Getting Spiky

The next clue I'm working on for the Lupine Mystery quilt involves making some larger block units out of already made smaller block units. Two sizes of HSTs and the HRTs combine for this interesting almost its own block. 

I only had to un-sew one bit that I'd gotten the big HST turned the wrong way around. At least I noticed before it got sewn into the quilt, right?  Before I sewed together the next few, I set up the elements in stacks that looked like the final product.

So spiky! I love the look of all the variations in the pinks and white fabrics. These don't look so great on my white design wall. I promise they all have white fabric centers. Interesting how they visually just totally disappear. The final blocks will have the four sub-blocks with blue sashing and pink cornerstones in the centers. But those haven't been cut out yet...

So Many Kitty Ears

I buckled down and got started sewing the remaining sets of Kitty Ears units for the Lupine Mystery quilt. 

I love how these "Kitty Ears" units kind of have the look of Flying Geese gone wrong, or maybe just gone wiiiiiide.

Cutting the very last set to size with the Simple Folded Corners ruler.

It took a lot of trimming and sewing and pressing, but they got put together. Check out that pile of teeny tiny hsts™!

 But here they all are.  

Twenty-four sets of four "kitty ears" all done. You may be wondering if I had run out of white on white? No, just thought it'd be fun to put in two of my favorite white with black prints. This layout would actually make a very interesting scrap (or otherwise) quilt. Looks like columns of arrows.

  I am so very very ready to move on to the next clue.

More Kitty Ears

 

On the second day of Sew Day, I made more "kitty ears". (sung to the tune of "On The First Day of Christmas") for the Lupine Mystery Quilt. I'm of course, ending up with a whole lot of teeny tiny hsts™

Are my blues arctic blues as they're meant to be? I'd say that some of them get fairly close, but many are way off. I hope it ends up working out. I'm completely using up some of these blues, so this will be the last time they appear in one of my quilts.  

It wasn't all strip cutting, there was some fussy fiddly cutting happening. But at the end, I ended up with nine sets of four (out of the required 24 sets) done. I also cut out the rest of the blue squares that will be needed. Pshew, that was a lot. What a super fun, Super Sew Day(s) it was!

Time for Kitty Ears

Time for a Super Sew Day, so I brought along my stacks of "ice blue" and "white/cream" fabrics and cut out a bunch of the next clue I'm working on for the Lupine Mystery quilt. This block unit is called "Kitty Ears."

Well, at least two sets got done!

Lupine Block Ingredients

Yesterday I had the time to cut out the remaining white squares and set of four matching purple squares that I need for the Lupine mystery quilt. And lthen looking at the stack of really varied  purples, I knew that some fabrics in the hourglass units were going to play better with some of the purples, like this very much lighter overall version of the block above. 

I decided to pre-match them all up into sets of one white square, four matching purple squares, and four matching hourglass units. That means I've got  the rest of the block ingredients all ready to sew these together into finished blocks.

Clue One Done

Well, it took me a little bit less than an entire month, but I finished off trimming the last hourglass block units for the Weekly clue one of the Lupine Mystery Quilt. Yes, the power is still out. Supposedly going back on by 11pm tonight, but I am Not Counting on it at all. I am sick unto death of the roar of the generator.

I have some rather strange pink fabrics in here, but I like how they look together (24 sets of 4 matching hourglasses) and now I'm quite happy to move on and go make a Whole Bunch of Flying Geese for clue two.

Clue One Sewn

 
Because I'd gotten the remaining hourglass block units cut and ready yesterday, all I had to do was to get the extension cord hookup to our generator to power up my sewing machine. Yes, power is still out, not much solar input today as it was still stormy today. 

All sewn up, and pressed open, now together into the hourglass block unit.All done except the trimming.

I think this is my favorite fabric combination. I'll be so glad to get these trimmed and then finally move onto another clue.

First Clue Cut

 

I got a little time in the sewing room and cut out the remaining hourglass block units for the first clue of the Lupine Mystery quilt

Yes, indeed, our power is out (as of Wednesday 2 AM), so it's a Merry Merry Mountain Christmas! We're having crazy wind, and lots of rain, and today a short-lived Tornado Warning! Thankfully that wasn't an actuality, but there was a super intense burst of hail and then diagonal rain. We postponed having my mom come over for Christmas dinner today and are instead hoping for a Boxing Day dinner tomorrow.

Trimming Hourglasses

 

Feeling like I'm being extra pok-y slow on this first clue for the Lupine Mystery quilt. But I'm plugging away a few at a time. Here's the most recent batch, now that they are all trimmed up to size. That's about all I was up for as our power is out thanks to last night's big windstorm. Christmas Eve by candlelight maybe? But not on our tree, I promise! If you're celebrating, hope you're having a good one.

My total of sets of four matching hourglass units is up to a whopping fifteen out of twenty-four. Some of those lighter pinks are reading as quite yellow, if it's a problem I'll use some ink on them.

Four More Sets

 

Well, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention, can you see the mistake that I made on these parts of the hourglass blocks for the Lupine Mystery quilt, clue one.

Yes, that polka dot is sewn with the wrong side showing.

But I think it looks better sewn wrong, as these are "supposed" to be neutrals, and the right side is much brighter, too bright.

There's a big big difference between the two "pinks". And that one batik is reading as too purple instead of "ice blue".

But from farther away, they're interesting and different enough from each other to have that variation I"m going for. That makes fourteen sets done (once these are trimmed to size), and thus ten more sets to go for Clue 1.

More Hourglasses

 Six more sets of four hourglass block units for the first clue of the Lipine Mystery Quilt are all sewn together and pressed, but not yet trimmed to size.

Still Clue 1

I'm finally getting back to working on the Lupine Mystery quilt. It feels like it's been absolute ages, even though it was just about 2 weeks ago. Still in Clue 1, here's another group of four matching hourglass units. 

I wasn't sure how that plaid was going to work out, but I think it looks nice.

Then because I've been think of blocks due to the BAMQ BOM, I played around with them a bit.

1/4 square triangles really make for different block options than HSTs.

Four out of 26 sets are done now. And then my wrist said "Hey!' so I stopped for the day.

Block Unit Beginnings

Well, I'm actually starting in on the first clue for the Lupines & Laughter mystery quilt. Matching sets of four hourglass blocks of pink, blue and white.

I'm trying a couple of different methods to see which is most accurate for me. So far, so good.
 

Flying & Long Geese Varieties

Well look at this, I actually got all of those sashing units sewn together. And I only messed up repeating a blue fabric once.

Because I took the time to trim the smaller units to size, everything went together very easily.

I got really excited with this once I started pressing the most recent seams. The combination of the hourglass block with the two smaller flying geese and then the two longest geese is great. Especially when I managed to keep the points pointy.

They're all so pretty together and I'm really looking forward to making the blocks that will be surrounded by these sashing pieces.

I went a little crazy taking all these pictures, so here they all are.

So many distinctive fabrics when you see them up close.

And then from farther away, they blend into a nicely varied wash of somewhat matching colors.

Onto the actual block making next...
 

Hourglass+Flying Geese

 

Before beginning the first joining-together of units for the Old Town mystery quilt, I decided to do some trimming. This is the result of trimming all of those hourglass units. Doesn't really add up to much! That means I did a pretty good and accurate job of making those hourglass blocks. (pats self on back and is thankful for good directions) 

So...was the time I took to do the trimming worth it? I think so, as you can see, some of these trimmed-off bits are a lot more than mere slivers. That means in the next steps of block making, I would have started out well on the way to inaccurate and wonky. After all the work of making the block ingredients, to me, that means it is worth it to trim before proceeding.

On to the next step, adding coral/melon and white/neutral Flying Geese units to two of the sides of the hourglass. They went together pretty easily.

I tried my hardest to not have any repeating fabrics in these units, and only messed up twice.

And there they all are together! And, that's one more of the clues completed.

Old Town Bin

I was leaving on a trip this week so I packed up all the assembled block units I’ve made so far. There’s a whole lot. I just didn’t want them to get knocked down by cat action.

I’m glad to see this assembled quantity of work completed so far. I’m going to be happier once I get to the actual block assembly point.