Dot, dot, dot

I've spent the morning ripping out and replacing little red squares in the centers of my 15" Burgoyne Surrounded blocks, exchanging a little red dot for a little white one.  But it is necessary even though it's tedious.  Given that these were pieced in strips which were cut apart into sections, the stitch length is shorter than usual, making the ripping out even worse.  However, the design simply works better with a white center.

On other fronts, I made the next blocks in Threadhead's QAL this morning too.  Hmmm, that one with beige background and peach star points isn't as successful as it could be - it looks better in person but the contrast is washed out in the photo.   .   .maybe I'll take a break from Burgoyne Surrounded this afternoon and make another one.

Just love these colors!  Fig Tree Quilts has the most yummy fabrics - I've made several quilts from their collections and they are always soft and beautiful.

Burgoyne beauty, so-so Grandmother's Choice

I'm busily working on the pieced sashing for my Burgoyne Surrounded variation today, as well as completing the five additional blocks to make it king size.  Here's a corner showing a few blocks with the sashing (but without the outer borders) - I love it!  I wish I had had this idea earlier so I could have put a white square in the center of the large red/blue uneven four patches in the middle of the block - that would have made it even better.  I'm even debating picking out those center squares and replacing them, as crazy as that sounds. But even without that, the white dots scattered through the design and the small white circles in between the large circles lighten the look of the whole and give it a lift.

Yesterday I spent a grumpy couple of hours on my Grandmother's Choice block.  I decided to foundation piece it because of the striped cone shapes.  It wasn't fun and the end product doesn't have the greatest inset corners but there it is.  I'm not going to make another one!

ADDENDUM:

See?  I have to replace the center squares with white ones.  25 of them.  Sigh.

Burgoyne variation - or heresy?

I can't leave well enough alone in these QALs and mysteries.  I finished all 20 of the Burgoyne Surrounded quilt and started thinking about the sashing.  Well, I also started thinking about adding another row and increasing it to king size but I have time enough to decide.  Just in case I picked up another yard of the blue background at Joann's

Here's the thing:  I think the sashing and corner square need some pizzazz.  First, the traditional design:

First I added more white:

Then I put piecing in the sashing and added the white centers:

I like the little rings between the big rings.  It adds more movement.  It's definitely not the traditional pattern but does that matter?  I think it also reminds me somehow of those "Mountain Weave" tablecloths that Vermont Country Store sells.  I think I'll go with it.

New Quiltville mystery coming soon

Bonnie Hunter has been tantalizing us with comments about the upcoming mystery starting the day after Thanksgiving.  She will post the fabric requirements and colors at the end of October.  I can't wait!

No matter how many other projects in the works I HAVE to do the Quiltville mystery.  They're simply the most intricate quilt mysteries published and they are always intriguing and rewarding,  Even when I have made small tweaks to the design (strings?  Not moi!) they work out great and garner lots of compliments.  I'm already thinking about colors for this one, and am hoping it is in the brown/orange/green/red autumn palette.  Or pink and brown because I want one badly;  every time I make a predominantly pink and brown quilt I give it away.  I think pink, brown, cream and a little mossy green for an accent.  If the colors don't work for the mystery there's a pink and brown quilt in "Scrap Basket Surprises" I'm going to have to make.

But please, no black.  And I've used so much blue recently I hope it isn't blue either, although that's my favorite color.  But whatever the color scheme, I'm in!  

ARRGH! Applique!

This week on Barbara Brackman's block of the week commemorating women's suffrage the block was applique.  Not my favorite.  But, I think I did it justice:

My best point-y points, ever, I think.

Progress, but only on some tasks - and a bit of quilty news

Strike two items off my home improvements list, but keep most of the tasks on the list labeled "pending".  We got the turbine vents replaced on the roof.  It didn't cost a fortune and there are no roof leaks because of the work.  I know that for sure because we got a humdinger of a rain last week - over 3.5" in a day.  So that's done.

Monday the plasterer finished fixing the hole in the wall behind the washer that was caused by plumbing troubles.  I also did something I have been wanting to do for a while - I swapped the old flexible dryer vent hose for two rigid metal elbows and a metal duct, so no more air leaks and eventual splits in the dryer vent.  And we unhooked the washer and reconnected it without a leak (hey, it's a big thing to me!).

But the new steps at the front porch are still only a dream.  Last Friday a carpenter came out to give an estimate for the work.  He said he would call me Monday with the numbers.  Monday comes and suddenly he's too busy to take the job.  I would have figured he knew his workload on Friday evening just as well as on Monday morning.  I guess it wasn't a big enough job for him to tackle (i.e., not enough money).  Is it a component of the much-discussed "bad economy" that people are just too lazy to work?

I also talked to a guy who does odd jobs and he was leery about building the steps because they would not be the proportions in the building code - that is, they would have a deeper tread and shorter riser than the building code standard.  He didn't want to do it because he was afraid of liability and non-code compliance issues.  I personally can't imagine building steps that are easier to climb than what the code specifies as being a liability issue but there you are.  We are in a lawsuit-happy age.  So no steps.

My bathroom flooring is still on order (two and a half weeks) but is supposed to be installed next Wednesday.  Here's hoping.  Something still has time to go wrong.

I'm  not even going to think about painting the inside of the garage right now.  The fact that I got two jobs done without lapsing into a disaster is pushing my luck enough.

To rescue this post from complete pessimism, here are photos of my QAL's, BOM's, block of the week's and mysteries as they stand right now:

Grandmother's Choice Block of the Week:

How Far Will You Go? QAL

Benjamin Franklin mystery:

Note:  I fixed that mistake in the upper right block!

Thread Head QAL:

 Burgoyne Surrounded QAL:

Animas mystery:

I have to say, the people at Animas Quilts are good - I have all these blocks made and still can't figure out how they go together.  I even drafted them on EQ and fiddled around - they have me stumped!

Of course, there are a few personal projects in play too, and Bonnie Hunter is starting a new mystery at Quiltville after Thanksgiving!

The Wizard Cat

First, some background:  My husband wears a gold crucifix on a 30" chain.  He's worn it for some time, under his clothing, and he never takes it off.  Since he sleeps in it, it probably gets tangled up as he turns over in bed and that puts stress on the chain, which has broken twice in the past from wear against the bail attached to the crucifix.

Two days ago, he woke up and found the crucifix without its chain lying on the bottom sheet in bed next to his shoulder.  I had gotten up much earlier but since I don't turn on the bedroom light I didn't see anything in the bed.  We thought that the chain had broken during the night and the pendant had slipped off.  He searched through the covers before he got up but didn't see it.  After breakfast he told me about it and I completely stripped the bed looking for the chain, without success.  I moved the nightstands, pulled the storage boxes out from under the bed and searched around and under the furniture in the bedroom.  (I thought that while I was at it I could sweep under and behind the bed so I did that too and checked the dust cup on the sweeper.)  No sign of the chain, and it's a 30" long gold rolo chain so it's hard to overlook.

Since I couldn't find it in the bedroom, I broadened my search to the laundry bin, the bathroom, his chair in the living room and finally all over the house.  No chain.  I groaned because while it only cost $70 when I bought it years ago (the chain was a Christmas gift) it was more like $500 dollars now with the inflated price of gold.  Well, we wouldn't be replacing it any time soon.

Yesterday, while playing with our cat Molly after her dinner my husband asked her to look for his chain.  Molly has a history of finding things - a locking earring back for me, a set of coax wire strippers for a friend, other things.  After our dinner as we sat in the living room watching TV, Molly came in from the dining room, purposefully looking under chairs and poking her paw around the seat cushions.  She went behind them and climbed on the backs, searching everywhere.  After that she went down the hall toward the bedrooms.  After I went to bed he said she did the same search of the couch in his computer room.

Yesterday morning I got up early, fed Molly and left the bedroom - my husband was still asleep.  Later I peeked in and Molly was asleep next to him in her usual fashion.  When my husband woke up he found the broken chain on the bed next to his shoulder, where the crucifix had been the day before.

We can only surmise that Molly found the chain and brought it to him - and probably the crucifix the day before, also.

My wizard cat.  I can only guess how much of what we say she understands.