this and that

A little of this and that around here this week.  These two critters (below) keep me hopping as usual though I am a little slower on my feet.  Every time through the living room these two were watching me though Skyler was on the coffee table until I came out with the camera!  That's why you only see the retreating tail.

Monday morning on my way out to feed the yowling cat I ran right into the end of the couch, looking at him instead of watching where I was walking.   I had switched the couch and love seat positions when the treadle machine came and there is less room coming off the hallway but the couch used to set there so who knows?  If I didn't break my toe, I have certainly banged it up enough to forget about wearing anything but my sandals since.  Four days later I can walk a bit more easily but it still stings a bit.  I was able to do my grocery errands yesterday though it took me longer walking.  Of course, Oscar does not understand why we are not going for walks 3-4 times a day.  At most we have just gone up to the neighbors and that has just been since Wednesday evening.

Yesterday was binge cooking day.  Homemade pizza--ate a few slices and froze the rest.  Quick & Easy Oatmeal Carmelita Bars for the guild meeting today.  I also made the filling for Mexican Lasagna from Slow Roasted Italian blog but baked it today dividing it up into two loaf pans--one for now and the other for the freezer.   I peeled up what remained of a 5 lb bag of potatoes, cubed, boiled and put most in the freezer for hash or whatever down the line and some for frittata this week.  Some other fridge leftovers were added to ziploc bags and stacked up in the freezer.

Earlier in the week I got my fabric orders so I could cut binding and prepare backing.  Look at the messages that came on the Moda yardage.  The first is a Me and My Sister Brighten Up gingham piece.

This is the Sundrops line from Corey Yoder and goes on the Garden Gate top I just finished on Sunday.

Here is the completed top using said Sundrops line.  Sashing added in vertical rows, no top and bottoms added.  The backing is prepped.  The Fat Quarter Shop sold 3 3/4 yd pieces for backing and I think I was supposed to do it differently than I did as I had a good bit leftover.  Maybe 60 inch lengths and then sewn across the 42 or so WOF horizontally or something.  The quilt is 50 x 60 thereabouts.  Too late now!

The batting is prepped as well using leftovers from previous quilts.  I've got another partials for one more top before I open up another roll of 80/20 batting.

I also needed some yardage for binding on the Pinwheel tops for Belles.  These were some I thought might work from Connecting Threads.  I didn't cut it yet but I think the one in the middle is the closest.  Bottom one is called Burro, top one Terra Cotta--middle just plain brown.  Burro would work but I want to see what the blocks look like together first.

I got off on a tangent on Tuesday and I am not exactly sure just how or where I saw the link, probably facebook but it could have been one of the free patterns mentioned on Liz Katsuro on Jelly Roll Fabrics net as there has been fat quarter ideas as well lately.  Anyway, another variation of Disappearing Nine Patch crossed my path.  Normally this would be the last thing I would like to do but I sorta liked the idea I found on Outside the Line for their variation she dubbed "Double Trouble".  Tried it.

Two monster sized 9 patches that started with 5 inch squares.  Note 4 darks on one and 5 darks on the other and different backgrounds.  I didn't catch that part at first when I first cut my RWB's and had to un-sew and sub out the whites I had with the navy stars.

Cut at the halfway point all around (2.25) so you end up with this Puss in the Corner deal in the middle.

Swap out the cutaways

Ta-da!  two done blocks

BUT  why go to all that trouble when the resultant blocks turn out like this?  I see 4 sections in each block that can be strip pieced--2 1/2 inches x 36 with a bit more to spare for trimming/cutting.  And those corners?  Cut a square 5 inches.  Sew two 2 1/2 x 5 strips top and bottom and another 2 1/2 x 9 for the two sides.  Do that in both colorations.    Cut it into quarters at the 4 1/2 marks.  Also need two 4 1/2 inch squares for the center of the block.

These are not sewn together yet as I was just testing out my theory.  It does work though---and this one WILL finish at 12 inches whereas the Disappearing 9 Patch finished at a goofy 12 1/4.  Not sure what this is called but surely it has been thought of by someone.  Also I am not on the computer that has BlockBase installed to do a little detective work either.  HMMM a puzzle for another day.

My sister-in-law wondered what a whole quilt might look like this and was not getting the right images to pop up using "Double Trouble Disappearing 9 Patch".  I told her that it might not be the proper name for it but I was going to draw it up in EQ anyway to see what it might look like.  I often do that though I do look for google images too mostly to see colorations folks may have used if different than the designer has used.  I liked it in the blues showed on blog tutorial.  IMHO, set block to block it was far too busy.  Sashing tamed it down a bit and even made it look round, at least in the thumbnail.  I think I like it as a planned quilt too, same fabrics throughout or near to the same.

Will I make one?  Who knows?  I am supposed to working on my Good Karma challenge quilt---like now!  But I will not be able to show you that till after the retreat in October!  SHHHHH.  I finally got the binding done on the NO Bake Jolly Bar quilt but did not get a picture of it yet.  I did take it to guild today for show and tell or can take one here at home.  I plan on sleeping under it tonight even though it is a lap quilt!

Because I was fooling around with those blocks, I was a little late getting over to the Tuesday evening group.  Donna needed a little advice on putting on a hanging sleeve for the Lick Skillet Quilt Show later this month.  Though not a member of that group, they have allowed outside folks to enter their quilts so she needed to put a sleeve on her king sized Fall Leaves quilt.  Stacy was trying to do the join on the binding of a child's quilt.  Because it was a solid colored binding, it was hard to tell which was the right or wrong side the angled cuts may have been wrong and possibly cut two short.  I don't know that I helped her out much since it needed to be un-sewed and she did not have all her materials to fix it.  Maybe next week.  Margarita had all her Courthouse Steps blocks completed as well as 4 other small blocks and said she was all caught up with it now.  Janice was binding and Aline sewing.  I came home to work on my binding for a couple hours though I finished the last 90 inches of it yesterday---just in time for guild.  Two more quilts to go--one has the binding machine applied on one side, the other still needs to be done.  Another Tuesday project, I'm guessing.

Guess that's it for now.  If it is not raining, I'll hobble up the lane with Oscar at least part way anyway.