Pretty Parasite

Spanish Moss

Spanish Moss

I know, I know!  It's not Spanish.  It's not moss.  And it's not a parasite, all myths aside.

Technically it's an epiphyte in the Bromeliad family.  In other words, it grows on air, though in the Deep South it prefers to grow on Live Oaks because they produce some helpful chemicals. 

However, in Savannah it grows on EVERYTHING!

As seen through a foggy lens -- dang humidity!

Throughout the South the Crepe Myrtles have been gorgeous this year.

Greetings from Savannah on this Thursday.

What's wrong with this picture?

Any guesses?

Other than the shoes on the floor ...

In my haste to get the 4th row sewn on before leaving town I managed to reverse a few pieces!

What's even worse?

Hard to see on the white tile floor ... I'm short 3 pieces of background!!!

I sure hope I left it at home.

And I'm glad I brought another project to work on while DH is taking SIL to doctors.

Sigh ...

Wildlife Wednesday

Near the beach

Spotted outside our restaurant window last night, right after a big thunderstorm.

The rainbow after the storm ...

was even prettier reflected in the restaurant window.

It's a Mystery

But not much longer!

Alycia at Alycia Quilts released Clue 4 to her A-6 Mystery on Wednesday.

But first I had to catch up with Clue 3 that I couldn't work on while on the road the week before.  As it happens, I also had to catch up with Clues 1 and 2 because I had not done all the additional cutting and had constructed one of the HSTs with the wrong pieces.

With all the catchupping out of the way, I was able to complete Clue 4 which was the construction of half of the quilt!

A-6

I was in a mild panic because I was running out of the red with spiral curlycues.

I thought I was going to have to use the companion sheep fabric in the center of the star (thinking about you Mangofeet!).

But you can see from the first picture that it was too dark and would have been distracting.  So I did what our ancestors would have done;  I pieced my scraps together and was able to eek out three more 9-1/2" squares!

These large blocks and squares have been easy to assemble and make final assembly really fast.  Can't wait to see how the big white star will fit in!

Thanks, Alycia, for organizing such a fun and easy mystery.

Neutral

It's a natural!

Color me thrilled that the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August is no color at all.  Time to drag out the neutral bin and get crackin'!

Chunky Churn Dashes

I quickly whipped out three chunky churn dash blocks this morning.  These are so easy because they use strip sizes I already have -- 2-1/2" and 1-1/2".  While I was at it, I made anther yellow one, just because I could.

Yellow CCD

In a way it also qualifies in Angela's definition of neutral.

The main reason I'm thrilled with this month's color is that I was already planning an all neutral quilt!  I had been using cutoff corners from En Provence as leaders and enders to make HSTs.  No particular plan for them yet, but I did put four of them together to make a neutral pinwheel.

3" Pinwheel

I'm sure it will find a place of honor in my new project.  I'll be spending next week at my SILs so I'm taking my overflowing neutral bin with me to get a headstart.  Stay tuned to see how much progress I make.

And in the meantime, hop over to Angela's place (soscrappy) to see how other quilters are planning to use their neutral scraps.

LTG Update

Take a look!

The yellow sashing is SO much better!

(Wish my lighting in that corner were better.  Hoping to resolve that soon.)

If you've made this quilt you may notice I have put some blocks in different places. 

There are some blocks I don't like and will replace with something of my own choice. 

I figure as long as it fits in the allotted space, it will work!

I spent the better part of today adding yellow sashing to the above sections, after removing the rainbow sashing I had already sewn on.  I also made these six Crosses of the U.K. blocks.

I'm wishing I had used the color in the thinner X stripes; I may make some more

if they stand out too much in their final location.

That's probably all I'll be doing this week, other that maybe adding

more sashing to another finished section.

OMG - August

Keeping it simple

I have only one obvious goal for the month of August:  make my addition to Jayne's round robin quilt.  It is due on the third Saturday and since I will be out of town for a week I'd better get going on it!  (I'm not going to show a picture because Jayne wants to be surprised and she does check my blog periodically.)

So that's it! My One Monthly Goal for August 2017.

I will, of course, continue working on Long Time Gone.

Yellow dotty sashing

Tested one of my new sashing choices yesterday and both DH and I agree that the yellow allows the B/W blocks to really stand out on their own as opposed to my original plan to use this rainbow stripe.

Original rainbow sashing

So I spent a bit of time in front of the TV last night taking the sashing off the first section.  DH an.d I also rejected the rainbow stripe as sashing (see first photo) ... too heavy.  So it will probably end up as the binding.

Dutifully reporting my One Monthly Goal to PattyD at Elm Street Quilts.