Still Chipping Away At En Provence

Whew!  Yesterday on the home side I had laundry to do and on the quilt side needed to do some focus work on En Provence.  I emphasized needed because up to now working on En Provence has gone swimmingly but this week the wheels came off  the wagon!

I'm working (out of order) on Part 4 which is to make these Triangle-In-A-Square (or Tri-Recs) blocks.

Over  the weekend I had cut the center triangles for this part and also for Part 2 where the same units will be made with neutral centers and mauve side triangles.  Then I had cut the side triangles for this part.  What I didn't realize at the time was that's where the trouble began.

I had laid out my strips of purples layered anywhere from four to eight layers deep, all the strips right sides up then used the Tri-Recs side triangle ruler to cut them.  When done, I had a stack triangles that looked like this:

It was only after I started sewing  a bunch units earlier this week and then tried to add the second triangles that I discovered my mistake!  For the blocks you actually need to cut two triangles in reverse of each other.   The fabrics should have been layered with each set of two layers of fabric either right sides or wrong sides together.  Needless to say after all the cutting over the weekend, yesterday I had to go back and cut more,  this time with the fabrics all right side down to get triangles facing in the other direction so I would have this:

So out of all the triangles I initially cut, half of them are now useless!  Well, not totally useless.  It turns out I had cut one of the fabrics (the purple with the big polka dots seen in the first picture) with two  layers folded together so had a few reverse triangles in that fabric among the initial set of cuts.  Two of the other fabrics I'm using are batiks so some of the ones cut initially looked fine from the wrong side so could also be used as reverse triangles.  

I had already used up some of my fabrics during the first round of cuts so made sure to sew up the Tri-Recs units using all of those fabrics first since most of the reverse triangles are only cut from the remaining fabrics.   When I start putting the blocks for the mystery together, I hope the affect on the distribution of the fabrics in the finished Tri-Recs units won't be that evident.  I'm going to pick up a few purple fat quarters in the event I feel I need to sprinkle in a little more diversity (I also need to re-stock my purples now that I've used up so many).  If I do introduce new fabrics, it may also mean I'll have to make up some four patches with the new fabrics as well so they appear in those units too.

After all the panic and work yesterday, I managed to get all the Tri-Recs units I needed for this part of the mystery completed.  Fortunately this puts me back on track with this project and I've already put a note with Part 2 to make sure I don't make the same mistake with the mauve ones!  As for all the leftovers? 

Either I'll make more Tri-Recs squares for another project (hmmm, a design opportunity?) or I might use them to make Split Rectangle blocks that can go on the back or be used in another quilt.  That's the great thing about quilting, even your mistakes don't have to go to waste!

As If One Mystery Is Not Enough, There's Still En Provence Too!

Bonnie Hunters latest mystery is "On Ringo Lake" and I've joined in on the fun.  This will be my third Bonnie project but only my second time doing one of her mysteries.  In fact, I'll be working on both of them at the same time: when I decided to jump into “Ringo Lake” (pun intended!),  I decided that it was also high time I tried to finish up “En Provence” which was last year's mystery.

I had started in on it late and had the usual ambitious plans to catch up and get it done before the end of summer.  Needless to say THAT didn't happen!  It's okay though, fortunately these projects are not a race and don't need to meet a deadline -- other than maybe having it finished before the NEXT mystery is released next year!

When I was on line waiting to get fabric cut for "Ringo Lake", I had a conversation with the woman standing behind me about this very same thing.  She saw my piles of bolts and when I said it was for an online mystery, we realized we were both big Bonnie fans!  She mentioned that she had never tried one of the mysteries thinking them hard to do because of all the pieces.  I told her that the parts themselves are usually very simple units so the only real “challenge” is keeping everything organized and setting yourself up to sew a little at a time to get them done.  Bonnie's quilts are like any other quilt project:  it may not get done fast but if you keep plugging at 'em, they'll eventually get done.   Bonnie's personal projects are a testament to that.  We both marveled at how many she gets done even while traveling!

As for “En Provence”:  I had finished up most of the block units for it back in February during a couple of the Quilt-A-Thons Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times had held at the beginning of the year.

I left off needing to make the decision on the one “constant” fabric to be used in the Tri-Rec sashing units in that project.  It was supposed to be a mauve and I had two: a really strong tone-on-tone and a softer one with Polka Dots.

While I liked the boldness of the tone-on-tone and believed it would help it stand out among all the noise of the scrappiness, I had used a lot of polka dot prints in the block piecing so admit I was partial to using that in the sashing too.  I was also a smidge short of what was called for with the tone-on-tone (which had come from stash) and didn't want to take the chance I'd run out and knew I couldn't get more.  So I made a couple of test units with the polka dots and since I didn't hate them, I've decided to move forward with that after all.  So I've been piecing these units together leader/ender while working on “Ringo” and another project I have going:
 

 
I'm also finally starting to lay out the block and sashing units on the design wall. If I'm pleased with how it looks, I can also leader/ender those together as I continue with my other sewing. 

And believe it or not, even with all of this going on there is still more to come soon.

En Provence and Ringo Lake Update: More Progress!

Once again, I am joining the crew over at Em's Moving It Forward Monday!

 

 

 As before, it's been "all Bonnie Hunter, all the time" around here in terms of the projects I've been working on.  While the stitching lately hasn't been as consistent as in previous weeks, what was accomplished on the days I did sew helped me hit two milestones.  For the "En Provence" mystery, I've got the center of the top all sewn together:

 

 

Now there's only a few rows of border units to be sewn and this top will be finished! 

 

For "Ringo Lake", I've got half of the total number of blocks needed sewn up:

 

 

It's gratifying to see the block stack growing, this one could also be a top by the start of Spring. 

 

At one point I needed something else to leader/ender to push those other two through so I pulled out some strips and was able to finish another Scrappy Trips block!

 

 

These have been fun to make and I look forward to the day when this one can become the main project.

 

I had planned to only sew a few of the mystery blocks a day but once the "En Provence" rows started coming together, I was anxious to see the center get done so pushed forward to getting a whole row done on those days when I did get to sew.  I have an idea for slightly altering the borders for it so finishing the borders may move a little slower than the rows did.  So once again, I'm hoping to try to finally start on my big 2018 goals.  

 

Up to now I've been stalled on moving forward with my wholecloth project but have found a resource that seems to have the inspiration I was looking for to help me take it in the direction I want to go.  With any luck, that project will be the subject of next week's "Move It Forward" post.  Fingers crossed! 

 

 

Now, I'm going to go check out what other people have been working on all week.  Join me over at Em's Scrapbag and see who's sharing something on today's "Moving It Forward Monday"! 

En Provence Update

Just so you don't think that all I've been working on has been labels, I've also been keeping up on my En Provence project.  As of this past weekend:

 

• the four patches for Part 1 in neutrals are done.
• the four patches for Part 3 in purples are done. 
• the purple and neutral HSTs for Part 5 are done. 
• I've cut the neutral center triangles andpurple  side triangles so I can piece the triangles-in-a-square for Part 4. 
• I've also cut the neutral center triangles for Part 2 but I'm still not totally sure I'm satisfied with the mauve fabric I've chosen for that part so will wait until after I've pieced the QSTs for parts 6 and 7 to test it out with all the other parts.
• Some neutral and light purple strips have been cut and set aside to cut the QST triangles for Part 6.
• Some neutral strips have been cut and set aside to cut the QST triangles for Part 7.

I'll be sewing up the Part 4 triangles-in-a-square during the week leader/ender style.  I also plan to set up strips for my Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trips blocks to leader/ender when any of the En Provence sewing finishes up.

It's great that this one has no deadline so I can just work on it when time allows.  Look forward to seeing how it progresses!

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!

Design Wall Monday and Weekend Doings

A Gift Quilt

On the design wall is a new quilt I've been working on since last Thursday:

I have a long-time friend who I've made a few quilts for and had always planned to make one for her husband too.  He likes to golf and is a NY Mets fan (as am I) so for a long time I debated about which kind of quilt to make for him.  The Quilt Muses are always listening so of course back in 2015 I came across the Clothworks fabric line "A Hole In One":

Golf theme that prominently featured the Mets colors (Blue, Orange and White)!  Perfect!  Of course the next question was what design to apply them to.  Again the Muses stepped in and I saw this design:

It's called "Gone Golfing" by Rochelle Martin of Cottage Quilt Designs.  What was even better was that when I saw the pattern and before I knew who designed it, I thought the style of it looked familiar.  When I got the pattern and did a little digging as to who was behind the pattern company, I knew why.   The previous Fall, I had made this quilt:

 

This design is called "Morning Catch" which is from the book "Man Cave Quilts" which is also by Rochelle Martin!  Since I could visualize how the Clothworks fabrics could be plugged into the "Golfing" quilt and knowing it was by a designer I was already familiar with, it was a done deal for me.  Oh, and it will be backed with this fleece:

Both my friend and her husband have birthdays (one day apart) in February so I'm trying to get this and a mug rug for her work cubicle done as presents.

Other doings this weekend:

I'm still working away on En Provence:  I cut out the quarter square triangles for Parts 6 and 7.

So they're ready to go for leader/ender sewing while the gift quilts get put together.  Once the blocks for those Parts are done, I'll be ready to test my mauve (constant) fabric for Part 2 and if I'm still happy with it, start piecing together the big blocks for the quilt center.

Quilt-As-You-Go Blocks: 

I didn't get to "sit and stitch" this weekend because I needed to prep more blocks for quilting.  I was out of blocks ready to be stuffed with batting so after all the work on the golf quilt and En Provence, I picked out some of the square pairs that had been pieced together (a print charm square teamed with a white square) when I started this project way back when.  I have to sew the pairs together to make a four patch and then together again to create the block ready for stuffing. 

I got ten set up so either during this week or for next weekend's "Slow Sunday Stitching" session, I will stuff them with batting and can then start stitching them.  I think I might watch the Superbowl after all so having these ready would be perfect for that! 

Head back to Judy's to see what's brewing on everyone else's design walls over at:

 

Have a Quilty Week!

 



Quilt-A-Thon Day 4: Tying Up Loose Ends

It's the final day of Judy's February Quilt-A-Thon and we're linking up at her blog Patchwork Times:

 

I've enjoyed the opportunity to participate since I wasn't able to in the past.  I started earlier today and am taking a break to post this.  There's no shortage of things to keep me busy today like:

 

 Still finishing up the Golf/Mets gift quilt:

I left off last night having completed the basting of the center so have been finishing up the edges this morning and may try to start quilting it.

Evening Update:

Basting is done.  However, the ends of the cut of fleece I bought were cut really uneven so I should have paid more attention to the over all size I made the top.  I'm going to have to patch two corners of the backing.  Could be an opportunity to piece in the label!

I also want to get the mug rug for the giftee's wife started:

Note:  I'll be doing a different Word Key option than the one pictured.  On the Post-It are my notes for reducing the original size of the pattern (a small wall hanging) to mug rug size.

Evening Update:

I got most of it cut out.  I can't find my serrated scissors to cut out the applique letters so will have to do some searching so I can complete that part.

Then there's the next set of En Provence QSTs halves to be pressed open......

Evening Update:  Done!

 

 

....and then these to be sewn up:

 

 

The yellow and green triangles are for Part 7 and will be combined with the green and white halves I finished pressing on QAT Day 2 to create QST blocks.  The mystery ended back in January and there was a link up after that which I thought was the last one.  But on a recent post (near the end), Bonnie said she'd be doing another link up for En Provence on Monday.  I'm pretty sure I won't be linking up as I'm equally sure I won't be anywhere near having a top or even all (any?) of the blocks ready.  However, it would be great if I could have all my parts finished by then.

Evening Update:  Also Done!  I'll press them open tomorrow or Monday.

If I sew the QSTs then I'll also leader/ender this next Scrappy Trips block:

I'm really starting to enjoy seeing these go up on the design wall.  They sew up fairly quickly so I just may make this a daily "30 Minutes of Sewing" project from here on.

 

Evening Update:  And that's done too!

 

 



I also want to prep for Slow Sunday Stitching tomorrow:

 

I had sewn up these blocks two weekends ago and they need to have the batting put in.  Sunday night we have a lot of shows that we tape and then watch so it'd be great to have something to sew on while clearing the DVR.

 

Evening Update:  The one thing not done so tomorrow, I'll have to stuff and sew.  They're probably the only things I'll work on (well, that and pressing the QST halves open).

As always, I'll update this post at the end of the day with my progress.  Hope everyone gets got to take a stitch or two today!

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!