Two steps forward, one step back

I decided this morning that today would be the day that I would start the Beach Ball Dresden quilt that Me and My Sister demo'ed on Missouri Star Quilt Company's youtube.  I've had this blue print jelly roll for AGES

  and wanted to use it so I bought some blue fabric, I think from Connecting Threads and then some white from Walmart. 

I did a practice block a few weeks ago, just to see if I'd like it.  It was pretty easy and I thought it would be great to do.  Especially since I love Dresden Plate blocks/quilts.  I watched the video again just to be sure I was going to be doing it right.  Made one 'plate' and put it on a 12" block instead of the 10" that the pattern called for ( the plate would have hung over the edges of the smaller block).  I also had some left over 5" squares from the same line of fabric and decided to stick one behind to fill up the center of the plate.

Before placing square behind 

 With the square behind the plate

 Here it is completed... kind of bulky, which I could eliminate some of it by trimming away excess...

But I've decided I don't like it well enough to make 24 more.  Since I already have the blades for a second one already cut out, I'll finish that plate and stitch it down and then the two blocks can join the ranks in my orphan block pile/stash.

It's ok; I already have another quilt in mind to use the white and the jelly roll.. and MIGHT have to use a strip or two of the solid blue but hopefully not.  I don't have a pic of the pattern and can't remember the name right off so it will have to wait til another day.

I finished quilting the first row of the tool quilt ... all I needed to do was 'meander' in the blue/yellow background of each block.  Then I moved on to the second row and that's completed now... two more rows to go... still trying to decide what to do for the borders. 

Feathers are usually my go-to, but this is a guy's quilt and I don't think a guy would appreciate feathers... and it's a charity quilt so I want something quick and simple.... maybe I'll just do a couple of rows of straight stitching - or, if I'm really feeling ambitious, I could do piano keys... probably not - I have to remind myself that I want S I M P L E.  Will have to think on it, but not too long - there are other quilts waiting their turn with Mo'e (he's a popular guy lol).

When we went to Walmart this afternoon for groceries, I bought 12 tubs (a little larger than a plastic shoe box).. I only needed 9, I thought, but they came in sets of 4 and 8 wasn't enough... in this case, more is better.  Once back home again, I started sorting the scrap baskets that were closest to my sewing machine and taking a snip of each color of fabric and taping it to one end of a 'tub' then putting the scraps in whichever bin was their color.  I might need a bigger blue tub... that seems to be what I have the most of.  Even with sorting orange, yellow and gold into the same bin, I still used 11 of them for the scraps/strings - # 12 has the jelly roll/blue fabric project that I mentioned earlier.

When I get them all sorted ( I think I have two more not counting the charity quilt tub), I'll be able to work on scrap and/or string blocks a lot easier.  Instead of them being a mishmash of different colors, which is fine but not what I want right now - I'll be able to make blocks with all the same color... like all red, all blue. 

The question right now is "where am I going to put these bins now that I have them and have fabric in them???"... I'll figure something out - I'll just have to clear some space for them -- SOMEWHERE. 

Ok, time to kick back and relax

TTYL