ides of march countdown distraction

When working on straightening  

the 'studio',

(though it's so messy I think it should now be called

the storage room) this past week...

 

First distraction:

I found a wonderful stack of 10 inch squares

of green/shamrock-y/Celtic-looking fabrics.

A friend gave me this stack of

40  fabrics a couple of years ago, at least.

They were from her years of collecting Irish looking fabrics;

I had added even more, so in all, there were over 60

lovely green/shamrock-y/Celtic-looking fabrics!!

 

A half hour later,

instead of continuing the process of organizing,

I realize that I'd stopped my cleaning and

was now planning (second distraction)

a quilt made of these ten inch squares of

green/shamrock-y/Celtic-looking fabrics.

Being that I'm a little bit Irish,

and now have 'found' this great collection of fabrics,

I decided that I needed a

quilt that was a little bit Irish, too.

And it's March already!

That's me, late to the gate!!

Anyway, my mind is whirring:  (third distraction)

maybe I can get it pieced by Saint Patrick's Day,

or the middle of March,

aka Ides of March,

in Latin: Idus Martii or Idus Martiae...

is a day on the Roman calendar

that corresponds to the 15th of March.

umm, middle of March...'Ides of March'...

That's it!

I'm making an Ides of March quilt!!

 

Back to the cleaning:

surprise, surprise,

I immediately stopped the cleaning

and started to not just plan, but start another quilt!

(here came the fourth distraction)

I remembered that I had bookmarked the

Good Night Irene Sew Along

with Terry's Treasures blog (thanks Terry!!).

Had I planned on doing this Sew Along now??

NO!

BUT... (famous last words)

Terry's Sew Along (click here to go join:) uses 2 1/2 inch squares.

This would be perfect I thought!

I could cut these 10 inch squares each into 2 1/2 inch strips,

mix them up and re-sew four strips back into a square,

sub-cut again into strips

to get segments for making 16-patch blocks!!

 

In the time it took me to hop/skip/jump/climb

around the piles that I had been straightening,

I had my 10 inch squares cut into strips

and then sewn back together, mixing up the colors/patterns

(after all sewn, I pressed all one direction at this point).

2 1/2 by 10 inch strips sewn into groups of four.
Notice along the top of this picture -
I saved one strip from each of the original 10" squares 
to make the 2 1/2" squares needed later for the X-blocks  in this quilt.  

I then sub-cut them, again into four, 2 1/2 inch strips

I mixed them up again, abutted the seam allowances:

& sewed four of them back together

making my 16-patch blocks:

16-patch blocks on the right,
X blocks on the left.
Below the finished blocks are segments of X-blocks
ready to press and use for the outside border.

So, there is some repetition in the squares because of how I strip-pieced them, but with 60+ fabrics, it's still very scrappy looking - which is a good thing in my book.

 

I don't know if it will be finished by March 15th, for the Ides,

but I think that I will label this one

Distraction of the Ides of March

 

Now, what was I doing?

Did I mention that I'm easily distracted??

And not just by stacks of fabric!

 

Are you working on something

for the Spring (that surely is coming as soon as the snow melts)?

And are you as easily distracted as I am?

 

Happy March and Happy Stitching!!

Really, what was I doing?

:)