causing them to create a faux border.

I could go ahead and cut the 5" squares (80 of them), but before I could begin sewing, I would have to lay the 9-Ps out on the design wall for placement, and then I'd either have to sew all the blocks into rows, or be very careful making notes and/or stacks as to which block goes where, and I know how I am about that! By the time I'd get back to it, I'd have forgotten what my notes meant!  So now, I'm trying to decide if I want to at least cut the squares, or just stop at this point and begin sewing on the November NewFO, especially since the first instructions for the mystery quilt will come out on 11/29.

I had a foot-warmer last night while I was sitting here playing on the computer after finishing all the sewing I felt up to doing.  

Raven is very good at warming feet, and this new sewing cabinet has a little ledge at the back of the leg well where I can prop my feet and Raven thought it was a good idea to snuggle up :)

Grandma Goes to Ireland

Today I took care of one final bit on Grandmother's Scrap Bag before tucking it onto the UFO shelf in order to get ready to start my October NewFO...yeah, late as usual.  The binding is a pieced binding from the same 23 fat quarters that went into the quilt top, so I sewed those together, trimmed the little triangles after sewing an extra seam to get little bonus triangle-squares from them, pressed the binding seams open, and rolled it up and stuffed it into the box.  I use gift boxes like you'd use for shirts or robes at Christmas or birthdays to store my UFOs in, and place a sticky note at the end with the i.d. # and name.  Yep, there are some areas of my life that are neat, tidy and under control.  That's not to be said about a whole lot of other areas, especially now.  But that's all for another day, or not.

On another new exciting note, Bonnie Hunter released her fabric requirements for this year's mystery quilt.  She'll be releasing the first installment on 11/29...over a month away!  Chomping at the bit here, and hoping I can round up enough of the fabrics in the color-way she's chosen - won't be able to buy any new ones!  Since it starts so late in November, I may use that as my December NewFO even though I'm beginning to gather the fabrics now.  If you're at all curious, love scrappy quilts and want to make a dent in your scrap bins, and you're not already one of Bonnie's followers who already are in the know, go check out the details at Quiltville.  Last year, I took part in her Easy Street Mystery Quilt and enjoyed it.  It was my first mystery follow-along with her and I used different colors as I didn't have her selections in my stash.  It turned out great...though it's still one of those UFOs!  Here's one of my progress shots from back then.