Good for you Rob, I don't think my hubby sees it even when I point it out -- when I say hidden, I'm not joking! It's sort of hard to figure out if there is a reason for the layout at all.

In that other thread I linked a page or so ago (or search the main page on Oasis) showed some other ways to radiate the goose units that are clearer. I decided that it didn't matter that much to me but I did have a chance for one of my hidden thoughts and hopes for the world. It will most likely go to a transitional housing project for women leaving bad situations, usually with children but often without much family support, money or belongings.

So I'm actively pre-quilting today! The Minions slice and dice project is up next and will make more sense in some ways to explain now because it's based on the same Cherry Goose/Oasis concept. Cherry Goose was basically alternate blocks, Minions will follow the Oasis design concept of using triangles around the Goose units. So this time I'm changing the "goose" blocks, it will also be slightly bigger than the Cherry Goose project, but still smaller than the Oasis design.

These are all fabrics I have at home, and most were one of my thrift store buys I confessed to last year. When I was looking for a "medium scale print in white/black/yellow/grey" to go with the others, it was the Minions who came ready for service. I don't have the perfect grey but I have enough of two "good enough" choices in my solid box to go with one.

I think part of my stash acquisition issues is waiting for the perfect project and we all know the dismay of "all this fabric and I always need one more!". This time I decided that while normally I wouldn't include the Minions in what I see as an adult project, it answered my design criteria and so why not. They will be semi-fussy cut and in the small squares of the "candy kiss"/goose unit.

I'd rather use the "star wars" layout (it looks like a little fighter thing to me), but I'm cutting it close on my grey as it is to where I'm concerned about getting everything possible out of what I have. The center square would be fine as goose units in a smaller print, but not so good as large as this is. And then there is the part of me that doesn't like piecing together triangles just to get a square in the end anyway!

The grey/cherry blossom (scary sometimes the coincidences!) fabric up top will be the bars on the sides of the kiss units.

I think the biggest thing to cause problems is if I get too much yellow in the black fabric triangles, so I won't exactly fussy cut but I'll move my ruler around a bit to get the most possible black in the triangle.

Edit: Gosh! The grey looks blue in the photo but I passed that color blindness test! It works better in real life. Really second guessing that choice now... maybe I have enough black, it doesn't need much for the triangles.

While looking through shelves today- looking for a couple more greens to add to my scrappy star centers i realized I have 7 wide backings ( might be more, those were just on the bottom shelf where I could easily see & count them. 3 yards each, still in packaging from when I bought them. So- I can finish at least 7 more queen size quilts before I even have to think about ( getting creative with backing. ) maybe after finishing the Showering Stars quilt I’m working on I will just ( blindly) grab a backing and figure out a quilt for it. I do have a couple UFOs I’m still working on too- a couple of those backings go with them. I will put them with the ufo they go with before I do any random choosing.

Found a mostly black with a bit of grey streaks piece in my stash that I am going to use instead of the blue-grey. Asked hubby and he said that the grey was fine, but out of the options I had already pulled black solid was too stark. While I had hubby available to discuss fabric, I have this one pin dot and have finally decided that it is very dark navy and not "soft" black", but had pulled it for the various options -- I'm going to pin a note on it as blue. He sees the what I call the grey cherry blossom fabric as having a lavender cast to it, but I do see it as grey and not in the purple family. Usually I have white and that would work with this, but I used up what I have with the fabric dying last year.

Have enough of the streaky piece to have options and part of me wants to "cut it normally" but the streaks are definitely directional and I think I will continue to use the "Candy Kiss" option instead of the "Star Wars" and make sure the strips line up along the long edge. Before I commit to that though I will look for half an hour -- I used to have a piece of grey pin dot but I think I might have mailed that away with my box of crumbs left from that wonky bright project last year.

It amazes me sometimes the way I remember my fabrics. Some I know multiple details still about when I bought it, whether there was a reason or not, or if I've used it in other projects. The stuff I give away is a bit cloudier to me on whether I still have or not...

To save space in my brain for important things like fabric, I park my car in the same general spots at my regular stores. Usually near the furthest cart return, that way I get a few extra steps in my day and I know where my car is. I don't know about the rest of you, but one white sedan looks an awful lot like any other white sedan.

Very cool quilts, ckcowl and Iceblossom!

I finished a WIP last night. It is from a pattern called tHis Love. I altered the pattern and used 9 of the 12 blocks. My church group will finish this and it measures 70” by 81.5”.

Glass is half full- I don't want to go to any stores. So I'm doing a better job of shopping the stash and finding what will make due.

FYI Bonnie hunter has another mystery called unity, which started today. Check her site. Also Cattitude started a thread for fellow members who want to follow along. It’s free. It looks interesting and easier than Frolic.

Feels good to be sewing again. I can handle another month of lock down...

Today I am committed to forward progress! I have cut out all my triangles and all my fussy cuts. Now I need to make some triangles out of the swiss cheese left from the fussy cuts. I'll be making those "goose" units first, and then putting on the large scale prints after.

The fabric I planned to use only had 3 minion "scenes" and I needed a total of 24 blocks. Although I could have made 8 of each of the three, or used the minion-less scenes, I simply grabbed another suitable available minion fabric to make 6 of the Submarine units. They do have a white background instead of black but I think I can be happy....

Three months into this and I am hanging in there. I did make one more purchase in March, two neutral batik FQs I need for a SAS I hope to begin very soon. Within the range of the limits I have set for myself so all is good.



I don’t know if I have too much time on my hands right now but I do find that I am starting to visit some of my online favorites to check out new releases and sales. But maybe just maybe I am starting to learn something from this moratorium because nothing is really calling my name other than one collection I have fallen in love with (Harbour Reflections by Northcott). I plan to use my June birthday exemption for this........if I come up with a definite plan for it.



How are you finding the current situation is affecting your buying habits.....are you itching for retail therapy?

I am forced to work with what I have and regarding the stash I find the virus a blessing! The shops here are closed and I decided to limit my online purchases to basic necessities like food. Ordering things one can live without now means more work for shipping/delivery people and more exposure, too. So I know I work with the stash.

On top of that, I have run out of batting. I only have for 1 more quilt. So for a while I will be making only tops - here comes my chance of making a dent, at least.

I am so fortunate to have a good supply of batting and plenty of fabric. So I have been just clicking delete on all of the ads and offers for fabric. I am preparing for a virtual quilt retreat this coming week-end. Guild retreat was cancelled. I have set aside the time and will mimic the happenings that usually occur at the retreat. Ah..... three days of sewing with no online class time and limited e-mail. Yippee! Oh, and to the point, all my quilt plans for my at home retreat are from my stash right down to the batting and backing. Looking forward to Friday at 10 am.

I have about 3 yards in fabric that I'm making masks out of...all from stash of course.

I'm 100% with Vasilisa. I don't want to shop online and I'm a fabric fondler anyway.

8 fat quarters and borders from scrap/stash/ hmm I think this needs something lets root around...no, not that one but...oooh I'd forgotten about that! Its perfect!

Its not perfect - but I don't think the nonquilters will notice

Still making progress. I have to finish pressing some of the first round of the triangle combinations and put on the second sides of all the square/triangle units. These are slightly large and will need to be trimmed before combing but it gives a better idea of the block I'm making.

The center blocks were fussy cut, or at least semi-fussy, not to the extent of exact positioning I would do with a one-block wonder but loosely centered and up/down along the diagonal.

The setting triangles I would normally cut as squares first and then along the diagonal. Because of the lines, I had to cut long strips along the length of the yardage and cut nesting triangles that way -- but I like the way it works with the lines in the Minion pieces even though it is a lot darker/different than my original idea where I wanted "grey" as a noticeable color in addition to yellow and black.

Black Diamonds
 

Here is the finished top that I posted in an unfinished state earlier in another thread. I am calling it Black Diamonds. It finished at 60 x 75. Not yet quilted but will go to my LA next week. The small black squares were from the 2019 Birthday Swap plus a few more I cut from my stash to complete the top. I was thrilled to find the light white with black cat print fabric for the outer sashing on hand but even more surprised to discover that it was a 108 wide-back! No need to make extra squares to stretch the back to be wide enough. So, in the end, the top, batting and back all came from stash! Yeah! https://www.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/hunf.png

Pretty, WMUteach.... You done good with stash on this one. Really like the colorful BG for B&W squares... Looks cool...

Congratulations on finished quilts/tops/blocks Rff1010, WMUTeach, and Iceblossom. I enjoy seeing everyone’s projects and ideas.

Winner winner! Chicken dinner! Also very pretty. Nicely done!

WMUTeach.....Great job, the mix of solids for background both calms and add interest. This one has been bookmarked for future use of those pesky and ever multiplying 2-1/2” squares!

Love that Cat Fabric, WMUTeach! Nice finish.

I got my "candy kiss" units made yesterday. I do the "cut large and trim down" methods whenever I can. For this project the center square was the fussy cut 4" square and had to be precise, I cut all the triangles a bit bigger than needed. When it came time to trim, two problems popped up quickly -- one is this is just the sort of thing I have problems seeing!

And then I knew (because I designed it) that it was supposed to finish at 5.5 x 10.5 (I really like having rulers that work) but the Omnigrip square I was using doesn't have lines that cross from the corners, it has one line that is corner to corner on the full size, and another that is on the diagonal for the 10" size. Anyway, tape to the rescue once again -- it would have been really frustrating yesterday to try and "see" these to trim them.

Another comment about my construction methods, pressing open is pretty straight-forward but the usual "rule" is to sew things with the smaller piece on top, with open seams you go with which ever side has more seams so you can catch those leading edges. My next step, is ready to go, with the grey bars pinned on and ready to be sewn.

So shot one shows the taped ruler, and shot two is a trimmed one on top and the untrimmed on the bottom. I had about a quarter inch all 4 sides to take off.

WMUTeach, Black Diamonds is wonderful!

Still making progress, still wish I had the perfect grey in my stash but moving on without it!

I have the two yellow triangles on each of the blocks, today is putting on the black triangles. I've been able to slide around my ruler a bit to avoid having any of the Black triangles turn into yellow, since I had a couple spare inches per strip that's working fine, getting the same 4 squares/8 triangles as I did from the yellow where I didn't have to think, care of worry a bit.

Picture 1 shows the four sets of completed 10" inner blocks. Picture 2 shows the lone finished block, I think it is 14" finished?? Easy enough to measure even if it hasn't set in my brain yet.

Love the Minions, Iceblossom!

This is the week-end for my guild retreat. We of course are staying in place but met twice today online, Zoom, while we cut pressed, chattered on and showed what we were working on. I finished one top that was a layer cake and it is ready to be quilted.Batting and backing from stash too. I am in the process of creating a second top from another layer cake, different pattern. Will try to snap some photos tomorrow when the sun is out. Whoo Hoo! more out of my stash.

Progress made and now a design pondering day. These Minion blocks were based on my Cherry Goose Project, except larger and instead of Flying Geese rectangle, I made the "candy kiss" rectangle. Cherry Goose was set on point with alternate squares, the Minions is how the project was originally designed using the setting triangles on the center block part to achieve that on-point look with a normal flat setting.

So that's the first picture, my overlaid (bigger) block on top of the previous project.

Then we have how the project was designed to look.

And final shot is making QST units instead of solid looking blocks. At first I didn't like the way all the dashes lined up but I might play a bit more with this concept.

Instead of a border, I'm thinking I need to make one more set of 6 blocks and just have it edge-to-edge with black binding. I have one more length row of 4 blocks that doesn't show in the shots.

Iceblossom, I just love that you have used the Minion fabric with the elegant florals....brilliant!

I've decided that the best way to finish this project with the fabric I have is to make an additional row and set it as the alternate option. That will make it a usable 70x84. Good size for a blanket, little short for a top.

I know it doesn't bother some people but to me in the "as designed/alternating squares" this needs to be in even numbers of blocks, 4 across is good, 6 across is good but 5 across is not so good. By lining them up in the old "Cracker" sort of format it won't bother me to have 5 columns.

Adding those 6 blocks changes my already calculated yardages a bit but not that much. Without fussy cutting it takes a bit over half a yard and under a yard for each of the two fabrics used in the "kiss" piece. It may not look like it at first glance but there are equal amounts of both fabrics. You need about the same for the bars, cut 3x10.5". Then about 2 yards each of the setting fabrics.

I bought the yellow, black, and grey fabrics together at the thrift store and working with the large print especially was a challenge to me. My own taste in fabrics runs very much to traditional "tiny vine-y" calicos and I have to work hard at appreciating and using large scale prints. For me, the Minion print was large although it is more medium in comparison with the huge of the black fabric. With my visual acuity, I don't see much difference from a different at first looking at either the Black Floral or the Minion prints, it takes a bit for me to recognize the shapes in either.

My original concept would have been much lighter and grey, and I was looking in my stash for things more like these two prints or the greys. But the only pieces that came out to play that were enough yardage were the Minions reporting for duty -- so I decided why not? They fit my design criteria of black and white and grey and yellow. Both of the options shown here failed both the quantity and the perfect color blend, but you see more of what I had in mind.

I'm almost finished cleaning out my house so it can be listed & shown. That means my days will soon be empty of purpose. So, to make them meaningful, & because all my fabric is in storage waaaay at the back behind all the big furniture, I'm deliberately stepping off the train. I ordered 2 blue jelly rolls & 2 white ones. Then I realized all my thread is with my fabric so I had to order thread, too. I just hope my old Singer has a bobbin in the case so I can sew. We did bring it to my daughter's house once the original sale was cancelled. I will pick up at Joann's when it's ready. I did get a good deal on the jelly rolls with a 25% coupon on the order. I consider this an emergency exemption & I feel no guilt.

Iceblossom: You are making wonderful progress!

Conchalea: You need to have something to do. :). Keeping my fingers crossed there is a bobbin in your Singer.

Thanks, Retired. My machine is in the garage, buried at the moment. When I unearth it I'll give a status update.

Good for you, Conchalea! Totally an exemption in my book. hoping all goes well with the new listing.

i am sewing face masks and using up a bunch of scraps...and, I'm using my scrap binding for the ties. Total win.

Keep safe, my friends...

100 percent agree Conchalea. Hardship mental health exemption granted.

Thanks for the validation of my exemption! Who knew 2020 would bring a Covid-19 exemption?!?

I, too, am making face masks. I have "collected" quite a stack of Batik FQs, for what I do not know. But they got washed yesterday, and I found a couple yards of white flannel in the stash, and lo and behold I found a mostly full 100 yd roll of white bias binding, so the stash is getting busted nicely. I also found elastic, but the stretch does not return when pulled, so it will get discarded, unless I decide to use it for ties too. So today will be spent sewing.

Love the pattern and colors!

Conchalea - the fabric should be exempt for that or the I can't get to the rest of my fabric exemption! :)

Since the government has changed their mind on homemade masks, I started making some yesterday. Our hospitals are calling for them and had patterns on their site. I'm not a seamstress so there's been a big learning curve but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

I've done pretty good at keeping track of fabric in and used so far this year. I am curious how much this will take as well as how many I get done.

Also doing Bonnie Hunter's Unity sew along (first time doing one of hers) and two other projects as well so the quilt room is a mess but a happy mess! That doesn't even count the quilts sandwiched ready for quilting. I better get back in there! Have a great Sunday everyone.

I realize it doesn't have any real weight, but as one of the first people in the thread on lock down, I'm pretty sure I gave us all a one time "no being bothered by 'Blossom" flu shopping exemption a month or so ago. Just one! Thread and elastic don't count and only you have to confess if something other than your one exemption is used...

I'm doing well, yes I could do with a good dollop of retail therapy but am enjoying the Minion project even if it isn't what my original mental image was, that's what happens when Minions come on the scene and yay me for sticking with the stash even though Joann is still open and just down the street. Goodwill, my usual Sunday fabric expedition is (as we say around here), "closed for the duration" so I have no fabric coming in.

Think I'm going to do a horse variation on that Simplish design next. One of the pieces I got from the Walmart $1/yard sale last year was specifically for the back of a donation horse-themed project. I've got some desert with hoof prints on it for the framing of the squares and rectangles. I put it in my box of "not quite projects yet" fabrics I made last year, but most of it needs pre-washing. Fabric washing might be good for Monday, hubby is home this weekend and will probably tie up the laundry some today.

I'm looking forward to get back to quilting with my scraps and small pieces, but I am stressed and scattered a bit right now and think mostly I just need to give myself some structure and schedule -- and so saying that, I need to go back and trim the last of my Minion blocks before I cut those additional 6 I decided to make. That's today's little goal, trim the completed blocks and fussy cut the center blocks (no good motifs left) for the additional 6. I should get a bit past that I would hope but I like to make sure I do get to goal first!

Iceblossom,

Love seeing your progress with those projects. Pretty colors and design!

Great progress on the Minions, Iceblossom. I also enjoyed seeing the pieces that you decided wouldn’t work with the project and your comments on what you were looking for and why those particular pieces wouldn’t work.

I washed some batiks yesterday in preparation for sewing some masks, but have gotten a bit overwhelmed with the shear number of patterns out there. I want to make masks that use ties and have a pocket for a filter, but can’t decide between the pleated and the fitted versions. The pleated would be easier for me as it has been many years since I sewed clothing from a pattern, but I keep hearing that the fitted versions provide a better, closer fit which is important. Will make a decision today and get to cranking them out today. Should help to bust my stash of fat quarters.....

Rob

Rob, if you haven’t started yet, there is a cool tutorial on a pattern that you can rotary cut—all straight line sewing. Two issues: the corner cuts are 7 cm and the tutorial is in Russian. But here is the link.

https://youtu.be/Qhbp74XQvhs