Squirrels....

Sunday, the weather was beautiful and I took the two quilts that I had finished recently outside for their photo ops.

Then I decided to pull out my orange scraps and get to working on my RSC for this month.

My order for thread from Quiltedjoy.com arrived right on time yesterday, but was I in the mood to load it onto Mo'e and get started on stitching the borders that have been waiting since Friday? Noooo

 I pulled out an UFO that wasn't really an UFO... I've been cutting and stashing 2" squares for this project for awhile so maybe it was a WIP.  Either way, I decided to get it done and so I started sewing the 2" squares into 5 x 5 blocks.

Yesterday, when I delivered canning jars to the LQS (for someone else), I spotted a beautiful textured red fabric in the clearance section that I - ok, I admit it was an impulse purchase.  After a quick stop at Walmart for a few things, I came home and proceeded to start cutting some of that fabric into squares... and that's when the trouble began....

I measured one of the scrappy blocks and it measured roughly 8" x 8" ( it still needed a good pressing and squaring up) so that's what I cut the red squares.  Alternated the solid blocks with the scrappy blocks and things were fine for two rows... then the scrappy blocks started to be more like 7 1/2" - 7 3/4".. oh oh.  I read the pattern again and it said to cut the solid blocks 7 1/2 x 7 1/2".  ARGHHH.  

So, last night, while watching a program on youtube, I un-stitched the third row and later, started trimming all the blocks to the correct measurements ( after I cut a stack of 4 at 7" instead of 7 1/2").

Took out the first two rows this afternoon and got those trimmed... then I realized that I didn't have enough rows... well, I had what the pattern called for, but I had accidentally cut too many red squares/blocks and wasn't about to waste them (and I wanted the quilt bigger than 56"x 56") so I had to cut some more 2" blocks ( for a little more variety - I was getting down to where I was having to use the same fabric for more than one square in the block.)

Finally got all the rows I need, I think ( still have a few red blocks left over so I could make another row or two).  

This photo was taken before I stitched the 8th row to the 7th row.  The scrappy blocks are weirdish... when I trimmed them down, some of the 2" blocks lost half of themselves... some lost less - so if you look close at them, you can see where they are lopped off, but ask me if I care... NOPE!!  It's a scrap quilt and I like it, imperfections and all.

If I can get the last row(s) done and then all of the rows sewn together tomorrow then I can start thinking about finding a fabric for the borders.  There's enough red left that I could probably do a 2" border, but that's not what I want to do.  1.  I want one bigger than 2" and 2. I want to be sure that I have enough of the red for binding.

Ok, that's it for tonight....

take care...

ttyl.......