Moving It Forward Monday - Cross Stitch Edition

I'm doing May-nia!

Okay, I have to admit, I'm really getting into the whole cross stitch thing!  Partially because it's interesting to see the things cross stitchers do to keep themselves motivated to work on their projects.  

One of those things is May-nia.  Back in 2015 a group of cross stitchers started a challenge where for the month of May they would start a bunch of new projects.  I think cross stitchers have even more  "hussies" (HSY = Haven't Started Yet projects) they set up for themselves than quilters!  That's probably because the initial cost of supplying most cross stitch projects ranges from about the cost of a charm pack to the cost of a layer cake of fabric.  You get closer to the cost of making a quilt when it comes time to "fully finish" a project since a lot of cross stitchers have their pieces professionally framed for display.  

But I digress....when May-nia started, the goal was to start 15 different projects in the course of the month.  That's right, start but not necessarily finish!  Ahhh, it reminds me of the good 'ole days when Barbara over at the Cat Patches blog encouraged her quilting followers to report on their "New-FOs" and go ahead and pull out that new quilt project they had been dying to get under way.  

The original May-nia group has since disbanded but cross stitchers the world over have picked up on the tradition and run with it!  As time went on, the number of new starts cross stitchers were challenged to do increased until at one point the challenge was to start a new project each day of the month!  Okay, I'm definitely not trying that -- I have no desire to have my cross stitch projects equal to my quilt UFOs, LOL!!!

The goal for May-nia these days is to just set a goal of your own choosing.  For some it's all about new starts, for others tackling WIPS or UFOs (see, just like quilters!!).  Up to now, I didn't think I had enough potential projects to even consider doing May-nia.  However, looking at the cross stitch "hussies" and WIPs I have accumulated, I have definitely reached that stage!  

Initially, my Maynia plan was to stitch "patriotic projects".   The month of May usually signals the time of the year where I put out all of the red, white and blue quilts I've made in honor of all the "patriotic holidays" that will happen between May and September (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day).  My downstairs bathroom is also decorated in that color scheme and I realized that a few patriotic pin keeps would be great to add to the little display shelf I have in there.  Right now I have two patterns in house:

Another one called "Right To Vote" had been on my wish list for over a year.  It was on sale at 123Stitch.com this past week so I splurged on getting it and it's on its way.  What helped push that along was that I already had a few of the "called for" floss for it that had been purchased when I bought the other two patterns back in January.  I was going to try doing a 2-Day "stitching rotation" for each of the three projects, something I have seen Flosstubers talk about (like Lori Scicolone of Once Upon A Stitch).  I'd then focus the other day of the week on working on finishes.  

However, I also have three projects that I really need/want to "fully finish" this month as well as a new start that is related to May.  So I changed my May-nia plans:  instead I will be stitching one new start this week for a special reason:

It celebrates the coronation of King Charles III at the end of this week.  I am not a Monarchist but after seeing Pat Sloan talk about this, I liked the idea of getting in on the fun with another piece that is specific to the year "2023".  I'm also hoping to use this little project to try out a new-to-me technique of "gridding" the fabric base of a project.  This is something that will be really helpful to know how to do for a "full coverage" project I hope to start next month.  Years ago I had purchased some London themed fabric and I thought I might use it towards the "fully finishing" part of this.  However, since then another idea popped up in my head for another way to finish it so I'll see which way I go if and when I get to that step. 

Each week for the rest of the month, I'll work on another project that I need to finish stitching (carried over from April) and two other finishes that need to be "fully finished" .  

This change in May-nia plans doesn't leave the patriotic projects stranded --- I've decided to work on those in June instead.  Since that month is 30 days long, I will try doing the projects on a 3-Day rotation which will give me ten distinct stitching periods to work on the cross stitching over the course of the month.  

And of course, in between all of the hand work there will also be the usual quilting projects continuing as well!  My first crafty love will not be denied nor ignored!

So How Did March Go?

Well, March is in the can!  As always, I had grand plans for the month but did I get any of them done?  Follow along and see...... 

So my plans for the month were:

1.  Pat Sloan's "March Block-A-Day" with my own WIPs instead.

The first of the two WIPs I decided to give the B-A-D treatment to this month was "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll",  a string mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter.  I started on the project back in 2018 and had been working on the blocks for this since Christmas.  I got the String blocks done in January and started on the pieced blocks for it in February.  The good news is that B-A-D was GOOD for these blocks since I was able to finish them up in March!

When DH and I visited his mother in North Carolina last week, I had hoped to lay out the blocks and maybe get the center of the top sewn up while away.  

Unfortunately that didn't happen.  Part of that was also going to be to piece together the borders so now that also still has to be done.   I am happy though that the big step of the pieced blocks is all complete!

The second of the B-A-D WIPs to work on this month was to finish up the blocks for the APQ Scrap  Happy QAL that I started last September.  Once again the good B-A-D news is that those blocks are all done too!  

Here are most of them filling out my design wall.  The pile of blocks on the left side of the table are an additional block for each column.  I also can't fit the last column of blocks on the wall so for now they are sitting on the right side of the table.  

There is also an outer border of neutral squares that I have done some of the cutting for too.  Putting the columns together will probably be used as the new leader/ender project while I resume work on the next thing from the March "To Do" list.....   

2.  Raffle Quilts and Memory Quilt

I had two deadline quilts to work on this month.  The first is that last year, I got it in my head to want to make a raffle quilt for my community garden's opening day.  I found the perfect pattern and some sale fabric turned that idea into making two quilts.  I started on them last year, stalled and then vowed to get them done this year.  Unfortunately the B-A-D WIPs kept me busy in March so all I've done is to pull out the project box and review what I had started last year.  

I had told the garden's Steering Committee that I was committed but not guaranteeing the quilts for this year.  So it remains to be seen if I've made enough progress that I can push and try to get them done.

Unfortunately that means that the Memory Quilt for a friend is once again on hold.  Since it's a project I really need to focus on, I think that won't happen until May or until the Raffle Quilts are completed.

3.  APQ UFO: Modern Twist

I signed up for the APQ UFO challenge and this month was #11 which for me was finishing up the quilting on my Planet Patchwork "Modern Twist" mystery.  I also took this one on our recent trip to NC because I thought I could handle quilting it on my Featherweight if given the opportunity.  

It's the top quilt in that bag.

Unfortunately, that opportunity didn't happen.  Looks like this will be the second month in a row that I didn't touch my challenge UFO project.  I really need to work on this one at some point because the "To Be Quilted" pile has been growing by leaps and bounds lately and I have to get better at tackling it.  I might see if I can still try to do some quilting on this in April as a warm-up for quilting the raffle quilts.

4.  Finishing Up the Christmas Quilting:  Christmas Ribbons 

The last item on the March "To Do" list was to finish off the last of the Red & White Christmas quilts.  The hope was to get my "Christmas Ribbons" project quilted and bound (it's the bottom quilt in the bag pictured above).  

What I was able to do in March was move this forward a bit and get it layered and basted so I could also take it on the trip to NC.  However like "Modern Twist", I didn't get to quilt it while away.  However, I was able to make an adjustment to the label area pieced into the back.  This is another TBQ that I might try to take a stab at quilting while working on the raffle quilt piecing. 

One Last Thing.....

While this had not been on the March list, another benefit of traveling by car for our trip is that these days I also take along a hand work project.  As I packed up my things for the trip, I decided to try to get "back on the horse" with one of my Cross Stitch projects.  

This is "Maybe Wine Will Help" by Peacock & Fig.  I picked it to be the companion piece to the Dimensions "My Doctor Says I Need Glasses" piece I finished and hung last year.  

I had gotten stalled on "Wine" because when I last worked on this, I had counted wrong when starting that center flower and it was positioned too low near the letters below it.  I had done a big portion of it hoping I could figure a way to "make it work".  NOT!!  So before the trip, I bit the bullet and frogged all the work I had done on it.  

I was too tired on the drive down to stitch and we were too busy during the visit for me to work on it.  So I didn't get to restart it until we were on the drive back.  Good news is that it's going well now so I hope to keep this up and get it fully finished (stitched and framed) for April.

So no need to do an April "To Do" list as everything not finished this month moves forward to that list.  Which means, well everything here, LOL!!!  Did you get your March goals completed and what's cooking in your studio for April?     

Quiltville Chilhowie Mystery Part 2 and My Mystery Doings

After spending all of this week working on Christmas quilt projects, it's time to take a break from that because....

.... the latest Quiltville mystery post has dropped!

This week, those participating in this year's mystery will be doing strip sets and "flip and sew" corners.  You can see their progress on Instagram here and here.

I have two mystery season projects I plan to work on:  one is "Roll, Roll Cotton Boll".  Having assessed where I am with that, I'll be resuming work on making the paper foundation pieced String Squares for the next two weeks.

I see I have a block I started (front center) that needs to be finished.  As you can see I have no shortage of neutral strings (in the bags on the right) as I have been putting them with this project stash whenever I do trim cuts or have project leftovers.  On the left are the various stages the blocks go through before they are ready to go into the quilt:  pieced foundation squares that have to be trimmed then they are cut in half and finished up into big quarter square blocks.  In the back center are the "APQ Scrap Happy" blocks I was still making as leader/enders for the Christmas sewing and in the upper right corner is the mockup of one of the blocks from one of the holiday projects. 

I had planned to start work on another Red & White Christmas decorating project now that December has started but when I pulled out the stash for it, I found I had another Bonnie pattern sitting with it.

Comparing the quilt I had planned to make to this one, I realized that since "Cherry Crunch" also calls for string blocks, it actually falls right in line with the string blocks I have to make for RRCB.  So change in plans, I'll make this one instead!  In order to make sure it's doable, I actually mapped out how many foundation string blocks I need to make each day for both projects in order to get everything done in a timely manner.  This way I'll know how much time to commit and just where or when I fall off the wagon if I don't meet those goals.   

My other mystery season project is to get my "En Provence" backing made up.  I can't do any of the actual composition work yet because the design wall is still in use for the moment.  I did pull out the fabric bin with the project scraps which is what I had planned to use to make the backing.   However when I pulled out the bag that had the quilt top in it, I found a pleasant surprise!

Reviewing my purchase notes, I had forgotten that back in 2018(!) I had caught a great deal on a light purple, pink and green print fabric (7 yards for $22!) so had switched course and had planned to use it for the backing (as of right now, the top measures a whopping 123" square**!!).  I still think I might want to piece in some scrappy bits here or there so in the coming days will let that idea marinate a bit in my mind before proceeding.

**Correction:  Back when I had measured the top using the side of my cutting mat, I had read the numbers on it the wrong way again!  The top is actually 87" square.

I'm really hoping I can stay on track and get these two to the "ready for layering and quilting stage" by the time the mystery ends in January.  Are you participating in the mystery season?  Sew along even if it's not on the actual mystery project!

Resuming work during the National Corona-cation and National Craft Month

With all the shut downs happening because of the Corona Virus, everyone is looking forward to new found time in their quilt spaces.  Which is a good prompt for me since I haven't sewn a thing in two weeks!  A series of events prompted my work stoppage, starting with having so many projects in the air and then hitting roadblocks on a few.  Of course the roadblocks were on the two projects I had really hoped to get done before the end of February:

I had started these pillow covers as one of TWO projects I thought would be really quick-to-make Valentine's day projects to coordinate with the other projects I previously made for decorating for that holiday.  But nope, I also ran into trouble with the other project (a runner) before moving on to this one which worked well as a leader/ender while I was finishing work on the Girl Scout quilt top.  I got them almost completely done until I tried to make a faux piped binding.  Although I have made that before,  I once again ran into trouble and was frustrated enough at that point to just put them aside.  Speaking of the the Girl Scout Quilt:

I was nervous yet jazzed up to move on to quilting this after showing the top to the other facilitators I had worked with to help the girls make the blocks. I had designed a layout for the back that fortunately made use of all of the 4-H fabric we had also purchased for this project.  After showing the top, I had gone to pick out a bunch of potential binding and hanging sleeve fabrics by "shopping the stash" of the group that had funded both this project and my EPP workshop and then drafted a label for the quilt.  The only thing I still needed were the names of the girls from the workshop attendance lists to finish the label and add it to the backing layout.  I wanted to keep the design wall and the sewing table clear to work on that as soon as it came in.  However, I wasn't sent the label information until the first week of March.  So February ended with two more projects piled up that I had wanted done by February's end!

This didn't help my sewing mood since I had already abandoned plans to finish two OTHER projects in February because of the above projects:  one was my Tobacco Road quilt:

A completed center still waiting for some borders!

I had already missed my own deadline to get the top finished by the time the "Frolic" mystery ended in mid February so had really hoped I could finish this top by February's end or at least as soon after that as I could.   Then there is also Emeralds:

This is as far as I got last year.

When I had planned my projects for the year, this one was slated to be worked on at the end of February in the hope of having it finished for St. Patrick's Day display in March.  The good news is that the delay has prompted a change of course for the back of the quilt (now the third such change of plans since I started this project last year).  Very much inspired by Carole at the "From My Carolina Home" blog and her always lovely seasonal and holiday tablescapes, I learned that this year Mardi Gras was in the last week of February so just a few weeks before St. Patrick's Day.  Green also figures heavily in the Mardi Gras color scheme and I immediately thought that a simple quilt design in Mardi Gras colors for the back would make this a two-sided, two-holiday quilt.  Love it!  Of course that meant starting a search for potential designs and at least a few Mardi Gras fabrics.  That search is still under way so it looks like Emeralds will sit for another year......

So March started and I was already not sewing and what's the worse (but enjoyable) thing that could happen then?  I discovered a new crafty binge-watch obsession: does anyone else watch The Great British Sewing Bee?

I watched from Season 1....

...through Season 5!

Looks a bit like a quilt retreat,huh?

OMG, I LOVE that show!  Of course it played right into my long simmering desire to return to clothing sewing.  Unfortunately I had discovered it five seasons in and equally unfortunately all the seasons were available on YouTube!  So there I was in the first week of March with errands to run because DH was due to be on vacation the following week and we had projects and an outing planned.  Then an emergency call came in needing someone to meet the delivery of the Porta-Potty for our community garden.

Well needless to say it was not hard to spend the down time between tasks getting through the GBSB episodes.  Not to mention also looking up patterns, fabrics and technique books (on freehand pattern cutting) related to the challenge projects given to the contestants.  Oh, and thinking about that DIY dress form I've also longed to make again.  Another Honey-Do project for DH's vacation?

DH's vacation has followed the GBSB binge (not to mention following the course of all the Corona developments), taking me even further off track. Sigh!  No matter, after spending the first work day in the garden for the new season on Saturday, I'm ready to refocus.

As always, I'm with Bonnie!

I already see things I want to get done in my garden bed and also need to get up to speed on starting the plants that will get put out in late April and May once the weather breaks for good and is consistently warmer.  Fortunately the things I planted in the Fall have managed to survive so I've also already got a good start for the early season too.

So it will be important to get back in gear on my quilt projects because it won't be long before the garden starts taking up a lot of my time.  Oh and I've got to catch up on this month's BOM work too!!

So I certainly have more than enough projects lined up for either a Corona-cation, National Craft Month or the upcoming National Quilting Day which is this coming Saturday!   If anyone needs a project, check out the Quilt Alliance NQD page which has links to free quilt patterns offered by popular quilt industry companies in honor of the day.  The Alliance is also rekindling a project that was founded by the (now defunct) National Quilting Association – Happy Birth Day, Baby!   For it, quilters or quilt groups can make a quilt for the first baby born on National Quilting Day in their local hospital.  The Quilt Alliance has a free downloadable pattern and full details about participating here.

As always, so many quilts, so little time --- especially when you take a loonng break to binge-watch!!

Welcoming in Another New Year!

Now that's a Quilter's idea of a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!  I hope your celebrations throughout the holiday season have brought you joy and peace and family memories that will last for years.  Just as important, I hope it brought you time to do this quilting thing we love so much!

So first off:  what's my Word of the Year?  I'm planning to work with more INTENTION this year.  This prompt comes from an audio meditation received from Tracy Matthews who runs the "Flourish and Thrive Academy" coaching sessions for jewelry entrepreneurs.  The advice is also good for us every day creatives in that getting our projects done means really drilling down on what you want to make a priority for the year.  After that it's about having a clear vision and plan for completing them.  Just wishin' and hopin and prayin' ain't enough to get them done!

So this year, some of the things I want to turn my intentions toward are:

1.  Returning to the Bucket List:  Last year I had a plan to work on the last four of my original Bucket List projects and that still remains.  I only got started on one of them and then got distracted by life issues.  With things a little clearer now, I'm going to make a better effort to move these forward with the ultimate goal being to complete at least two of them by the end of the year.

2.  Continuing to whittle down the UFOs:  There's alot of them but working on things from that previous category and the next one will also clean up more than a few projects that have been hanging around for a long while.   I'm reluctant to commit to a "one a month" goal -- my "baby steps" route will be to commit to getting at least four done for the year which for me would be siginificant progress.

3.  Quilt Alongs:  The String Alongs going on this year are going to help me vanquish a real old UFO and in the process empty out a big project tub that will go a long way in clearing up some space among the project stash.  I'm admitting right now to joining another new quilt along (so a new project) that will give me an opportunity to scratch a long held itch for a line of fabric I've long loved.

4. Quiltville Projects:  Ah, Bonnie Hunter deserves a catagory all her own!  I've got one (a UFO) that will hopefully be quilted before the end of January, two tops waiting for backs, two in the process of piecing (one of which will be worked on for the String Along) and one kitted up as a travel project.  At least two completely finished is the goal for this year.

5. Complete the Civil War Series:  Well, almost complete it!  I want to get sarted on the two remaining "Hussies" (HSY - Haven't Started Yet) projects that had already been planned for my series of reproduction quilts.  When I look at the above list, I'm thinking the least I can do is get them to tops and maybe one could get all the way to being quilted.  To finish the series I'd need to quilt my "Civil War Chronicles" BOM top but until I sort out my machine quilting situation, I don't expect that to happen this year.

6.  Seasonal Decorating Projects:  I have projects for the Spring, Halloween and Christmas (again?!?!?) seasons that I'd like to work on.  Unfortunately, the list of "To Do's" in each catagory are pretty long so I will really have to take a hard look when each season approaches to determine just what is possible to accomplish.  I'll push for getting one to completion for each.

As always, ambitious but a girl's gotta dream!  Just have to keep in mind that "Dreams Don't Work Unless You Do"!  A Happy Quilting Year to all and to all a Good Week!

The Latest Update on the Good Fortune Mystery and my Quiltville Projects

The next installment of Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery dropped Friday!  Part 3 of "Good Fortune" has the mystery quilters making these units -- Bonnie is calling them "half chevron units".

 We made a similar unit last year for "On Ringo Lake" called "Diamond in a Rectangle".

  You can see how far everyone got by checking out Bonnie's link-up today.

Edited To Add:  Ooh, quilters are starting to play with the Good Fortune units!  Check out some of the block ideas Chris Simon has laid out on her design wall over on Instagram!  Very cool ideas!  Let's see if any of these match up to Bonnie's final design in January.

I'm not doing this year's mystery but my Quiltville fun still continues.  First off I've finished my "Scrappy Trips" top.

Right now it's slated to finish at 60 x 72 for a lap quilt.  However, I'm debating about whether to add borders (plain or pieced) or just layer quilt and bind which is the way I've seen most of them finished.  Deanne Eisenman of Snuggles Quilts recently did a great post  about fun pieced borders that has me considering that option.  Judy Laquidara had a great book on that a few years back as well.

Can't debate long on that one though because I'd like to make this another finish for this year.

So what's my next Quiltville mystery piecing adventure?  I had put together a stash of Civil War Repros to make one of Bonnie's early mysteries called "Double Delight".

So my new leader/ender project will be the parts for that.  I managed to get all the cutting done for Part 1 of that mystery and will be making the Square-In-A-Square units for it.

I'd love to keep up with "Good Fortune" and have this old mystery finished when the new one is revealed.  However, at this point I'm way behind what the current mystery is up to.  To help move things forward a bit, while doing the cutting for this part, I also started cutting for some of the future parts if they use the same fabric.

We'll see if I can catch up to them at some point!  Hopefully, I can get a good start on this project this week.  Enjoy yours!

It Has Begun...And So Have I!

Today is the first link-up for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery "Good Fortune"!

When I last looked there was almost 120 people with scads of four patches (the first units) already pieced -- yikes!  I was most interested in those that were working in alternate color schemes and clicked over to see why they chose the colors they did.  The most common reasons: a quilt intended for someone specific (so needing a particular color scheme) or "it's what I had the most of in stash".  As always, at the reveal we'll see just how interesting those color schemes work out to be.

No, you won't see me there, as I noted on the last post, I'm sitting this one out because one of the things I want to focus on finishing are the last two mysteries ("En Provence" and "On Ringo Lake").  Both are tops but need their backings (and labels!!) prepared.  At this point in my planning, those are projects for next year.

Oh and yesterday, Bonnie shared a virtual trunk show of all the quilts from her new book "String Frenzy".  Ohhh, I already see a few I'd like to make!   Given the list of Bonnie projects I'm already planning to work on (for that too you can see my last post), I expected to wait awhile before getting the book.  Yeah, well now that the fires of interests have been stoked (or is that a "Squirrel Moment" has been been ignited?!?), we'll see how long I can hold out before I feel compelled to buy it!

For today though, it was time to get back on the horse.  So first up, after the Thanksgiving holiday is over....

 ...the quilt studio (a.k.a. the dining room) goes back to its previous condition.

Well almost it's previous condition --- there's a lot of stuff that was under that cutting table that had to go  upstairs until company left!  I'm going to keep it all up there for a while and only bring down what I want to focus on each week until the end of the year.  One of those right now is my "Scrappy Trips" blocks.  My goal with this now is to make blocks daily for at least the next two weeks and then try to get them to a top.  What I had so far went back up on the design wall:

This is as far as I got on the block for today:

Well, hopefully I can make up for that tomorrow by sewing this together and then getting another block completely done.  I really need to try to stay on track with this one because I've got quite a few other projects I'd like to also tackle before the year ends!

Checking in for the Start of April

Can you believe it!  I went to a gardening conference on Saturday and spent the day in our community garden on Sunday getting to see things like this coming in.....

...only to then start off TODAY like this!

Prince was right:  Sometimes  it DOES snow in April!

Fortunately, by noon it looked like this....

Temps are expected to stay up and we're suppose to get rain for the next two days so it'll probably be ALL gone by then! 

Admittedly, since my mind has been on the start of the gardening season, it hasn't been snowing progress in the quilt studio.  While I got the wholecloth basting finished last month, I still haven't put it in the hoop so there's that to do this week.

I'm hoping to be able to pile the bottom of the quilt into that bin while I'm stitching so it won't be all over the floor while I'm working.

I had planned to work on my DWR as my other "Bucket List" project for the start of the year. 

Rachel Hauser of the "Stitched In Color" blog has been hosting a "Big Bed Quilt-Along" that is supposed to end this month and the DWR was supposed to be my project for that.  I thought I'd have already gotten started on it by now but there's still a chance to focus on it this month and at least get the top done by month's end (she said, fingers crossed).  I had finished the piecing of the center back in August 2012 (although looking back, I realize I never posted about that!) and cut out the borders back in April 2015.  Now I need to add the applique onto them. 

In anticipation of the applique work, I decided to treat myself and sign up for Sue Pellan's "My Magical Garden" BOM.  For the blocks in it, she is using her Leaves Galore and Hearts and More templates.

The first two blocks of the BOM were just posted this week and I'll see if I can learn how to use her rulers to create the leaves for the DWR borders.  After I signed up, I bought the grippers for the rulers that she recommends and a couple of small packages of Mistyfuse.  While I'll use the fusible for some test leaves, I don't plan to fuse the leaves to the DWR.  There are leaves already appliqued to the center of the top that were machine appliqued using invisible thread.  Since I don't have working zigzag machines at the moment, I can't do that so I'll have to hand applique the borders ones for now. 

I've had the "Leaves" rulers for years, having purchased them after I learned to hand applique because I thought I would do a lot of those types of projects.  I've done a few but not as many as anticipated and to compound things I now have a lot of Accuquilt leaf dies.  However, I'd still like to learn how to use the rulers since Sue also has some interesting alternative designs that can be made with them like gift boxes and applique bows. 

At this point I also don't plan to make the whole BOM -- just a few units or blocks to get the hang of the rulers.  I am budgeting to purchase the Hearts and More rulers in June since the BOM won't be covering use of them until then.  

The goal of just getting the top finished is a good one for now since I'll need to get my other machines fixed if I'm going to eventually machine quilt this quilt as desired.  With the weather finally clearing, a trip across the bridge to Queens to have the repairs done is far more likely to happen.  My DH will be on vacation again in a few weeks so maybe I can plan to bring them in then.

Well, back to clearing the cutting table and organizing things (yet again) so I can finish making my project plans for the month!

Ringo Lake and En Provence Update: A Leader/Ender Spree

Up First: Ringo Lake

It's been a real challenge to try to keep up the steady work to get the "Ringo Lake"  parts finished.  I failed over the weekend --- didn't sew a thing!  I went to a guild meeting on Saturday and picked up waayy too much eye candy in the form of old magazines so spent most of the weekend oohing and ahhing and placing bookmarks. 

So I made up for that on the holiday Monday, making up more Part 4/6 combo units, the pieced triangles needed for the setting triangles in Part 9 and more Flying Geese for Part 5. 

About those combo units:  I've been piecing mine using the shortcut from Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Shaded Four Patch Technique Sheet which I talked about in my last post.  Even though I had written notes on both Bonnie's instructions and the Technique Sheet telling me exactly what size strips to cut out of which fabric to make the blocks in the format needed, what did I do?  When I started this round of piecing, I thought I knew exactly what to cut and sew.  Yeah, about that....

Needless to say these are wrong....

Really wrong.....

Oh so much wrong!   Note to self:  If you are using a shortcut but haven't sewn with it in a few days, it's a good idea to review your notes before starting!

Fortunately, these were cut from only one strip of each fabric and I had more than enough of the turquoise and brown fabrics left to cut more to make the corrected set.  However, I had to remove and salvage the coral triangles from the blocks I had completed (the ones in the upper right in the picture) because I only have some yardage left of one of the coral fabrics --- I've used up everything else to cut what was needed for all the other parts of the mystery. 

When I had cut the turquoise strips for that first errant set, I also cut all the triangles and squares needed for the setting triangles in Part 9.

I did some more stitching Tuesday and finished up all of the rest of the Part 4/6 combo units.  I also got some more Part 5 Flying Geese and Part 3 units done but there's still a lot more of those to make. 

I want to start on my 2018 goal projects but want to get these parts finished first.  Once I'm able to move "Ringo" onto the block piecing stage, then I'll be in a good position  to break off to work on something non-mystery related.

On to En Provence

This time last year I was getting a late start on piecing the parts for the "En Provence" mystery.  This year, while working on the parts for "Ringo Lake", I was also able to finally start putting together the blocks for that quilt.  This was where I was at the beginning of last week:

The first competed block is on the upper left of the design wall and the second one was down on the table queued up for sewing together.  This is where I am with it now:

 

 

With nine blocks pieced, now I'm going to start piecing the sashing units that surround the finished blocks so I can move everything tighter together to be able to add the rest of the un-pieced block parts onto the wall.  During all this leader/ender-ing (I know, not a word), I also finally finished piecing all the sashing Tri-Recs units too.

One of my goals for this year is to get both mysteries at least to tops.  Of course, it would be even more fabulous to finish both quilts completely but baby steps, Padewan, baby steps!  Many people have already finished their tops and a few have even already quilted theirs. Check out the last link-up if you want to see those beauties!

More good news: the first part of my Zazzle order came in on Friday.

Woo hoo!  Is this an incentive to try to make another of the Quiltville mysteries?  Well, to that end I realize I have a lot of the brown fabrics left over so I am thinking about that too..... 

 So many quilts, so little time!  Happy Quilting!