Patchwork Progressing Faster Than Home Renovations

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday, my lovelies!  I'll answer your top questions right off the bat:

1. YES, I'm still here.
2. NO, our home renovations aren't finished yet.
3. YES, I'm still sewing.
4. NO, I don't have much to show for it, though!

I'm still mostly on a break from the delightful-yet-challenging-and-tedious Stonefields sampler quilt, in that I haven't mustered up the creative energy to start prepping the next applique blocks.  I am, however, still stitching up hexagon rosettes for the outer border in the evenings.  Here's one of the latest finished rosettes:

No. 41 of 168 Rosettes Needed for Stonefields Outer Border

I've sewn 41 of the 168 hexagon rosettes for the Stonefields outer border so far, so I'm nearly 25% finished.  Slow going for sure, but I'm getting better at English paper piecing through the repetition and I don't need to think about what I'm doing nearly so much now as I did in the beginning, so it's perfect for keeping fidgety fingers busy in front of the television in the evenings.

Meanwhile, I've been making 9" 9-patch and 4-patch variations for that quilt based on Scrappy Celebrations.  When I abandoned this WIP (Work In Progress) over a year ago, I was feeling like it was burning up too much "good fabric" on a not-very-exciting project.  Now that I've been wasting investing such enormous amounts of time but very little fabric into each of those fiddly Stonefields blocks, it actually feels GOOD to burn up a little more yardage with simpler blocks that go together so much faster.  As in, six of these Scrappy Celebration blocks completed in a single day, compared to two or three weeks to complete just one or two of some of the more complex Stonefields blocks.  The projects balance one another out.  

Here are the completed Scrappy Celebration blocks on the design wall today:

37 Completed Scrappy Celebration Blocks (Out of ??)

I also have the next five blocks in progress at the sewing machine for chain piecing.  And yes, I am aware that I could have sped this up by strip piecing the 3" 9-patch units but I hate pressing strips open and didn't feel like doing the math to figure out how many strips to cut, etc.  

For me, anyway, my patchwork turns out more accurate to the intended size when I cut and piece individual units versus strip piecing methods.  Your mileage may vary, as they say.  ;-)

Next 5 Scrappy Celebration Blocks In Progress

How many more of these do I need?  Well, with the 9" finished block size I can get a nice throw size from 48 blocks in a 6x8 layout.  I would be almost done making blocks already.  If I make a twin sized bed quilt, I would want 70 blocks for a 7x10 layout, both of these scenarios assuming that there are no borders or sashing.  Another consideration is that a larger size means I get to introduce more variety.  The inspiration quilt was made up with multiples of the same block so that's how I've been doing it, but I'm finding that it annoys me on the design wall when identical blocks are too near one another.  Long story short -- there is not really a plan here at all!  You can see Stonefields on the left side of the design wall below:

Stonefields on the Left, Scrappy Celebrations on the Right

My plans for the week include what is euphemistically called "prepping" for Friday's colonoscopy, finishing those double 9-patch blocks at the sewing machine, and MAYBE prepping the next applique blocks for Stonefields.  How about you?

I'm linking up with some of my favorite linky parties:

MONDAY

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  

TUESDAY

To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt  

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

FRIDAY

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

 TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework