The Big News for November: This Year's Quiltville Mystery Has Been Introduced!

I had been seeing comments on Bonnie's Quiltville Facebook group page that the introduction post for this year's mystery was going live on Halloween.  It's true, IT'S HERE!!! 

The name of this year's mystery is "Star of Maghrib".  Once again Bonnie is channeling the beautiful views she saw on one of the CraftTours trips she took.  This time the inspiration comes from her trip to Morocco.  According to Bonnie, "The Maghrib is a region in Northwest Africa comprised of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, and the territory of Western Sahara."  The meaning of Al-Maghrib is "The place where the sun sets." 

Based on the image that accompanied it, I suspected the color scheme would be Blue & White and sure enough it is with the addition of Red and Green.  Ooh, this one is going to be tempting to do!  I have been very obsessed with Blue & White quilts over the last two years and currently have fabrics coming in for the stash for another one (hopefully more on that in the future).   The finished mystery quilt will be a big'un -- 80" x 80" -- because if you know Bonnie, she likes to design BAQs = Big A** Quilts large enough to cover big and tall people!!

As always the first part of the mystery will drop on the day after Thanksgiving aka "Black Friday".  Each subsequent clue will post on Fridays with the exception of the post that would have posted on Christmas Day (a Friday this year) so will instead post on Christmas Eve.

So if you are like me, now's the time to decide whether to dive into the new mystery and start gathering fabrics (or alternate color option ideas) or plan to use the season to finish up previous mysteries you've started but haven't completed.  I had already planned to make it a priority to get at least one of my still unfinished ones done!

And you can see the completed one here.

However, since I do like the color scheme, I also haven't completely ruled out jumping in on this year's just yet, LOL!!

For those of you that have never done one of Bonnie's mysteries, read about her inspiration for the design in the introduction and see if it might spark your interest enough to give it a try.  Remember this is not a race or meant to be a struggle and you are not obligated to complete the mystery by the time the last post drops early next year.   

You can take your time, work at your own pace, even change the size of the finished block units (you will not know how they will be combined to form blocks until towards the end) or make less units and blocks for a smaller quilt.  

It's an opportunity to just come and be part of a world-wide quilting community and share in the fun of a special event.  If you need more encouragement or ideas about how to approach it, check out the post I wrote back in 2019 about the six ways I know of how to make the Quiltville Mystery experience enjoyable.

So will you be joining in this year? 

Design Wall Monday: The State of My Quilt Nation

It already feels like August is starting to wind down.  At this point my husband and I are starting to look towards our plans for September and October.  We are scheduled to visit my MIL in North Carolina from mid to the end of September and the first week of October we're headed up to Maine for our third trip to Acadia National Park.  We're hoping to catch the Fall vistas this time and visit the Schoodic Penninsula for the first time.  

As such I am also reviewing the plans I had for the summer and trying to map out my ongoing quilting plans for the Fall.  Which projects will be interrupted by those Fall trips and which can come along on them?  What deadlines do I have to meet after the trips and can I set them up to work on between now and then or do I need to completely reorganize them to be worked on later?  As of this week here is what I have going on or want to work on:

Leaders and Enders Get the Jobs Done!

As I worked on projects over the sumer I've been leader-endering two projects.  In the case of the first -- my "Alaska BOM" -- many times it has been the primary project.  In my recap of things I worked on in July, this is what had been up on my design wall at one point that month:

I had noted that I had finished making the last of the blocks for the center of that quilt.  So this month I have been sewing the rows of blocks together.  For that process "Alaska" became the leader/ender for another project which will be discussed later.  The good news is that I finished sewing together the seven rows of blocks.

Next up will be sewing the rows together to complete the center of the top.  As I had noted back in JuIy, I have plans to expand the size of the top by adding an additional pieced outer border of blocks.  So there will be more block making (that may be the primary or the leader/ender of other projects) as this month continues and we roll into September.

The other leader/ender work that I'm thrilled to say is done is for this project:

This is the "Magic Cube" pattern that was originally published in McCall's Quilting Nov/Dec 2020 and that I downloaded as an individual pattern during one of Quilting Daily's pattern sales.  The reason I started making this one was this:

Back in 2024 I fell in love with Bonnie Hunter's (of whom I am a big fan) "Shoo Fly Shoo" free pattern which had been her leader/ender project for 2019.  She made two quilts of mostly all Shoo Fly blocks out of the blocks she pieced over the course of that year.  I had planned to just leisurely collect appropriately sized scraps and sew up the blocks until I had enough -- or got tired of making them, LOL! 

Well, the minute I later saw the "Magic Cube" design,  I had to pivot!  First because the Shoo Fly blocks in the outer border of it were the same size as Bonnie's blocks but meant I had to make a whole lot less of them.  Second, the large center star and one of the borders are pieced with strings.  I've been really wanting to make more string designs at the least to start winnowing down my "string collection":

Just by chance, that strip hanging out of the bag was from the border fabric of my recently finished "Rainbow Log Cabin" quilt.

I'm hoping this can be the follow up to the "Scrap Vortex" string top I also made in 2024 (and is unfortunately still awaiting quilting) so was thrilled this gave me two opportunities to make something that will use up some more of them.  Finally, it's a "kitchen sink" scrappy quilt so any scrap is welcome.  What's not to love?!?

So I immediately took the six Bonnie blocks I had made up to that point and moved them to a project bin for this.  Although it has taken me much longer than planned, I'm pleased to say that I've now finished up -- as leader/enders -- the 40 blocks I need for that border!

My plans earlier this year had been for these to have been pieced months ago and for this to have already been a finished top by now in the hopes of taking it with me to longarm at my MILs in September.  However, I'm grateful for the progress that has been made and am still encouraged to continue on.  Next up a whole lotta string piecing!!

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Edited 8/25/26 To Add:  Just saw that Quilting Daily has a "Back to School" promotion going on right now and everything on their site is 40% off until August 30!   

A New Gift Project

My BFF from high school and I are still in touch and both hit milestone birthdays this year.  When we spoke back in December she mentioned she would love a quilt.  I have only made her two things prior: a jewelry roll pouch (the second one in this post) and a mug rug when she had to help homeschool her grandson during the pandemic.  Both were made up in purple fabrics, her favorite color.  I had been musing in recent years that I didn't often purchase purple fabric so began picking up a piece here and there with the intention of finding an inspiration for a project "some day".  Needless to say when she mentioned a quilt, that day arrived!

So with what little I already had in stash and two good Keepsake Quilting Year-end and New Year's clearance sales, I picked up a bunch of new purples.  I had bundled together three sets of fabrics with ideas for three possible projects.  The first (because it was expected to be the quickest to get done) was to make one of my now favorite "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" quilts (and if you'd like to see the ones I've made click here).  However when I tested a layout of the prints I had bundled together for that, it didn't spark me.  

Okay, second choice was this pattern I had picked up at some point because it also could be made with Fat Quarters:

When I sorted through the bundle of the variety of prints I had pulled for it, I was intrigued.  So this became the primary project for those other two leader-ender projects and the bundled set of fabrics became this:

I've since moved some of the squares in it around a bit more.

I had planned to use the border fabric in the center of the quilt but a re-read of the pattern showed that I'd need some yardage to make this design lap size and I really liked that fabric for it.  So I pulled it out of the layout, replaced it with other things and then had to search around for more of it to have enough for the borders.  Luckily, the only source I found it at also had it on sale.  It was meant to be!  

Of course, the next issue is, "okay how will I quilt this?"  One thing I did think was that I really wanted to quilt it in purple thread but I didn't have any cotton threads that color.  I consulted an Aurifil color card and considered what I felt would work.  However the nearest quilt store to me doesn't carry Aurifil so I would have to order it.  I was not thrilled about ordering thread on the speculation that a particular color "might" work so might also mean having to make additional orders to find just the right one.  

Looking through my thread stash again, I did find two threads that seemed like they would work:  a medium-dark gray Aurifil (#2605) and a polyester Glide thread in Lavender.  Okay, I need a test!

I pieced together this test sandwich from the fabric scraps and the good news was that both threads worked!  The gray not only works on the top but also works on the purple wide back fabric I had also purchased during the clearance sale and was glad to have on hand when it came time to set this up for finishing.  However,  I was also surprised how well the Glide thread worked too.  As long as I kept the quilting simple, it provided just enough color and a little sparkle to the whole thing.  

The original idea was to stitch straight lines but I admit that when I sketched that out, it added too many additional visually linear elements to a top that already presented with a lot of lines from the piecing.  So I will be opting for ruler quilted wavy lines using the same ruler I used to quilt my "Roaring Waves" quilt last year.  Now this will be easy to stitch and the waves will add a little more texture and visual variety to the whole thing.  Good!  Now to go through my batting stash for this!

Project Plans From Now to October

For years I've set up projects for Halloween sewing but then never get around to geting them made up in time for the holiday.  Taking a cue from the practice of doing "Christmas in July" (which I should note, I still have projects from last year that I need to finish up for this year, LOL),  I figured if I want to get some done, maybe I should start now and see what I can accomplish by the time the ghosts and ghouls are on the prowl for candy!  To that end I have two:

This is "Whoo Is It?",  a banner project started all the way back in 2014 from the Fons & Porter's "Quilting Celebrations" Fall issue that year.  It had been cut and laid out since then and now needs a good pressing in order to finish it.  What I've learned in the years since is to roll up applique projects like this on an empty paper towel roll or pool noodle to avoid the kinds of folds and wrinkles I'm going to have to deal with getting rid of now.  I'm hoping to work on it and maybe get it at least to a completed top by the end of this month.  

And speaking of Halloween and my previously discussed favorite Fat Quarter design there's this:

The Annie's Attic company ran another of their infamous pre-cut bundle sales and I should have known better than to go look!  But look I did and saw a cute bundle of five Halloween prints for under $10 and couldn't resist!  I've added some fabrics from my Halloween stash (and actually one from the "Whoo" stash bag) and so far have shifted the fabrics around and worked up two layouts.  However, I am still not sure I like the way they work so have already ordered a few more prints that I think might punch it up better.  

This is a really quick design to make up so would really bolster my enthusiasm for working early on Halloween projects if I can settle on a layout.  Fingers crossed that I can do that and also get this to at least a top or even better finished and quilted by month's end.  I already have an idea for the quilting that I learned in the recent Free-Motion Quilting Summit so I'll see what happens!

And so ends the details of all the traffic on my design wall in recent days.  With all of this putting things on and taking them off, I probably need to do a little clean up of the batting on it now!

My MIL gifted me a couple of these little Temu tools a while back and surprisingly they do work! 

Quiltville Mystery Season: The Reveal Is Out!

Well fellow Quiltville mystery fans, it looks like this year's season is now done!  Bonnie has posted the final part of the mystery and the new quilt has been revealed! 

I won't spoil it for you: go on over to her blog here to see what the final quilt looks like.  While you're there, pick up the finishing details for Part 9 and other parts you may have missed since she doesn't say in the post how long the mystery links will stay up.  Bonnie is headed out of town so if you have questions you better ask them fast!  She will be flying out to Los Angles on Tuesday to pick up her flight to Australia so may be out of touch for a while.  

BTW, if you've ever been curious about just how many mysteries Bonnie has done and when they premiered, check out this Facebook link where you can download a list (in Word format) of all the mysteries up to 2023.  

As for me, despite the fact that I had planned to have only one thing to focus on for this year's mystery season, I never got a chance to get to it!  I should have known that when I picked up Part 7 and in the instructions those that are doing this one had to start combining units that were constructed in the earlier parts, things were getting close to a finish.   I had hoped today's post wouldn't be the last and I might finally start layering my "En Provence".  

As I noted before, I had finished the top all the way back in 2018 and made up the backing in 2023.  In the first post I did about "Old Town",  I talked about how you don't have to color the mystery quilts the same way Bonnie does.  While my "En Provence" followed her color cues to the letter, check out this one that took a really innovative approach to the color choices and placement.  Even Bonnie didn't recognize it as her design at first!

Now that the mystery season has passed and the New Year is underway,  I have other priorities afoot so I think I will just stash this one once again and wait for another opportunity to work on it.  Although I want to more frequently work on quilting my quilts this year,  I still don't have even a "concept of a plan" for quilting this one since that was supposed to be determined when I layered it.  

Speaking of other priorities,  I also didn't get to the binding for the Steering Committee quilt that I finished quilting on Wednesday.

So with the mystery quilt layering now off the agenda,  I can focus on the binding task today -- that is after I get the laundry done.   After binding that one, I think I will also pull out the fabrics for the next Committee quilt and start work on that layout.  

The other priority with an immediate deadline is that I want to finally work on a friend's memory quilt.  Her and her husband have birthdays in February and I've already gotten him a gift so if I could finish her quilt that would be hers.  I know I'm not usually good with such tight deadlines but I might as well start pushing organizing myself to get better at that for 2025!   I think with the right amount of focus,  I could finally get this project done.  Another goal for 2025 is to move a lot of things off the back burner so getting that project done would be an ideal example of that.  

So posting this now then heading out to do laundry and then I can spend the evening binding.  Sounds like a plan!

7 Days of New Year's - Day 2: Cross stitch continues....

Taking a late dinner break to check in:  As of now, more progress has been made on my MIL's Christmas (New Year's?) gift which I'm still hoping to finish tonight.  I've managed to add the additional line of text that I wanted since my MIL doesn't cross stitch but the sentiments of the design apply to both it and our shared love of quilt projects.  

It took me longer than I expected to pick and count out the spacing of a suitable font.  Early in my cross stitch journey,  I had picked up this ebook that I thought might be useful in the future if I wanted to design or add text to cross stitch projects:

Having already purchased an 8"x10" frame for the finished piece, the challenge was to pick out a font that would not add much to the stitched height of it since I already expected the margins of the finished piece to be tight in the frame I had purchased.  The letters I chose were only two squares high and I thought were also that wide.  However, I missed that the letters "T" and "I" actually needed an additional square of width.  Luckily I realized that as I started on the word "Quilting" so only had to rip and re-do the beginning of the line once I re-counted where I had to start stitching to accommodate the additional spaces.

I had also tried putting the unfinished piece into the frame last night and it became clear that it wasn't going to fit because of the thickness of the Aida cloth I am using.  I was afraid I'd have to shop for another frame but fortunately,  I had to go do some grocery shopping today and while out stopped at the local dollar store.  There I saw an 11" x 14" artist canvas and some decorative signs that inspired a new approach to the finish.

The original intended frame and the new canvas.

The plan now is to add some fabric borders to frame the piece and mount it onto the canvas as a backer board, padding it with some batting.  I'll punch some holes and seal them with grommets then add a pretty string for hanging the piece.  But first I've got to get the top border stitching done!

Oh, and a quick quilting note:  Bonnie Hunter has posted the next two parts of this year's "Old Town" mystery!   Part 6 was posted early on Monday and Part 7 posted today.  I had hoped to be working on my project for the mystery by today which is quilting my "En Provence" but clearly that hasn't happened yet.  In Part 7 they are starting to assemble some of the parts made to date into larger blocks so hopefully there's still time to get my own  project underway before the mystery ends!  

With this posted, I'll finish eating and get back to stitching!

Quiltville Mystery Season Starts TODAY!

It's that time of year again:  It's time for Bonnie Hunter's annual Quiltville mystery quilt!  This year's project is called "Old Town".

It is inspired by the sights and sounds of Krakow, Poland that Bonnie visited last year.   Even though the colors were inspired by her trip, as always you do not have to make your version in only those colors.  I always look forward to seeing how creative people get with their mystery color choices.  You can follow what other mystery quilters are doing on the Facebook page for the mystery here.

Bonnie will be leaving to travel to England on the Friday after Thanksgiving which is when the mystery season usually starts so she is posting the first part of it today.  If you haven't already done so, also pick up the Introduction post with the fabric requirements here.  

As Bonnie notes, be sure to pick up and download the mystery parts each week and save them to your computer or phone.  Once the mystery is completed in January, she will remove the instructions from her blog.  After the mystery is over, you can still get the full pattern by purchasing it in her Quiltville store when she releases it.  

As for me, my mystery season will be just like last year's:  I will be trying to finish up one of the tops I still have to quilt.  I've settled on finishing "En Provence".  I completed this top back in 2018.

Top

Prepped Backing

I had made up the backing back in January of last year so all that's left to do now is to layer it and do the "quilt whispering" to decide how to quilt it.  Not always an easy task for me, LOL!  However, I really want to be quilting my quilts more frequently in the coming year as I have a lot of accumulated tops and want to make space for all of the accumulated project kits I have set up.  Which brings to mind this hilarious "Bonnie-ism" I saw on Instagram:

Or at least I hope so!

I had originally planned to quilt up my "On Ringo Lake" mystery during this period because the colors of it are similar to what is being used for "Old Town".  

Top and Scrappy Backing

However, it has a scrappy back and I have some new quilt hangers that should arrive soon that I want to  try using.  I am trying to fix up my younger son's former bedroom into more of guest room rather than the junk depository storage space it's functioning as right now.  The hangers are made to be used with a hanging sleeve, something I don't typically add to my quilts.  It will be easier to blend a sleeve into the back of "En Provence" hence why it tops the finishing list this round!   

Are you participating in this year's mystery?  Have you done one of Bonnie's mysteries before?  They are a lot of fun and there is no pressure to get it done by the end of the mystery period.  Check it out as well as what everyone else is doing and consider joining in on the fun!  

Quilting Travelogue - Part 1: Piecing, Shop Hop and Cross Stitch

We came back from visiting my MIL in North Carolina last week right into another busy week at home!  My community garden was scheduled to host the annual Fall visit of the Fifth Grade from one of the local elementary schools.  So that meant going in the day before to set up for the visit and back in the next day for their visit.  Then on the following day, staff and volunteers from Bronx Green-up, the community garden outreach program of the New York Botanical Garden came to help us get more of our new garden bed builds built and in place.  We've gotten a lot done since the start of the season back in March!

Then and Now!

After that I needed to recoup from the hard work of the garden days, do some food shopping for the house and follow up with relatives regarding our return which all managed to kill the rest of the week.  

Over the weekend I did pull out a few of the things from the trip and ordered a few things in follow-up to projects or purchases from the trip.  After a few appointments to start off this week,  I am finally, slowly getting back to what I had been working on before I left! 

The trip itself was also busy but very productive.   Here's what I did while we were away:

Piecing

I finished up my "Rainbow Log Cabin Heart" blocks.  These had been started to participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all the way back in 2021.  I had brought with me the blocks sets for the Turquoise, Orange, Red-Purple, Black and Grey blocks that had been on my design wall since the Summer:

Those done, I realized I needed one more block for the layout.  I had considered a number of options but decided to raid my MIL's scrap stash and made a Brown block:

I also came up with an idea for what to do for the alternate squares so will try to work on that now that I am back home.

My "leader/ender" project for this trip was to start my blocks for Bonnie Hunter's "Shoo Fly Shoo".  This was her annual Leader/Ender project from back in 2019 and I got a few done while making the "Heart" blocks.  

I had liked Bonnie's quilt that was made up of "oodles of blocks" but this past weekend I spied a pattern at Quilting Daily  (they are having a $5 sale until 10/31) that I might prefer to do:

I like this one because it would mean making a whole lot less of the "Shoo Fly" blocks!  After finishing up the "Scrap Vortex" top back in March (and the backing for it is one of the post-trip purchases), I really wanted to continue working down my "string scraps stash" and this would give me another opportunity to use some of them.  Additionally, I've always wanted to make one of these string pieced Lone Stars which would then use up even more strings.  So I think I see a project-pivot developing!    

I did do another bit of piecing but will talk about that when I report on the "Long-Arm Quilting" portion of the trip.

Shop Hopping

We almost completed the whole East Central Region of the All Carolina's Shop Hop.  I've still got to mail in my Hop "Passport" so I can be entered in to win some prizes.  My MIL won a fabric bundle last year after submitting hers!  

We didn't find out until right before we went down that Rocky Mount in North Carolina where my MIL lives also got hit by a tornado during the Hurricane Helene storm period.  The damage while intense wherever it did touch down was no where near what was suffered in Ashville in the Western part of the state.  I was sorry to learn that many of the quilt shops in that area, a few of which I had visited in 2022 while camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway, were greatly impacted by the storm.  

Needless to say I picked up a lot of goodies and we went to three stores I hadn't been to before.  One of them was a store recently opened by a woman I discovered when I attended the virtual Summer Quilt Camp back in July.  

My MIL and I both purchased fabrics to make up the bag patterned in this year's issue of the Hop magazine.  

My MIL plans to make hers out of the fabric designed for last year's Hop.  She already had a few pieces in her stash and found additional prints while we shopped this year.  Mine will be made out of the ones for this year which I purchased while Hopping.  However, neither of us will be making them using the fabrics the same way as patterned in the magazine!  We never got around to working on that project so I'll be keeping this packed up for our next trip back down which is tentatively scheduled for February.    

I had also made this pop-up bin to pack in the bag with my Juki sewing machine prior to us leaving on this trip.

When I visit my MIL,  I set up a little sewing station and wanted to have a handy trash can to use when I come.  I also had brought down my Featherweight machine with me because there was talk of us doing a "Sit-'N-Stitch" session with some other quilters.  I had purchased two of the pop up frames so I could also make one while there to put in my Featherweight travel bag.  

When my MIL saw the first one she immediately wanted to also make one and ordered a frame.  I had one red and black Fat Quarter for the second bin and the plan was to find three more plus fabric for the lining while on the Shop Hop.  However, I only found the lining and two more fabrics I liked for the exterior.  Ultimately, I decided that one of them wouldn't be used to make the can.  Instead I purchased enough yardage of that print as well as another one to go with a panel I already have in my stash.  

And hopefully one day this will become another holiday quilt!

It all worked out since we weren't able to do the quilting get together after all.  I brought the extra frame back home and have since ordered yet another a print that I will use for the whole exterior along with the lining purchased on the Hop.  Since this was another of the projects we wound up not having time to work on, it too will travel back down for the next trip.

Edited To Add:  That didn't happen but the new bucket did eventually get made and the details about that are here.  

Cross Stitch   

While away, I also got some cross stitching done.  I had taken a few projects with me both to work on while there and during the drive down and back:

Before and a finished After!

These two also traveled down with me....

One was finished and one moved forward!

In my last post, I mentioned that I had finished my latest "snarky" cross stitch piece and hoped to "fully finish" it when I returned.  The good news is I found a great backing print for it on the Shop Hop!

So I am hoping in the days to come to "fully finish" it and get it hung up!

In the next post I'll discuss the quilting part of the trip and a big project that I moved off of my quilty "To Do" list! 

Finished Or Not Friday: My Travels Down The "Old Tobacco Road" Are Now Complete!

It's that time of the week when we all gather at Quilty Girl Alycia's to see what everyone has worked on this week:

New Year, new button!!

Today, I am posting my second Bonnie Hunter Quiltville mystery finish in as many months.  I had hoped to get it done before the end of the most recent mystery season but as always, better late than never!  BTW, hopefully you have checked out the reveal of Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery, "Indigo Way" before she removes it from her blog.

With all the recent bad weather it's hard to get good full shots while staying inside.

This is "Old Tobacco Road" Bonnie's 2008 mystery.  If you like this one, it is still up on her website on her "Free Patterns" tab.  I had liked this design from the beginning but it took me until 2018 to get myself together enough to start on it.  This is also another mystery quilt that is true to Bonnie's esthetic where all the blocks for it were made from scraps.  

When I originally set out to make this, it started as a "travel kit".  The year I starting pulling fabric together for it, I thought I would be traveling to help a friend during an illness.  Fortunately my friend was able to get through her treatments without needing the extra help.  I still wound up starting this while traveling -- this time in October of 2019 while visiting my MIL and her husband who was ailing at the time.

From fabric picks to travel kit!

It is safe to say that in times of stress, quilting is a haven!  Later, I continued work on this as my mystery season project during Bonnie's debut of the "Frolic" mystery that year.  For that mystery, they had to make Pinwheels and Flying Geese and combine them into blocks so I was able to do the same for this one!

After "Folic" was revealed, I started laying out the blocks on my design wall to start putting together this top.  That was in February of 2020.  

Well, we all know what happened after that!  I did finish piecing together the center in the early days of March but after that it languished in favor of working on all the great pandemic projects and quilt alongs that were offered to keep us occupied during the quarantine.  

So it wasn't until January of 2021 that I finally put the borders on it with some debate about whether to just end the front with the Flying Geese border.  I saw many OTR's finished that way that looked really good.  However then I saw a pretty fabric I liked and that swayed my decision to go with the additional outer fabric border just as Bonnie had.   

Second border or not?  I chose Yes!

Another year went by before I worked up the backing.  That was because this project was pulled as my UFO Challenge number in March 2022 and I was also piecing another scrappy backing at the time (for another Bonnie quilt actually). 

And some leftover Flying Geese were just enough to help fill out the back.

Well, then it "simmered" for yet another year after which I was determined to get try to get it done during 2023's "Indigo Way" mystery season.  However, I was also working on finishing up "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll", another Bonnie project that was just as old and since it still needed piecing, took priority.  I even ran out of basting pins so had to wait until "Boll" was finished being quilted in order to layer this one!   

Once "Boll" was done, I spent the next two weeks quilting this and then thought that last week, I'd get this bound and completed.  Except, I pulled out the project box only to realize that in all this time, I had not made any plans for the binding!  Fortunately I keep a journal while making my projects so in those notes, I saw that the yardage I had purchased for the front outer border and part of the backing had been split and put with another project to use for its backing as well.  At first I was reluctant to use that fabric since the other project is on my UFO Challenge list for this year so I might need that backing at some point.  

I then thought I had enough excess backing around the edges of this that I could instead finish the edges by turning the backing to the front.  I have done it before but I guess I needed to have taken some notes on that because it did not go well this time.  Needless to say, the backing from the other project then got immediately sacrificed in favor of cutting binding strips so this could get done now, LOL!!  The good news is I only took about a half yard from it so there still should be plenty to finish the backing for the other project when the time comes.

So lessons learned:  when you have a long-term project, take good notes and have a checklist of your supplies from the start!  Now that this is finally in the can, I can hop back over to Alycia's and check out what everyone else has finished up during this cold and stormy week!

To Do Tuesday: A Little Forward, A Little Stopped.....

Joining in again -- albeit a little late -- for "To Do Tuesday" over at Carol's "Quilt Schmilt" blog (and I have to chuckle every time I say "Quilt Schmilt" -- too cute)!

It took me so long to check in because it took so long to finish this up:

"Old Tobacco Road" one of the early Bonnie Hunter mysteries is finally done!  This was top of my list for last week because I was really close to finishing it.  

I thought  that I could finish the quilting of the last two outer borders and then apply the binding and call it done by the end of the week.  Instead the quilting took right up to end of the day Thursday so I didn't get started on the binding until Friday.  That too went awry for a number of reasons so the binding only got finished a little while ago!  Now that it's done, I'll review the full finishing story at the end of the week.

Needless to say that means I didn't get any work done on the other two projects on my list for last week so work on those (two Raffle Quilts for my community garden's season opening and a BOM using Fig Tree fabrics) can now proceed during the rest of this week.  Let's hope for a better report on those for next week!

Ironically something that I had not put on my list did get completed -- well at least the stitching:  

This was my very first cross stitch piece that I started back in February of 2022 in the hopes of having it ready for Valentines Day that year.  CS-newbie that I was, it is now not a surprise that I didn't get it finished.  In hindsight, stitching with Silk floss on 18ct Aida is not the best first project!  I had stopped working on it in March figuring I'd finish it up for the holiday the following year.  

Well that didn't happen until this year (and many projects later) when I finally resumed stitching on this last week figuring on getting a slightly earlier start on it this time for the holiday, LOL!  At first I only got in a few more stiches because I was so focused on the quilt project.  However, when the binding problems hit, it felt better to just go do some cross stitch instead to blow off steam.  As seen in the picture, I also shopped for finishing supplies this weekend so getting this "fully finished" (as the cross stitchers say) now also goes on the list for this week.  

So here's hoping that the rest of the week I can relax a bit and get a few bite-size parts of these projects done.  Looking forward to seeing what others have worked on this week so will be checking out all the goodies over at Quilt Schmilt and see how the middle of January is treating everyone!

To Do Tuesday: Two Reboots for 2024

I learned about a new link up last week so this is my first time checking in for Carol's "To Do Tuesday" at her "Quilt Schmilt" blog:

It looks like Quilt Schmilt attracts a fun group!

I am trying to be mindful of the things I want to get done both this year and this month.  Doing so was helpful in getting a lot of things done last year so I'd like to continue the trend.  

A Reboot From 2023 That Is Now "Close to Finished"!

So far for the start of the year, I am finishing up the quilting of my "Tobacco Road" mystery quilt:

This is one of the early Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts issued all the way back in 2008 but I didn't start mine until 2018.  I finished piecing the top in 2021, made the backing in 2022 and layered and started quilting it at the close of 2023.  

I'm down to stitching the cornerstone blocks and the outer two borders then I can move onto the binding.  This one should be done by the end of the week.  Not bad, only one week past the end of the latest mystery season!  BTW, have you taken a gander at the scrappy loveliness of Bonnie's newest mystery quilt "Indigo Way"?!?

Reboot#1:  Garden Raffle Quilts

The first of the reboots for 2024 is actually two quilts:  I've pulled the storage box back down for the raffle quilts I want to make for my community garden's 2024 Season Opening Day.   

Here they were when I packed them up last April.

Technically these have a firm finish deadline.  Well, firm in terms of this year I really want to get them done!  I had originally started them in 2022 and did more work on them last year.  The last time I worked on these, I had finished the top for the light version and left off debating the addition of some applique elements to it.

I still have to finish up the applique blocks for the dark version and assemble all the blocks into a top.

Our garden's President has invited me to the Steering Committee meeting where they will start planning for this year's event.  We always hold the season opening day on the Saturday closest to Earth Day.  It's on Monday April 22nd this year so we'll probably open on Saturday April 20th.  Our garden's Event Coordinator passed away last year so we are still determining who will fill that role in organizing that and other events during the year.  More than likely, we will all have to "pitch in" on the tasks for the foreseeable future.  

I would love to be able to take the tops to the meeting at the end of this week and give them a "preview" of them.  If I show them to the Committee, that will really "commit" me to the project and then I'll have to stay on them this time around until they are finished, LOL!!     

Reboot #2: The Scrappy Figs BOM

My "Scrappy Figs" project was one of the things left undone on my UFO Challenge list last year.  I was introduced to this project back in 2018 when Pat Sloan had done a sew along to make Joanna Figueroa's "Christmas Figs" quilt.  Pat had sewn up two versions of it:  one in the patterned Red and Green and one in Blue and White.  

Watching Pat's daily video at the beginning of December, I was surprised to find that she had also not finished those two yet!  She put it on her December "To Do" list to finish them and that prompted me to think about trying to at least finish my blocks for it by the end of the year too.  

I had loved the original quilt design but didn't want to do it in Christmas colors.  That inspired me to do it in a scrappy mix of Fig Tree fabrics which was something that I had always wanted to stash.  I had started this project as a personal "Block of Month" all the way back in 2020 but the pandemic and all the wonderful pandemic quilt alongs that year meant I got off track on it.  

Pat only needed to bind her Red and Green version to finish it and still needs to get the Blue and White one quilted.  For some reason,  I thought I had twenty-five blocks to make for this project which is what I had put on my UFO list.  However, reviewing the pattern book again I see there's only twenty blocks in the original design although it does call for making some cornerstone blocks that I don't know if I will be including in mine.  I have twelve of the twenty blocks needed so only need to make eight more.   

When my DH and I visited my MIL back in October, I was able to stock up on a whole bunch of new Fig Tree Fat Quarters during the "All Carolinas Shop Hop".  The Quilt Lizzy store in Warrenton, NC was closing its brick and mortar shop to go fully online so the sales presented a phenomenal opportunity to stash some more!

The Fig Tree FQs are on the right but a lot of Grunge was purchased on this trip too! 

Getting back to work on this now gives me an opportunity to incorporate the new Fat Quarters into my existing stash and scrappy design. 

As always big plans for the month and big hopes for staying on track!  I'm looking forward to regularly checking in with those making "To Do Tuesday" lists so we can help each other stay accountable!