I was on vacation down in the Bahamas for a few days...now I need to recover from the vacation!
Once the stack of 9-patches was made the trees went together pretty quickly...as quickly as 1-1/2 inch squares can that is! I used a variety of yellow to orange cornerstones, 25 different greens for the trees, 24 browns for the trunks, three different beige fabrics for the setting triangles, maroon for the sashing, double pink for the inner-border, and pink and maroon plaid for the outer-border. I think I am safe in calling this a scrap quilt....
Needless to say we are finding 9-patches under every chair and in every corner or the house...Brownie even seems to think she can pull them out of the quilt-top - yikes! I better get those last two borders on soon so I can quilt it and keep those blocks safe....
Usually I stay pretty traditional but when my friend Margaret (SCQuiltaddict) offered to show me how use inks on fabric I remembered my goal to try new things this year....
And a quick report on my guild's donation quilt...we drew last weekend at Arts in the Heart (booth photo above) so Cora Lee's Orchard is going to her new home. We raised over $3,000 for Camp Rainbow, a Camp for Children with Cancer. Our next quilt, Vintage Southern, is being quilted this week. So we need to start another one...takes almost a year to get them done!
Anyway, I am doing better today and plan to put in my hours at our guild booth at the local arts show. We are selling tickets for our donation quilt and trying to find or create new quilters.
Bonnie gave an inspiring talk on how she goes about planning her quilts and using her scraps.And as always it was fun to see her quilts in person...and she brings a lot of quilts!
We also asked members to bring quilts that were from Bonnie's books, website or just inspired by her scrap system.
Show and tell was a lot of fun...
enough so that folks didn't complain about lunch being late!
And that my friends is saying something!
As I cut the first quilt I sort the leftover bits into several bags. First I cut the remaining strips into either 2-1/2 or 3 inch squares.
Remaining pieces larger than 1 inch square go into the bag for random scrap piecing...
and the pieces that are truely "scraps" are used to stuff pillows for the pets. 
As Macbeth gets older he needs more comfy places to nap...
Goldie just takes over the chairs in the Dining Room (sometimes sewing room since it gets such great light!) So I guess it is safe to say that the scrap bag is sort of like the sourdough bin on my counter...take out some then add a bit and it just seems to keep on growing!
Also finished up a small Amish influenced wall hanging. I have some thin perle cotton that I am going to use to hand quilt it...I need a low vision haul around project....behind the "amish" quilt is the batik scrappy bargello I am making for a local soldier (he likes purple and Hawaiian shirts!)
On the pet front...Macbeth is doing better. I think having Graybeard the cat around is helping. Mac checks the windows four or five times a day to keep an eye on his nemesis...the activity is good for him.(Who knows what that cat could have done while Mac was taking his bath!)
Even if it wears him out sometimes....
First, I used a lot of fabrics. Some of the scraps didn't even make it into the blocks! My "process" for the original blocks was to focus on each one separately and not to worry if it would "go" with the rest. When cutting the fabrics I would often cut two components (like a couple of 4-3/4 inch squares to use in the large HST and a couple of 1-3/4 inch strips to use for the four patches.) It helps on folding and putting away time but does create more left-overs. And since these aren't sizes that I use in my scrap "system" I figured I better do something with them now...These are the layouts I have been playing with....
c. or maybe a scrappy sashing with the 3-inch squares
On the sad side, neighbors tell me occasionally he still goes to his old home and cries by the front door...
Urggggg....she slipped out which isn't all that unusual but when she didn't come back within the next hour - then couple of hours- then the next morning. Needless to say I didn't sleep much. I got up this morning searched the neighborhood (again) then printed out "lost cat" posters using the photo on the top. 
To make matters worse I was feeling really guilty for having yelled at her just before she went missing. I was laying the quilt out on the floor and she was "stealing" blocks and hiding them. (which by the way is why I made 21 blocks instead of 20 and have a stack of 2-1/2 inch squares for corner-stones...she likes little squares!) On top of that she and Goldie were block surfing (run really fast then jump on a block and surf across the rug...) So I guess she will be spoiled the next few days as much to heal my conscience as to make her better...
Besides recreating the vintage block we have also finished the top for our guild's donation quilt. (Blackbird Designs: Simply Vintage) Lots of folks worked on this but as the quilt-mom I felt very nervous about getting it done in time! Now to just get the darn thing quilted (have a volunteer to bind it...insert happy dance her since I dislike binding so much!)
With my DH away on a golfing outing this weekend I had lots of time to work of the sewing room...but did I? Ten minutes into the digout I found a vintage block that had fallen off my inspiration board. That is all it took...
Maybe I will change up the fabrics a bit...
OK, so now it is Monday and all I have done in my "organize the sewing room closet quest' is pick up this one block. But I now have a dozen of these blocks that hopefully will be made into a quilt and not just fodder for the UFO pile....
