I had an idea....

...and I went with it last night and today.

(First though, a note of frustration.  Tons of students and parents are receiving bills from the bursar's office.  Why, oh why, is this the weekend that the Parents Plus loan website has to be down for maintenance?  This was to be my day today - get the student loan.  Now I have to do it tomorrow night.  Whee.)

The idea?

Teeny tiny log cabin blocks.  Itty bitty ones.

I sorted through all of my 30s fabric and I have a lot of 5" charm squares.  You need more than a charm square to make a DJ block, however (painful personal experience here), and so I gotta use them up.

Well, the first two letters of my URL are LC for log cabin for a reason...

So I did some math.  I can get 4 1.25" strips from each charm.  Then I did some more math to see how many logs.  And then I needed graph paper and a calculator.  I had been doing all the math in my head for a few days (hey, some meetings are really boring), and now I needed to write it all down.

I can get up to the 9th log using the 5 inch strips.   Hey hey hey. 

So I decided to make 16 blocks.  That is how many centers I can get from a red charm square.  I decided to go ahead and use Kona snow for the light sides and then warm colors (pink, orange, yellow) and cool colors (green, blue, purple) for the dark sides.  I made 8 of each.

So not sure where this is going or how many I will make, but I did learn a few things.

I used 1 red charm and 2 of the other 6 colors.  I needed to add 4 more strips of each warm and cool to finish off the blocks.  So I need 2 more charms.   I am keeping all the scraps together; while the cast-offs may or not be usable in blocks for this effort, I can certainly cobble something together at some point.  For example, I have a lot of 1.25 squares left.  That's OK. 

Of course, it's G-5 Poof

Here's my G-5 Poof, done in yellow.  It was done by hand, and frankly my handwork needs some work.  One stripe is a bit wider than the other and my applique of the poof is so-so.  We shall see how things look by the end of this effort.

Time to explain the title of the post.  Years (and I mean years) ago, I joined a swap of lots of people.  We were each to make a DJ block multiple times and swap with a siggie square.  Many dropped out, but we had about 20 or so by the end.  I picked G-5 Poof.

I made the swap into a wall hanging which is at work.  It's called International Jane, as many blocks came from overseas.  I had so many leftover Poofs that they are the 4 corners of the wall hanging!

So of course when it was the first loose paper in the pile, it just made me giggle.  Of course.  It had to be.  How could  it NOT be? 

It was a full sheet of paper, so the next block up is G-6 Papa's Star, to be done in orange.  I now realize I am woefully low on orange.

And while doing this first block, I had an idea!  Stay tuned for how that idea turns out....

Monday Post About July

Updates on July goals...

Knitting - I have no desire to do the August Camp Loopy challenge and I was killing myself to get July done.  I decided to just chill out and not worry about completing anything on time. 

That being said, I did get some more of the body of the June challenge completed, as well as the second sleeve.  I use it for knitting in the car, at the dentist, the doctor, pub trivia, etc. 

The black Faroese shawl has a 12 row repeat and my goal is to get 1 repeat done per week.  It will take a while but the rows keep getting longer to knit.  Weekend mornings are the best time, as that is when the room is brightest, as the yarn is black.

Quilting - well of course, nothing new really.  Biggest thing is that I joined the Dear Jane challenge to do one block a week. 

We've been go-go-go for many weekends so I will be happy to be home and then to go into the basement and declutter and sew.  I need to make sense of the space.  And I hate to go down there now because Ted is not just gaming; he is frequently watching training videos for the new system at work.  So I do not want or wish to disturb him if he is actually working.

In many ways, life is in this holding pattern of getting ready to send Renee off to college.  There are things that have to be done and things I want to do that will be so much easier once she is gone. 

The Block That Started It All

The Dear Jane saga continues.

So, one member of my DJ small group was planning on attending the DJ meetup / retreat held periodically in Indiana, with Barbara Papadakis herself in attendance.  This guild member has attended several times and so knew Barbara well enough to know that the following was possible.

If Barbara is presented with a D-13 Field of Dreams block, she will autograph it for you to put in your Baby Jane.  Our guild member was willing to do this for us if we gave her the block.

I was on that, man. 

I picked that fabric because I love it.  I have found it in my travels in pink and purple as well.  (Yes, I am doing my Baby Jane in 30's, as it will remind me of my dad, born in 1935.) 

So then after having the aforementioned fabric placement crisis, I realized to get this effort off the ground this time, I HAD to find this block and mark it as green in the grid so I could do other blocks.

Whew.

I've done this and it means that the center square (always the best choice in Holly wood Squares) is pink  The corners are pink.  I am thrilled.  I might like pink.

So now it's time to get going.  I believe the goal this week is to take a piece of paper in the box, find its color and make it.  Don't care which block, just get one done.

Oh, Dear....Jane!

Oh Dear!!  Oh Dear!!

When Julie over at JulieKQuilts put up this post about Dear Jane, I said, why not?  So here I am and welcome if you come from that link!

Now that I declared myself, I better get going.  So I went to the basement where my studio is and tried to find my Dear Jane stuff.  Had a mild panic attack when it wasn't where I thought it would be.  Rifled through things - may have made a mess - not sure, was in a state of panic - will assess damage later.  Then I went to my trusty green notebook and looked at my inventory listing and it told me right where my DJ stuff was.  Amen for documentation.

So here's my DJ stuff:

I then had to dig for the book, which was of course at the bottom.  Not only was there fabric and the rulers in there but a whole ton of papers that I had copied from the book.  Clearly, I have tried in the past to get this project off the ground.  Found the book.  I needed the book to figure out where I was.

See, last time I valiantly tried to work on this effort, it was with a small group from my local guild. One member said she had to have the fabric matched to each block before she could start.  Some said that they wanted theirs to be monochromatic (oh, the idea of an all-pink one!).  Another was doing hers is redwork.   I thought I would let color placement fall  where it may. 

However I kept getting pulled back to the idea that Jane herself originally had, which was basically a barn-raising effect on the color placement.  After that  I threw up my hands, packed it away and here we are.

So how does all of this come together?  Stay tuned for the post about The Block That Started It All.

Update # 2 for July

Monthly Goals - Let's see where I end up.

Quilting:

Finish binding one thing to move down the Queen's List and get my Q3 finish in.  That's the post before this one.  I was #3 on the Queen's List I believe so I'm glad to move down!

Nothing else has been completed quilting-wise.  Knitting takes over.  

However, we did do the Eastern Central IL Shop Hop and boy, did I enhance my stash!  All in good fun.  It's my hobby, right?  a few places had really good sales rooms - Peanuts fabrics, etc.  Others had really unique notions and so I had to get some of those.  The lace zippers alone were worth it.

Knitting:

July Camp Loopy - I am behind schedule but persevering forward.  There is hope!

June Camp Loopy - One sleeve is done because having 2 circs going at the same time on the sweater meant the sweater couldn't travel well.  Since there was so very much knitting time (hours at the dentist office, hours upon hours in the car travelling to all the shops in the hop), I did get 3 repeats of the pattern done on the body.  That is a lot, I assure you.

August Camp Loopy - pick and buy for this project <--not started but must be done this next week

Tivo:

Tivo weirdness continues.  More of Durrells are gone, but again, I can watch on PBS Passport; I got 3 done this weekend!  I am the Night, a miniseries about the Black Dahlia murders, also disappeared.  So I took a minute to find it on demand and start watching it and it is a NO for me.  (And then it mysteriously reappeared.  I left it there for Ted.)  So no loss there.  Did watch two more of MacGyver.

I have tivo'ed a lot (omg a lot) of the PBS programming on the 50th anniversary of going to the moon.  That will be some solid immersive viewing when I start. 

Other topics:

Think about and start a walking plan, keto sounds good, so research that, and develop a plan on how to get this living room where we want it.  10 bags of donations from garage.  5 hours in the green room.  make sense of the lawn and garden. <-- none of this got addressed.  Oh well.

Let's see if I can remember to report in each Monday and then on July 31 / August 1.

i'm 2 for 2 on Monday posts, so hey that's good.

Q3 2019 UFO Finish

As I am #3 or #4 on the Queen's List, it's time for a finish, don't you all think?

A few years ago I asked to join a swap that revolved around the baseball season.  Long story short, lots of 6.5 inch charms are swapped each fall among the members.  And so each year I try to find a pattern that lets me use up the squares all together. 

I love the double slice pattern, but instead of starting with 10 inch layer cake squares and cutting and sewing and subcutting (ugh), I actually just cut pieces 5 by 6.5 or 5 by 3.5. I have a shoebox where I put the cut pieces when I process scraps and when it's full, it's time to make a donation quilt.   So I cut the 6.5 charms into these sizes, which left me with a strip from the large cut and a rectangle from the small cut.  I believe those just got processed in with the other scrap stash.  I don't believe I had quite enough charms so my stash supplemented the rest.

So here it is:  the Baseball Swap Double Slice.  Its owner has not yet been revealed to me.

Stats:

54 x 63
5.13 yards used

And with that, I will ask to be moved down!

Update #1 for July

Quilting:

Finish binding one thing to move down the Queen's List and get my Q3 finish in.

I'm #5 on the Queen's List, so I found the UFO to bind.  Did 2 needles yesterday and will do 2 needles a day until it's done.  Should be done this week.

Knitting:

July Camp Loopy - completed

I wanted to be at row 36 on the chart, and I ended last night on row 24.  Goal for this week is to row 68.

June Camp Loopy - through the sleeves

Got one sleeve done.  There's some road trip travel this week so I only wanted one active set of needles on the sweater.  I will work on this in the car this week.

Tivo:

Get through half of this list.  This 29 episodes - so 15 gone would be good.  I have a lot on my tivo and so I try to stay current, but some of the older stuff can fall off.  Final count on the tivo should be 170.

Unsolved : The Murders of Tupac and BIG 3 - deleted
Hillary 5 - done
Durrells 9
The Orville 2
MacGyver 4
Knightfall 6

OK, my tivo is wigging out.  It deleted 26 episodes of one show.  Then it deleted Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and BIG.  Then every couple of days, an episode of Hillary and the Durrells.  I am ticked.

I don't care about the Tupac thing and the 23 episodes of Chicago PD can be found on reruns without issue.  However, the 2 PBS shows really piss me off.

So I went to PBS Passport and set  up Hillary on my laptop.  Got my 5 charts for my shawl set up and promptly knit my way through all 5 episodes that I had left.

And that was my week!

July Goals

Monthly Goals - Let's see where I end up.

Quilting:

Finish binding one thing to move down the Queen's List and get my Q3 finish in.

5 things - I've thought about this and I want to complete 5 things in the basement to the flimsy stage.  Then I can add one project from upstairs and also start something new if I wish.

Then for every day that I am home for the day, I want to get one sandwiched.  Right now that looks like July 4, 6, 7, 14, 21, 27 and 28.  I have 4 flimsies I think ready to go, then add in the 5 above and I think I'd be doing pretty well.

Quilting - Once I get through sandwiching, I usually have a quilting plan.   If I do, then I just jump in and quilt it.  Only 1 quilt that is sandwiched languishes. 

Add 2 to the binding pile.  Hopefully more, but that's the minimum.

Knitting:

July Camp Loopy - completed
June Camp Loopy - through the sleeves
August Camp Loopy - pick and buy for this project
Block 2 things

Tivo:

Get through half of this list.  This 29 episodes - so 15 gone would be good.  I have a lot on my tivo and so I try to stay current, but some of the older stuff can fall off.  Final count on the tivo should be 170.

Unsolved : The Murders of Tupac and BIG 3
Hillary 5
Durrells 9
The Orville 2
MacGyver 4
Knightfall 6

Other topics:

Think about and start a walking plan, keto sounds good, so research that, and develop a plan on how to get this living room where we want it.  10 bags of donations from garage.  5 hours in the green room.  make sense of the lawn and garden. 

Let's see if I can remember to report in each Monday and then on July 31 / August 1.

Updates on Various Odds 'n Ends

June Camp Loopy never got finished on time.  However it will be finished because I love it and it's gorgeous.  No loss - I'll just do July Camp Loopy and keep working on the June one.

Vacation was wonderful.  Posts to follow.

Still loving the new-to-me laptop.  Nice to have and since it's small, that's pretty helpful.

I have adapted to my new Kindle.  I am currently re-reading Phillipa Gregory, now that I sort of understand who everyone is and how they are related.

Kim's 6th job offer at the job fair we went to in April was for Key West and she did it on a lark.  To make a long story short, she did accept that job.  She left for Florida earlier this month and their school board officially approved her hire.  Her new school calendar has hurricane days in it.  This makes me giggle. 

I am way behind on all my quilting.  The retirement quilt did not get done and I'm not worried about it.  Somewhere in all of that was Renee's high school graduation, and frankly that took my time and energy.  No one disputes that this was the best choice.  She had a great graduation and a great party and all was well.  It didn't rain (it was raining non-stop for days beforehand).

I have found the gift certificate for the quilt shop.  However I lost my medical credit card.  That was easy enough - ordered a new one and ordered one for Renee.

When I look ahead at the calendar for the next 3 or 4 months, I should be able to get to posting regularly.  I look forward to doing so.