Quiltville Chilhowie Mystery Part 7: It's Reveal Day!!

 Well it looks like the Chilhowie Mystery period is now done!  When I went to Bonnie's site this morning, I was greeted with this:

Bonnie has a picture of the finished quilt featured in her header right now and you can pick up the last of the instructions here.  Remember, now that the mystery is over, you need to download all the parts before Bonnie removes them from her blog to compile them into a pattern for purchase in her shop.  

In this round, there are still sashing, sashing squares and flying geese units to cut and sew together and then to the blocks made previously.  The blocks made in Part 2 create the finished outer border and you make some four patches from scraps for the border corner squares to complete the finished top.  

I guess all this additional sewing to be done is good for me.  I had hoped to have finished up the string blocks for my own mystery season journey on two other Bonnie designs but that has not happened.  

These are the remaining sets of the foundations I had hoped to get sewn up this week for the "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" and "Cherry Crunch" projects.  As the week went by I found myself busy with other things so only got to sew up one set for each.  I didn't panic about that as I thought I might have at least another week of the mystery to work through but I guess I'm on my own now!   It's all good because I've made a list for the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine "UFO Challenge" to see what I can get finished (or more likely "moved forward") this year.  I had decided that whatever was the number called for this month, I was assigning it to "Cotton Boll" as I really want to get that top done by month's end.  

So I will continue stitching the string blocks for RRCB and the "Cherry Crunch" design until I get them finished.  

Well, at least I got a good bunch done during the mystery period!

In hindsight, I realize that one reason I didn't get them done was that when I counted out the foundations, the amount I needed to do daily to finish them up meant I needed to put in a considerable amount of time each day on them.  Confronted with other things I had to do, I would hedge and say, "okay, maybe I can do the string blocks later".  Then of course as I got toward each day's end I'd say, "maybe I can make up for that tomorrow".  

What I wish that I had told myself was that even if I couldn't get the full amount done for the day, I could have committed at least fifteen minutes to the string work and whatever I got done was still a step towards what needed to be done.

Had I done that, the pile of remaining foundations might have been half the size that  it is!  So for 2023, I have to remind myself (again!) that even just 15 minutes a day can help keep me on track to finishing a project!   

While the string blocks didn't get done, a few other things did.  I got the binding put on the little Mummy Mug Rug.

Still loving those die cut eyes!  I'm also pleased to say that I finished the quilting and got the binding on the Nine Fat Quarters Disappearing Nine Patch quilt (try to say THAT ten times fast, LOL!!).

I've named this one "The Last Dash" because this was literally the last of the Red & White Christmas quilts that I attempted to make.  And that wouldn't even have happened if I hadn't come across it on April's You Tube video.  

Also check out Darlene Michaud and Matt @ Scrappy Patch for more on this design.

Although I know this wasn't the best quilting I've ever done, I love this quilt!  This is definitely a case of a "man on a galloping horse" quilt:  as long as you don't examine it too closely, I think it it looks pretty darn good!  What helps even more is where I had planned to display it:

Since it hangs behind the bookcase, a lot of the more pesky details are obscured from getting that really close inspection.  I've got to admit unless you were judging it for a quilt show prize, it passes muster even on casual close inspection.  If thrown over your legs, it will also certainly keep your lap warm.  What was lucky too was that I had the perfect backing already in house. 

The light section in the middle is for writing in the label.

I had purchased this fabric as a discounted backing kit all the way back in 2016 for my "Across County Lines" RWB quilt.  It is wide back fabric so the good news is I only used a little of it for this so can use the rest to back the "Cherry Crunch" string quilt when that reaches the finishing phase.  Keepsake Quilting had a year end fabric sale and I was able to pick up another wide back print for the "Lines" quilt.   

I've often heard people talk about certain patterns they make again and again.  Up to now I didn't have one but now this one will be mine!  I can already see making this for a few project needs I have going forward so am excited to get to make another one in the near future.

I even got a little bit of the New Year's cross stitch done:

We still have about four seasons of "The West Wing" marathon still on the DVR.  That will be a perfect time to sit and stitch and move this little project forward.  I'm feeling like this first week of the year has set me on a good course for what I hope to accomplish for the rest of the year!