little bits of progress

i've steadily worked away at "wensleydale," keeping the pace of a block a day (with a few skipped days), and i've also made the last of the geese i need for "grellow garden geese," but i took a small break to get some yellow hst pieces literally off the floor and made into blocks so i could put them away.

the extra hst pieces i made several weeks ago when i was playing around with a new block idea have been laying together with the block on a piece of batting, which has been laying on the floor just inside my sewing room doors. often when i'm actively working on a project, i'll have a batting scrap laid on the floor just outside my sewing room doors, which will be open when i'm working in there. the piece of batting serves as a mini design wall, albeit on the floor, and as a place to keep everything together. i don't usually let things stay in this state for long. but this project (and edna) got quickly pulled into the room and the door shut on them a few weeks ago when i was in a hurry to clean up and get them out of the way of general foot traffic in the house. so i've been stepping over them any time i enter the room for weeks now. not tidy or desirable at all!

thus, i decided to do some cleanup work to get those pieces out of the way and off the floor as a mini break from the projects i'm most focused on at the moment.

as i was putting the first block together, i realized the hsts weren't trimmed. yikes. i did not want to do all that trimming - 16 units per block - so i decided to skip the trim and see what happened. the block (left above) turned out fine enough, but when i compared it to the original block, it was a full 1/4" larger on all sides. when you cut units sized with the intention of trimming them, you can't get lazy later and decide not to trim. not unless you skipping trimming all of them from the beginning. 

so i broke down and trimmed the pieces for the 3rd block. it really wasn't too bad.

looking at these blocks together i can see how slight shifts in the value of the yellows in the star pieces vs. the corner pieces make a big difference in how the pattern appears in the blocks. how interesting. the lowest block has a clear star pattern to it whereas the other two blocks look different. using softer yellows in the innermost diamond and for the corners while using bolder yellows for the points really brings the star shape forward. note to self for future blocks!

now these blocks are safely put away in the project box recently vacated by the flying geese project and i can think about them in the spring when i feel like sewing with sunshine again.

photo of me taking a break on the piano room couch, surveying my geese and also contemplating the upcoming remodel of this room's trim. 

i called d1 to chat about some things and showed her some feature of the geese on video call. she said, "mom! that's not the quilt you've been posting about." shows how much she's been paying attention. for one, i have recently posted about this quilt on insta and she's been in the house since i put it out on the floor a few days ago. her three kiddos 3 and under must be taking all her attention. "how many quilts are you working on right now?," she says, as if she doesn't know me and my quilting adhd habits at all.  

"actively - two," was my response. and that's true despite the few side trips i took this weekend that are featured in this post.

saturday night, long after i'd shut the sewing room doors for the day, d5 came to me and asked to have a little sewing and listening session for about 30 minutes before she went out for the evening. i was thrilled. since school started up last month she hasn't had any time for sewing with me and i'm itching for her to finish those 16 patch blocks. she got 6 done while we worked together and took a short trip to PEI to visit jane.

i was mentally done with both "wensleydale" and the geese for the day, so i picked up my sweet little mini crossroads blocks for some mindless piecing. i do love these so much and look forward to getting them completed. they'll need to take center stage again when i have a few projects pushed to the flimsy & basting stage. those quirky stripes and dotted o's aren't my favorite fabric of this grouping, but they'll add character to the quilt. if only they were printed straighter! 

that's it for the side projects for now. i'll be back to work on wensleydale and geese come the work week.