Hurdy Gurdy QAL Week Two - All That Infernal Cutting

 

Cutting for a quilt is the spawn of the devil. It just is.

 I suppose there are some of you out there who love themselves a good session of slicing up helpless inanimate objects for hours on end using sharp instruments. In another world we might need to worry that you were psychotic, but thankfully, we quilters get you. However I'm in the camp of quilters who would really prefer I could snap my fingers and be done with all my cutting immediately.

Side note - I taught a class last week of my Vinnie Loves Maude pattern (shown on right). Even the baby size, which I had them all cut for, has over 1000 pieces. In good news, no one killed me, though some grumbling commenced. In better, one of the students bragged that using her guild's AccuQuilt cutter she got it all done in less than an hour. So there's definitely that option. We all bowed down to her appropriately.

Hurdy Gurdy is one of the most popular quilt designs in the "Oompah!" book, and I'm pretty sure one of the reasons is because of the way all those fabrics come together to make the pattern look so cool. But "all those fabrics" becomes the problem of ALL THAT CUTTING really quickly. So the best thing to do is either decide, like I did, to make a table runner with just three blocks (cutting amounts, page 56), or steel yourself for the realities of the mind numbing dullness of cutting and just go for it with the amounts for the larger quilt found on page 51. I definitely find that rocking out to some 80s hair bands on Pandora helps, but maybe that's just me.

  As a scrappy quilter, my cutting process isn't quite as straightforward as whipping some strips off my yardage and cutting them into the correct sized squares. For one, I don't want any of my fabrics to be the same in my blocks and if possible, my whole quilt, so cutting more than one or two of any particular fabric is useless to me. For another, I tend to be digging around in my scrap bins for pieces that are big enough for what I need rather than going directly to my yardage. I end up using a few different methods of cutting that may be of interest to you. Or not. But you're here, so you might as well read on.

The Stack, Smash, and Bang

The Stack, Smash, and Bang. So once I've chosen all my fabrics, like I did and you did in last week's tutorial, I'm left with a pile of randomly sized fabrics to work with, from all of which I want just one square (maybe two) cut. So I'm a big fan of just stacking those smaller puppies up, smashing them down with the iron just to make sure there are no creases, and banging out a stack of 5-6 squares at once. I do try to be cognizant (ooo! That's one of Mr QH's favorite big words - apparently I listen to him) of bias when I stack them, but let's be honest. I'm about using up fabric scraps and if I end up with one or two squares that aren't perfectly cut on straight of grain, I lose approximately zero minutes sleep over it.

The Fold and Slice

The Fold and Slice If I'm willing to have more than one square of the same fabric, which now and then I will suck it up and do, I just fold over the edge of the yardage or scrap far enough that I can cut out two squares at once. Seem obvious? Yes. Thank you for humoring me. It's one of those things that I point out in the case that someone didn't know. We all learn these things at our own pace! The nice thing too is that I didn't cut a whole strip of yardage this way but still managed to just get exactly what I needed. I am a little cheap with my fabric - I love to use it up, but I also love to be efficient. On the other hand, I do toss small scraps and trimmings with reckless abandon. I know many of you are clutching your pearls at the thought of all the birds and dog beds that could benefit, but I'm a tosser. You do you, I do me, and we are all happy as can be. I think I just made that up and maybe it should be on a pillow. It can also be sung to the Barney theme tune if you must.

The OLFA rotating mat is a gift from the gods

Do you own one of these OLFA rotating mats? If you are a scrap quilter and tend to cut from smaller pieces, or if you are any kind of quilter who ever trims anything, OMG. I totally recommend it. I used mine continuously while cutting out all my fabrics for my runner! Continuously! It started to yell for a union mandated coffee break!

The Piece to Piece

The Piece to Piece Finally, sometimes I get obessed with using a fabric in my quilt but I don't have a large enough piece of it ready to cut. However I DO have enough of the fabric to be able to piece it together to cut the right sized square. In that case, I figure I already am going to have a million seams in my quilt, what's one or two more? I have no issue sewing some smaller pieces together so that I can chop them right up again. I definitely recommend open pressing of seams if you do this, though. It not only makes the seam flatter, but eliminating the bump you'd have with a pressed to the side seam also makes the fact that you have a seam there at all a whole lot less obvious. Another thing that would make it way less obvious is using tone on tones for this method when possible, which I did do as you can see in the photo, and using matching thread, which you can see I did not. However I wanted you to see it. Or I was lazy. Possibly both.

Eventually, you'll have those pieces all cut out. It's going to be a beautiful thing, truly. It's possible by that time you'll have also perfected your rendition of "Pour Some Sugar on Me," and if so, extra kudos.

There's definite joy in having all your pieces cut out and ready to go. There's also a time and place for deciding to just cut one block's worth of fabrics at once if it makes you feel more human. I tend to fall in that latter category. Whatever you need to do to stay sane during the cutting process, you do it. We aren't here to judge, we are just here to get you through it!

All my beautiful squares, ready to accordion.

Next week is when the BIG FUN begins! So I hope you're keeping up because you don't want to miss the Oompah joy of the actual accordion making!

Hurdy Gurdy QAL Part One - Fabric Selection and Accordion Practice

So you've decided to join us for the Hurdy Gurdy QAL! That's because you are a seeker of fun and an owner of fine taste in quilt patterns. As I am a purveyor of both fun and quilt patterns, I feel like maybe we were meant for each other. Yay us!

Part one of part one - Dive into those fabrics!

I know most of you likely are all set to go with the book, and that is great! If you don't yet have the book, and if you can't find it in your LQS (many have it! Ask them first!) or you may buy it right from my site. If all else fails, it is available on Amazon. It's all up to you!

Because the book is required for the QAL, I will not be referring to any sizes or amounts of any fabrics to be cut, as you will have that information already. I definitely will be referring to various pages and sections, so you'll need it handy!

As with any project, color and fabric selection is generally the first big hurdle. Especially when it comes to scrappy quilts, quilters can tend to be overwhelmed. Some of us feel like we are really pretty good at choosing color combos and fabrics that sing together like the Vienna boys choir, and others of us feel like we sometimes end up with fabrics that sing more like a group of cats in the dumpster behind the pizza joint while there is a full moon.  The keys to the city of Vienna is a really awesome combination of just a few colors, IMO.

I got 99 fabrics and only matched one...or thirteen.

"Hurdy Gurdy" as seen in the book was my first attempt at a teal and red quilt. Those who know my style and color loves know that you've likely never seen me use red. I'm just not a fan. It's never done it for me. The whole teal/red fad of several years ago in more modern quilting passed me by, and I didn't even care. But for some reason I was all about giving it a shot this time around, and I kind of loved it! It's all about the contrast of a warm color with a cool color that makes the teal/red combo really work. Think about other cool/warm combos - purple/orange might look like a sunset, green/red is obviously Christmas, green/pink is every sorority girl's favorite, and maroon/yellow is fall in a quilt. I know you'll think of more.

Once I've chosen my color scheme, when choosing my actual fabrics I go with my philosophy of "consistency in the chaos," which can be described as "choose a few, use a slew." Choose a few colors - in the case of Hurdy Gurdy, Color One and Color Two - and then grab every single fabric you own that is of those colors. Every. Single. One. You can pare down later, but having more to choose from at the beginning means you might actually use more in the blocks, because you're going to discover fabrics you forgot you even had. I'm a huge fan of using a different fabric for every "chevron" shape in each block, and that's a lot of different fabrics. We can be real - I did reuse reds and teals in multiple blocks, but each block of my quilt does have all unique reds and teals. I encourage it. We are being scrappy here! Your consistency will come from the color theme, and I promise it's going to look amazing!

It's possible I've never loved a photo backdrop more.

As you'll see in the cutting charts on pages 51 and 56, you'll also need a background fabric and a contrast popper. I went with a light silvery grey for background and a navy for the popper, once again just because I was looking for high contrast in value. My tester/sample makers made completely different color choices, both from myself and from each other, and I love that! You can see both Linda's and Barbara's quilts on page 56 as well. So many more options to think about!


I've mentioned I'll be going with a table runner size as I too participate in the QAL, because I am my own biggest fan. Because I like to mix it up, I'm going with less contrast in my fabric and color value selections.  This time around I've opted for reds and oranges as my Color One and Color Two, which one might argue are really just two ends of the same spectrum. In my case, for this project, that's totally the point, because I'm going for making these blocks look like autumn leaves turning. I know, go ahead and laugh at me trying to be all artsy. But I have a vision, and by gosh, I'm going to go with that vision no matter what!

While I don't need you to cut your fabrics until the next tutorial, I'm showing you mine cut because I can get them all in one photo that way. I'm all about efficiency. I'm liking how they are definitely red and orange, but also kind of blendy. It's going to be a different look, but I think it's going to work. It's also going to be perfect for a thought I have about switching up the accordion order (OMG! Can she DO that? Yep. My pattern, my quilt, my rules!) so we will see if all these visions in my head work into reality like I hope.

For the contrast color, I decided to go with deep purple, which to me is for sure an autumn color. I found a gorgeous rich purple in my scrap bin, but even eyeballing I knew it wasn't going to be QUITE enough for all of the contrast squares I was going to need. Enter the "consistency in the chaos" philosophy as related to value. I found another deep purple which had enough to get me to the magic number, and it could not have been more perfectly matched in value. Just a little different print. NO ONE WILL CARE. If I am wrong about this, I'm certain I'm right about the fact that I am not going to care if they do care. Because once again, in my world, scrappy means lots and lots of fabrics.

Want to know a secret? All those navys in my original Hurdy Gurdy quilt? There are seven different fabrics represented. You'd never have known, though, would you? I give you a close up that you can zoom in on if you need to see a few of them.

You might even notice I did the same thing with my background fabrics. Several beiges, all pretty much the same tone and value but different prints. Totally legal! Uses up scraps!

So again, no need to cut yet, but I hope some of these thoughts help you look at your fabric with fresh eyes as you are contemplating your quilts!



Part two of Part One - Practice makes semi-perfect!

I dare to dream that since you purchased "Oompah!" you've done nothing but accordion sew your little faces off. But this may not be true, because you may have been too busy just living your lives without me and my ideas at the centers of them. So now is the time. I always recommend that before you start your first official ordered accordion project, which you are doing by making Hurdy Gurdy, you have a basic understanding and skill level making any sort of accordion at all. You'll be happier, I'll be happier for you, and you're going to get hooked, so it's a huge win for all of us.

I definitely recommend reading the entire introduction section of the book if you haven't already. If nothing else, it is delightfully snarky while being incredibly informative, much like this blog. You might well learn something new, even if you've accordioned with me before accordioning was cool. Starting on page 7, though, are the true get down to business directions for making a basic accordion.

Practice fabrics don't have to be to your taste!

I love using charm packs or random scrappy charm squares I never did anything with for practice (or in my case, for teaching the method in classes). It's a great way to use up stuff you really didn't know how you were going to ever use, and they are already cut for you. I was recently gifted a fat ton of charm squares that must have been from some kind of swap, and I am pretty much set for life on precut squares. If you aren't so lucky, just cut like ten and follow the step by step directions - watch the videos, too! Links on page 7! - and you'll be accordioning like a champ! 

I recommend making one accordion, in any order, about 10-15 fabrics long to practice. Obviously, between the book and videos you are going to be perfect, but page 11's chart about troubleshooting is there in the off chance that you mess up. Make sure you practice cutting it all apart, too! 

 Ok, so that's pretty much it for the first lesson. We are easing in and I can't wait to see what you come up with. If you haven't joined the Quilting Along with EPQD group on FB, I'd love to have you check it out. It's new, but I'm hoping this QAL will kick it off in style. It's meant to be a place where anyone can share anything about this or any of my other QALs or mysteries (more of those coming very soon because holy! I have so enjoyed doing them!) and post photos directly. I really hope you'll post some of your color combos and practice accordion photos before our next lesson next week!

I also have the hastag #hurdygurdyqal for IG, so please hashtag away!

Enjoy, and I'll see you next on 9/26!

Announcing the "In the 'Hood" Summer Mystery!

Suite Life, the tablerunner sized result of my first mystery!

Fair warning: Once I try something and it works, I'm pretty apt to try it again. I really am only human in that a positive experience gives me a new reason for designing for you, and I really do enjoy repeating successful programs for all of you to enjoy. Here's hoping I wasn't a one hit wonder with my first mystery project last fall!

This summer I present the EPQD "In the 'Hood" Summer Mystery! Unlike the Jingle Jumble of last fall that resulted in my popular Suite Life pattern (two sizes and styles, plus a bonus project #shamelessplug), this is no "mini" mystery. This is a full blown (50" square) quilt! Why? Because I felt like it. That's pretty much it.

And since it isn't a seasonal design, there's no need to make a smaller project like the nutcracker guys runner was just to get it done in time for the holidays. Oh no. You can start this baby with us, receive the clues along the way, and you'll have 9 full weeks of summer to get it done if you keep up. If not, eh. You'll finish it eventually and you won't feel like you missed the perfect season to use it.  Or gift it. Or ball it up and throw it on the UFO pile, to remain unquilted until 2027. It's your quilt. I don't judge what you do with it.

So how does this work? I'm so glad you are going to let me tell you!

What is the "In The 'Hood" mystery?
Well, it's a mystery, so I really can't tell you. Ha! Kidding. A mystery quilt is one that you create step by step through a series of staggered clues, that if written well enough and/or the quilter is just not thinking the same way I do should only reveal the true pattern at the very end. This mystery will consist of five clues, released via email bi-weekly starting Friday, June 23. The first clue begins with supply list and cutting and the last will have you completing the entire quilt top. 

Why should I do this mystery?

• You love a puzzle
• You only have 14 current projects going and you like to have at least 20
• You've made one or two of my patterns in the past and like my style
• You've never made one of my patterns but you've heard good things
• You've never heard of me or my patterns but you love a new experience
• You're always up for an adventure
• You have fabric you'd like to play with
• You're looking for an excuse to go fabric shopping
• You believe quilting is a four season activity 
• Your children are home from school and you need to lock yourself away for an hour or two here and there

So basically, if you like to sew, and you like a good project, you should do it!

When will clues be released?
I'll release clues every other Friday, starting on June 23 and ending on August 18. This will give ample time (2 weeks) between each release for you to complete the clue, even with summer activities taking us away from our sewing rooms on occasion.

What if I fall behind?
Well, we won't flog you. It's summer. You do your best to keep up. The worst that will happen is you'll maybe see the end product after the last clue is released before you have a chance to finish. This should only enhance your desire to finish it eventually.

How will my clues be delivered?
When you purchase the mystery package, I'll enter your email into the clue distribution email list. Every time a new clue is released, you will automatically receive it in your email by noon on the release day.

What if I sign up mid-summer? Will I still get all the clues? 
Of course! You can sign up any time, and whatever clues have already been released will be sent the day you sign up. Then your email will be added to the distribution and you'll get the next one along with everyone else. My MIL used to tell me I was crazy efficient. I promise to prove her right!

Is it important for me to give you my real email address when I order, rather than the one I use for spam, or is it okay if I give you the spam one and then send you a frustrated email because I can't find the clues?
So, yeah. That happens. A lot. I can only send clues (or pdf purchases, which is where this tends to happen more) to where you tell me to send clues. I know it is probably reflex to put a spam email into online purchases, but please try to give me your real one so we can both be happy with the outcome when I send the clues. I promise I don't add you to my newsletter distribution unless you've checked the box that says that is okay.

Is there a cost?
The mystery will cost $5 - that's just $1 per clue.

Where do I sign up?
You may sign up starting June 16 HERE.

I hope to see you all "In the 'Hood" this summer!

Life is Suite Again!

It's officially been exactly three months to the day since I blogged. Many of you have given up on me, I am sure, and I do apologize for the long delay. Here are my reasons, in no particular order:

1. The holidays kill me yearly.
2. Got new computer, which is always a fun learning curve for me.
3. Literally took me six weeks, working on trouble shooting for at least a few minutes almost daily, to sign into this blog again on new computer. I was minutes away from calling Blogger and freaking out on them.
4. Yes, I am a computer disaster, still.

Okay, so that's actually all perfectly in the right order, from holidays to computer horror. But this morning it all, for no reason I can figure, ACTUALLY WORKED WHEN I TRIED TO SIGN IN! So while I should be organizing the rest of my taxes, I'm seizing the moment!

So here's what I can't believe - I haven't even told you all about my Suite Life pattern here! Based on the popularity of when I ran it as a Mystery in the fall, I am thinking many of you know about it already. But in case you missed it, it's my first pattern finish of 2017!

I know, I know, you are all thinking you are over Christmas and who wants a Christmas pattern now? Maybe true. But I'm a rebel. And I'd rather get this one done now and photographed with snow on the ground (see that snow?) than wait until August. Plus here's hoping Checker can sell a few at Spring Market, when believe it or not, the Christmas stuff is everywhere you turn.

In any case, I'm not totally wrong. And how can I be wrong when this is SO DARN CUTE??? Slight bias showing.

The pattern started life as my Jingle Jumble Mini Mystery last fall, with five clues released over five weeks, plus a bonus clue on finishing ideas. Everyone who participated ended up with a cute table runner, and believe it or not I know of at least five that were given as Christmas gifts! That's how quick and finish-able the runner version is!

Maybe you find the fact that three of my soldiers are upside down in this photo offensive. Or maybe you find it simply curious, but figure I'm weird and somehow that makes it make sense. Or maybe you instantly get exactly why I did that, which was because when this is on a table, I can either choose to include both sides of the table in the joy of the cuteness, or I can have all the soldier guys facing only one side of the table. Which to me seems a bit unnecessarily rude. So there you go. Don't like the upside down effect? Just turn the blocks around. As with everything, the end product is YOUR quilt. I want you to be happy. I want me to be happy. Answering emails from customers upset that their soldiers are upside down and their dinner party was ruined because of it (hasn't happened, thankfully) would not make me happy.

A little photo session halfie. It was a little windy.

Currently the "Suite Life" pattern is available as a pdf only, and can be found either on Craftsy or my website.
So what else have I been up to in three months? Well, here's a quick pictorial rundown to get you back up to date and me totally fluent in posting photos from this new computer.

1 - 

Like the photo says, I'm an Instructor at AQS QuiltWeek Lancaster! HOW CRAZY IS THAT? I'm so excited to bring my "Now YOU Give it a Scrap Slap" color and design class to the national (ack!) stage on the afternoon of March 30. You'll find it listed in the catalog for the show as "Hands On Scrap Slapping," but same thing; AQS had a five word maximum for class title, thus the change of name just for this event. Heading to the show? Dying to meet me? I'm dying to meet you, too! So sign up! http://www.quiltweek.com/workshops/25504-hands-on-scrap-slapping/

2 

It's time again for Drop and Give Me Twenty! In fact, it started last week, but it's truly not too late to join in at any point in February. Well, maybe the last day or two, because by then what's the point, but now is still plenty of time to join in, get in the habit of sewing 20 minutes a day, and amazing yourself and all the rest of us with all that you can accomplish this month! Come on over and join us at Drop and Give Me Twenty 2017 on Facebook.

3. Other people's patterns

Sometimes you just need or want to have fun with another designer's ideas. I had such fun "VFW-ing" my orphan blocks into a Victoria Findlay Wolfe inspired "15 Minutes of Play" type quilt. It was a study in partial seaming and more than once had me tearing my hair out for lack of another 1/2" on a block, but in the end it's for sure a totally unique quilt no one else could claim as their own.

I finished Blue Nickel Studios's "Painted Forest" pattern last week, and I cannot tell you how in love with it I am. The colors and fabrics were WAY too much fun to put together and I cannot wait to quilt it. What shocks me the most is how close to Scott Hansen's original colors I stayed. That is testament to his awesomeness for sure; I NEVER seem to go with what has been presented to me, but this time I did. And made a complete disastrous upheaval of my entire studio in the process; why is it that no matter what scrap I'm working with, I know I have another one somewhere that could be even better.

That should catch you up on a few highlights. Here's hoping next time I try to blog in a week or so I can get back in here to do it!

Maggie is All Danced Out and Heading Home

When Jacquelynne asked if I would be a sponsor for this BOM project, I answered that I'd be thrilled to send prizes (which I did, in month 3)

Remember that?

 but that I really wasn't sure I could commit to being an actual blogging sewer. She convinced me otherwise and I'm so glad she did. I work best on deadlines, and I love having a little project on the side that is just for fun. This filled both slots for me, and to top it off everyone who has been lucky enough to enter the morass of my quilt studio in the last few months has exclaimed over it on my design wall. Even my 13 year olds.That is saying something, people. So thank you, Jacquelynne, for this lovely experience!

And thank you, readers, for showing up to see how I'm going to scrap up the quilt every month. Those of you who know me know I love to get a little crazy with a border. Emphasis on "little;" I'm not saying I go all nutso and avant garde and asymmetrical and artsy, but I do go rogue and change them up most of the time, generally adding a little piecing to long plain borders. Is there anything wrong with long plain borders? No. So why do I do this? 1. My scrappy heart demands it. 2. My limited supply of yardage demands it. Being a scrappy designer means the most I ever buy of most fabrics, even if I really really love them, is a half yard. Long borders generally don't work with half yards.

Sure, I could go buy more fabric. But that would mean I had started these borders in time to do so. Deadlines. I love them, I work well with them, but I like to test my sanity.

So that's what I came up with for borders to round out my scrappy version of Maggie. Let's see how I changed it up a bit from the original version.

Darn but I do love a good recolorization. Look at how different they look! I do love how the red triangles in the original evoke for me a feeling of an old photo album, which goes along with the old fashioned feel of Jacquelynne's version. So cool.

For my version, I didn't change anything about the construction of the first two borders. All I did was  recolor them. Instead of doing all the corner HSTs in grey with red, I did one each of grey with each color in my scheme of green, yellow, blue, and purple. Then instead of the long white borders, I chose to add long colored borders, again in the same color scheme. Placing the HST and long borders of the same color together on one end at each corner kind of blends it all together and makes it look like a ribbon changing color as it goes around the blocks.

Or not. That's what I'm seeing, you may see just some colored lines. Quilting, man. It's all in the eye of the beholder. But that's what I did for the first border.

The second border, the thin grey border. I left the same. I tend to have a lot of grey in my stash, because I use it as backgrounds. So I had enough to work with for that border.

The third border demanded I either go to the fabric store, which as we covered earlier wasn't happening for lack of time, or come up with a pieced border that would look like it belonged. As I'm better at doing the latter than spending time and money at crunch time, I dove back into the scrap bins to find two fabrics each in....say it with me now....green, yellow, blue, and purple! I think I may have you trained.

Made 16 HSTs out of my scraps and background, and turned one set of each color (if you don't know by now the colors, there is no hope for you) into a flying goose 4 1/2" x 8 1/2".

At risk of boring you to tears with this same picture AGAIN, I'm throwing it here one last time so that you can follow along without having to scroll up to look. I'm thinking of you. Really I am.

Also props to my neighbors Julie and Scott for giving me carte blanche to use their fence as a backdrop for photos.

Then I cut eight strips of background fabric 4 1/2" x 14 1/2" and sewed one to either end of the flying goose units. I sewed an HST to either end of these borders - check out the top border with the purple flying goose. It has a blue HST on the left and a yellow HST on the right. Then I could just add two of these borders to the sides, and throw grey cornerstones on the remaining two borders and smack them right onto the top and bottom.

"Smack." It's a quilting term.

Now, remember my purple situation with one of my blocks? Yeah, I'm over it. Yes, I still know which one it is. But at first glance, I doubt you do. And if you do, don't tell me. Moral of story - anything can blend if you throw enough variety of fabrics at it to deflect the viewer's eye.

I really enjoyed this project and I actually plan to finish it! Really I do! I think it will be a great springtime quilt to hang in my front hall, where I tend to put my seasonal ones. That means I have about 4 months to finish it, and I think I can squeeze it in.

Our prize today is one that I LOVE. I mean, LOVE beyond all reason love and use always and think the inventor is brilliant LOVE. The Clearly Perfect Angles by New Leaf Stitches.

If you have never experienced the sheer ecstasy of the CPA (and I'm not talking about your accountant), you NEED TO. You just do. I have forever thought that the most primitive method we quilters are still using in our work is drawing the $^&*$# corner to corner lines on squares that we are going to make into HSTs or flying geese or whatever. I mean OMG. It's the 21st century. We can do better. And you know what - Kari Carr DID! She invented this gizmo; it adheres to your machine with all sorts of cool guidelines so that you can always have a perfect 1/4" seam, always know where to place your block for sewing corner to corner or 1/4" away from corner to corner, can make 45 degree angles for foundation piecing or geese effortlessly, can join binding strips without fear of wonk (another quilting term)....I mean the list is long, people. It's the best $11 you can spend. I love it so much I'm going to be demo-ing it when I head to Tannersville PA next weekend to be the speaker at "Quilters Day Out" sponsored by Mountain Laurel Quilters' Guild. And I don't just demo anything, you know. I have to love it so much that I gush my face off. It makes for much more entertaining demo.

To enter the CPA giveaway, please comment below answering the following questions:

1. Have you been plugging along on Maggie's First Dance, and if so, how far have you gotten?
2. Favorite book you read recently. I know this has nothing to do with Maggie, but I read audible books while I quilt and I desperately need some new ideas.

I've really enjoyed getting to know so many of you over the last six months. I'm definitely going to miss our little monthly Monday morning chats. If you will too, please consider following me on my Facebook page, on IG (@evapaigequilts), or signing up for my newsletter. Any one of these places is a great way to be among the first to see where I'm going to be live and gushing about my favorite products, or to find out about cool projects I'm doing, like the Jingle Jumble Mini Mystery I have going right now. We're on week 3 today, but you can hop in at any time through 11/28 - and it's a "Mini" mystery, so you'll more than likely catch up quickly!

Thanks for sharing this time with me! I've enjoyed it! Hope to see you again soon!

Maggie's Swinging into a Square Dance

Month Five! For real! Can you believe it? The BOM has just marched on this year and it feels like every few days that I'm getting a friendly reminder from Jacquelynne to kindly get off my butt (my words, not hers) and make my blocks and blog about how amazing I am (again, my words, not hers). So here we are, and here we go!

Ha! Remember my butterfly sitch last month? I just noticed the butterfly is on the logo up there. The whole thing. Jacquelynne really is so much better than I am in all ways.

So this month we make five blocks. ACK! FIVE! Does this mean in month six I'm making SIX, because if so I better start now. I saved it all til yesterday and while they weren't hard, between picking out all my scrappy fabrics and cutting and sewing all five it was one of those projects that "expanded to fill up the time allotted," ie took me all day. However, I love my blocks, so well worth it.

I decided to add a little more color and scrappiness to my blocks, so I chose to use five different fabrics in each of my four main colors (blue, purple, green, yellow) rather than just yellow. So that meant a dive into my scrap bins.

I know many scrappy quilt designers like to preach that you should cut and order your scraps into special sizes, like 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips. To this idea, I always say "What happens when you need a bigger piece of scrap, or feel like doing something more exciting than using a couple of different sizes?" To my knowledge, none of the famous designers who order their scraps has actually heard me ask them this nor have they felt the need to answer me personally, but whatever. To each their own. My bins are scraps from tiny to just under 1/4 yard and I like it that way.

Actual randomly sized scraps found in my purple bin.

 I found what I needed and cut them all into the size given. Because I am a quilter, I own tools to cut things, and that is what I do. Doesn't bother me at all that they weren't all precut to 2 1/2" strips. Because now I have more of most of them in bigger sizes and I STILL got to use them in this project. #winning

You can probably tell my greys were all different too. Because why not. My middle name is Random.

Cutting and sewing for an afternoon lead to five blocks, three illustrated here, along with the cautionary tale of "If you store your scraps in jumbled bins as I do, they tend to be wrinkly even after pressing." Bad news: I was too lazy to repress them before taking this photo. Good news: I can and will press them to death before I put the quilt together.

What you can't tell is that all these whites are different, even within blocks. This is a truly scrappy quilt.

Remember my issue with that one purple last month, and my musing that, should I decide to care, it might not really go with the rest of my purples? Well, I think making these blocks scrappy has sufficiently rendered the point moot. One of my constant quilting mottoes, along with "Perfection is Overrated," is "Whenever possible, Deflect." I think all this color does that well.

I'm already kind of excited about an idea I have to add a little more color to these alternate blocks. This of course assumes I will finish it. Because as you can see, I don't even have the whole thing together although I should, and you likely will never return to my blog to see if I do finish it because this month has proven I am slacking. Here's hoping we can all just picture it for now. I do promise to have it together AND WITH BORDERS next month! You heard it here first.

Someone who never slacks is this month's giveaway sponsor - Christa Watson of Christa Quilts. I've gotten to know her professionally over the last couple of years and she is a wonder. She designs fabulous modern patterns and wrote the best book on machine quilting I've ever come upon (no money was exchanged for me to say that) "The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting," which she penned along with Angela Walters. Angela covers the long arm parts, and Christa covers the domestic machine parts. As I am a domestic machine quilter, or of as I call it the "roll, stuff, swear, drink, repeat" variety, her tips on quilting designs and using your tiny machine for big quilting impact are amazing.

However, disclaimer. The book is amazing but that is not the prize this month. Never fear, though - Her patterns are just as fabulous! I mean look how cute!

In order to win the pattern pack, you must leave a comment for me telling me your favorite fall soup or stew. Recipe optional; you know we are all just going to look it up on Pinterest anyway if it sounds good. I considered asking you to tell me your brand of iron given my nasty wrinkled blocks, but that was just boring. And iron is only good to eat in cereal.

Thanks for stopping by!