Sorting Shades of Lola!

My sewing time yesterday - SO many triangles!

This project started with a box of gifted strips in browns and sandy neutrals - and it has sat for a year at least.  The strips that is.

The cutting started fairly recently, as in a few weeks back - but the sewing time has been delegated to other projects, so once again, this "Brown Thing" has taken a back seat waiting for its turn to arrive.

It's November.  Fall is here but good now, and as the leaves are nearly gone on all of the trees, brown is what I see in the landscape around me.  Brown.  And still a lot of green with the trucks hauling Christmas Trees, and pastures where I saw one last cut of hay being baled yesterday in preparation for winter ahead.

If you look closely at the above photo, you'll also notice a couple of other things.  

Yes, I am playing thread chicken with that cone of grey thread - it's nearly gone.  Another one bites the dust bin as they say.

I've got a box of "non neutral" thread that I've been trying to sew away in scrappy projects, and if the thread is lighter than dark, and blends in with a multitude of colors and shades, I am using it.

Especially when it comes to my scrappy string projects - any thread color goes there.  Sew it up!  There is something so satisfying about the clunk of the empty cone hitting the trash bin.

Oh, and this year's Leader & Ender challenge project - Fish School - is still being worked on behind the scenes of EVERYTHING.

Hundreds of units - still needing pressing.

Maybe today.

Instead, while letting a crime podcast entertain my ears in the background, I pulled out the scrap squares drawer from the Scrap User's System and began to sort.

Brown.  I need brown squares.  But what shade of brown?  Oh, all of them!

And some rust too, for good measure.

Because even my original ideas for this block are up to interpretation as I begin to pull fabric.

Some of these scraps are newer.  Many are way older.  Prints I have adored over the years.  Fabrics that have shown up in many other quilts.

Oftentimes these squares are the LAST remaining piece of that fabric - And I am going to give these pieces their last chance to shine.

I didn't find that many neutrals - I've used them up in so many projects that there just aren't that many pre-cut squares.  But I can fix that by cutting some from my strips.

As I was pulling and sorting it occurred to me just what my color inspiration is:

Shades of Lola!  LOL!

And she doesn't even know it!

Yes, we are talking about YOU!

I am going to be throwing in some turquoise along the way, She won't mind.

The browns and rusts will play along just fine with some turquoise when I get to that part.

And I can hear folks' voices in my head asking "Wouldn't it just be faster to sew strip sets and subcut them?"

My dears - the true joy in patchwork is not about the speed.  It's about the process.  If you miss that realization, you'll forever be trying to go faster.  

If I find I have used all of the pre-cut squares and need some more sets, I can then go to my strips and do some fill-in strip sets to complete the unit count, but for now - these pieces need to be part of this quilt. However long it takes to sew square-to-square-to-square.

And sewing square-to-square-to-square will be a nice breather from sewing a bazillion triangles. For now.

I haven't posted anything about my "Make One Thing Better" for a few days.  It's been a crazy round of gathering things from the Wallburg house on Friday, getting the Rhododendron Trail info out on Saturday, and other things that have taken my time up over the past several days.

But this morning I was up at 6am with time on my hands to do this:

I simply cleared my cutting table at the cabin.

It was full of mystery fabrics, block samples, leftovers, and strips that needed to be put away.

It only took 20 minutes.

It feels so much better!

I folded fat-quarters and put them away by color family.

I gathered some of the smaller sandy neutral scraps to go with me to the QPO to cut into squares there for the above quilt project.

I gathered some things that can be placed in the free baskets at Quiltville Inn.

My day feels lighter and brighter just because of 20 minutes spent with intent to Make One Thing Better.

How are you doing in your own desire to Make One Thing Better?

The November Quiltvillians began to arrive yesterday afternoon.  By the time it was time for me to head home for dinner, there were two.  More would be arriving later in the evening, so I'll get to meet and greet them this morning.

It's currently 34 degrees and cloudy here - projected high of 42.  Good quilting weather!

How does your Thursday look to be shaping up?

I have placed the printable PDF pattern for Pine Tree Point at 25% off - only $9.00 in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store. Sale price good through 11/24/21 when it will return to full price at $12.00. No coupon code required.

I made the runner in blue, too!  Good for having out all winter long!

And don't forget to enter - It's October Quilty Box Gift-Away time! And you can get your entry in ON THAT POST.

The fabrics in this box are super gorgeous - and one lucky winner will be drawn on Saturday, 11/6/21.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Actions are everything. 

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Show others what you mean by what you do. 

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The November Quiltvillians are in the house and into Thursday we go! 

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Have a good one!