Movie and a road trip

  Nothing, I got nothing done that I had planned.  That's OK.....it was time for a bit of fun this week it seems.  On Thursday we decided to check out a movie....Let There Be Light.   It was a heavy tissue/tear jerker story.  I was emotionally drained.


  And Friday we took a drive to Seneca to Hochstetler's Country Store.  I had seen a post of FB that they carried bulk food items.   About 10 years ago, we shopped at a bulk food item store in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  I have been ordering dried soup mix and dressing/dip mixes from them ever since.  So I figured it was worth an hour's drive to see what they carried here. 
   After an excellent sandwich for lunch,  I picked up mix for Corn Chowder,  Beef Vegetable, Creamy Broccoli soup,  and the Cucumber and Dill dip mix and a few others.    So glad to know a source is nearby.....we will return.




   Remember what time of year it is......Sir Old Man started with the Time Change conversation at dinner yesterday.  I put my hand up and said STOP!  Do not talk to me about it until 5 pm tomorrow.  If you touch those clocks before then, I will not know when to fix dinner to feed you,  and you might starve. 
    Then I smiled sweetly (ha!) and ate my dinner.  I think I shocked him and he silently agreed to abide by my plan.  He knows how out of sorts I get when the time changes.....in either direction. 

  Expect it.....I am pulling fabric for the Quiltville Mystery.  I love the color scheme and plan to play along, if only in a smaller version.  And I plan on stitching some more on the D4P and get it assembled into a top. 
Happy stitching.

About that fortunate accident of color

    I had so many great comments on my color choices for Walking in Sunshine.  Thank you all.  I answered many of you and said it was a fortunate accident when I switched to  the yellow rather than my original red choice.  It is so hard to select colors / fabrics for a mystery quilt.  I have been "burned" before.  
   I wrongly thought the purple was going to be the stand out star in this one, but by clue 3 or 4 I knew I had  been fooled.  It was the last color that was going to be in the spotlight,  for Bonnie's that was the lime green and that would have been red for me.     My gut instinct told me to find something else, pick another color that would not be in conflict with the purple.   That is why I went for the golden yellow, of which I had a good selection in my stash.
    A little while ago, I realized my fortunate accident had been resting / sleeping right before my eyes for a long time.  My desktop wallpaper is a favorite photo on a perfect Spring day!
The dark purple iris, the golden yellow for sunshine and flowers, the light blue for sky, and the turquoise and teals for the foliage.....exactly the colors I put into the quilt.

   I  am sure in a color class that I would be taught to break this all down, and analyze it as a split complement color scheme.  But all those words take away from the beauty of learning from what I see around me.    That's the heart of my quilting, I think.    Maybe finally, I am learning to trust my instinct!

   Insight:   Here are some questions to ask next time when looking for a color scheme.......
  What colors surround you?  What colors do you see when you walk outside?  What colors make you smile and feel good?  What color is your very favorite outfit that you select when you want to really feel good?

    I was asked about the border ...... I wanted the purple to stand out more in the center and to tone down the yellow just a bit, so the dark purple border does that.  If I had used the light blue (which is mixed with the black and white prints in the blocks) in the border, the overall pattern would have appeared to "float" on the light background.  Sometimes that is great, but in this case, I felt the busy block pattern needed to be stopped by the border.  The flying geese inserts are an easy cheat when joining the strips for the border.....and I didn't have to toss them into the scrap pile.
   There was some hooting and hollering going on here this morning, too.  Early comments sent me to check out the post at SewCalGal.     I won at the Giveaway Party......***big smile***   What a way to start the week!  

Walking In Sunshine

Walking in Sunshine

  When this mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville started at the end of last year,  I knew better than to expect it to be an easy stroll down Easy Street.   I am so gullible!  It was not hard.  It was time consuming.  There was that unexpected twist in the color selection that almost threw me into a panic.
 And it was that change in color that really puts the spark into this quilt and gave me its name, Walking in Sunshine.
   I also learned I need to count and then recount those individual units.  I ended up with over a dozen extra flying geese units!  I could not let them go to waste.....so they filled in the border.








I only made about one fourth the number of blocks.....and ended up with a throw quilt that is 50" by 70".   I never counted the number of pieces per block....I would run out of toes and fingers I know.





 

  Sir Old Man helped me drag this one around looking for shady spots for the photos.  With no leaves on the trees, that is almost impossible to find.  Finally we went to the wooded area and  I think this is my favorite with the bit of sun in the background.

 Then as we headed back to the house, guess what I saw.....the perfect yellow blooms to match the quilt.

   The quilting.....I used a large stipple over the pieced area.  Nothing was going to show anyway.  I saved the thread and effort for the purple border area.  Oh, and I used 2 different purple fabrics for the outer border....I did not have enough of either one for the whole thing.

  The border of dark purple got the feather quilting.  One sided feathery quilting I should say.  I used chalk and drew the basic "line" for the feather to follow.   I stitched  5 plumes on one side and the switched to the other side of the curve.

 This walk on easy street is done, and yes, it feels so good!
Oops....new challenge is posted for Project Quilting, so no rest this week.  It will be a small project for me as I am into the appliqueing on the ugly challenge quilt.  Also,  I had several questions in email  over the weekend, so I will be answering them this week.  Happy stitching.

A rotary cutter day

   The machine is sick......we took it to the shop for a check up and repair.  No free motion quilting for a few days.   That means it will be a rotary cutter day and any stitching will be done on the Featherweight.
    I was just finishing up the mystery top when my machine began to surge and then slow down.  I managed to get all the blocks together.  I will be playing with the borders fabrics today and get them cut.  Yipee!  That means I have one finish, and one goal almost met for this month, and.....I get to start on something new!








 
  As much as I want to start on the heart wall hanging, I know I need to begin work on the guild challenge.  So to satisfy my urge  I prepped the pattern for the heart wall hanging.  The pdf was only page size, so I enlarged it to 225% and printed it out in 8 pages.  Lots of tape later, it is ready and waiting for me to pick fabrics and begin the tracing for fusing.
   I'll be clearing off  the cutting table and pulling fabrics for the challenge.  I'm not sharing the complete layout yet....it is subject to change, but I do have a plan of sorts.

  Don't forget to drop by Stitchin by the Lake for Let's Go Visiting tour.  A new list of blogs was posted yesterday.
  Lynne at Never to hot to stitch  is hosting the 2013 Year of the Finished Project.  And that includes any type of project....sew, quilt, knit, you name it.  She is making a big dent in her list.  Click over and check it out.
   The theme this week at Quilting Gallery  for the weekly Show and Tell is Challenge Quilts.   I am pulling out an older one to share.
   The Golden Quilters Awards for 2013 at Sewcalgal ....nominations are being accepted now.   Got a favorite book or  professional quilting teacher you want the world to know about, enter a nomination for them.
That's it for now....happy stitching.

Update to Easy Street

  I have to admit I loved the comments from yesterday....they made me giggle a lot.  I am not brave---stubborn  and flighty at times---and I am not that organized---I tend to work in whirlwind fashion and then collapse!   I do get more accomplished than some people because I can focus, really zero in on something, to the total exclusion of everything else.
    I also multi-task.  That was part of our training when I was in Med Tech school many long years ago.  We were taught to work in segments of time.  Ten minutes to wait, then do this....don't waste time watching the machine do its thing.  So taking on one more item like Project Quilting is a small task that will fill in between something big.  I really do miss the Journal Quilt challenge, as I learned so much doing it.

  The something big  right now is Easy Street Mystery.  Believe me, it is not easy sailing.  You must be alert and watch how the pieces are set out.  It is easy to make mistakes rolling down easy street!  Those pesky little 4 patches like to twist around in funny ways.  Repeat after me, "The seam ripper is my friend".
   The corner and first diagonal row are sewn together.  I need another #1 block to complete the next row.   So I am just about half way to my goal of completing the top for this month.  I am being the turtle completing this one as I hate ripping things out.
   Happy stitching.

January Challenge to finish

  Click Here for the Finished Project Challenge .
   Lynne's 2013 challenge is also challenging  me  to create a plan of action for the month.  I have to post or list the UFO or WIP that I am focusing on for the month, so that means I have a direction to work towards.  No flying by the seat of your pants or taking off on a whim for the entire month---both of which I am known to do a lot.    So this is a good thing!
   My basic operational guidelines----no rules here---to keep UFOs  under control:

•  There are 3  big projects at a time allowed in the sewing room.  Stage 1 is being cut and pieced.  Stage 2 is sewn and ready for borders.  Stage 3  is ready to quilt.  
•  If  I am piecing a project, I do not cut or begin a second one until the current project is sewn together. This motivates me to keep sewing and piecing, etc. and get to the next stage.
•  A new project may consume me and move beyond a prior project that is waiting for borders or quilting.  But the rule is still only 3 big projects at a time.  
•  Small projects---like mug rugs, or doll quilts, or small gifts--- that can be finished in an afternoon are an exception.  They can jump in the mix anytime.  

 


  The plan for January is easy to figure out....it will be the WIP of the mystery quilt.  I have it all cut, I hope, and got 3 large blocks pieced yesterday.   It is bright and cheerful, but I am hoping that the fabric I ordered for the border will help tone it down just a little bit.  Anyway,  piecing on the blocks to get it to flimsy stage is the plan.

 
  And I did get the sewing room picked up and cleaned yesterday.  Low and behold, I found a UFO from last spring.  It was a small project I was working on last year just before my fall / step in the hole event.    This was to be a birthday gift......so it needs to be completed and given this year for sure.  It only needs a few more applique pieces added and then quilted.  Hmmmm.......lots of open spaces for some quilting,  maybe some of those curling feathers.  
Yikes, I forgot....I am to teach beginning free motion quilting this month, too.  I need to get my samples together soon, like today!

  And last in the plan is to plan / design / decide on the guild challenge quilt with the "ugly" fabric.  I have reversed course on this yet again......back to original idea of the vertical strip quilt with applique.  Good thing I did not start or cut any thing yet.  I can at least begin hunting for the applique designs I want to use and get them organized.
This sounds like a full month already.   Hope you take the challenge to finish something this month.

One last item to share.  There's a new Neighbor Tour over at Stitchin By The Lake .  Each week she will be posting 10 blogs to visit, browse, enjoy and discover as a  new neighbor.  This is a clever idea I thought for visiting some new blogs.
Happy stitching.

Saved by the stash

      With all the purple flying geese we made for the Easy Street mystery quilt, I thought for sure the last color---that lime green---was just going to be an accent color.  So I was going to use red.  Oh, no!   Halt! Stop!  No can do.....all the alarms went off in my head when I downloaded the last 2 clues from Bonnie.  Red would not work after all.

   To the closet....the stash closet.  Close the red drawer.  Pull down the yellow bin.  Dig through the 6 or 7 scrap boxes.  Look  in the stack of  backing fabrics.  Go  though the box of unsorted scraps under the table.  Check high.  Check low.     Now, cut squares.  Cut more squares and then cut into triangles.  Oops, cut a few more squares.

Right now, every piece of yellow fabric that I own  is scattered across the work table or floor....and I am too embarrassed to even take a photo to show the mess.    The corner units are sewn, and most of the setting triangle units are done, and a block is laid out.    Disaster averted....the ship of mystery  did not sink after all.  It was saved by the stash!     What would we do without that stash of fabric?
    So feeling a bit giddy or maybe just light-headed from panic, I went ahead and re-supplied the stash closet with a little fabric shopping.  I mean, I saved a lot because it was on sale, and I did have that extra coupon.   You know, just  in case the fiscal cliff devours all the fabric reserves, or if a blizzard hits, a quilter must be prepared with an adequate stash of lovely cotton to work with.   So the next time  someone asks, "What's in your closet  wallet?", tell them...... fabric!
    This is my project to finish for January, or at least get it to the quilting stage.   Happy stitching on New Years!

Catching up

    Step 5 of the Easy Street mystery.....I have some power sewing to do this afternoon on these, and I will be caught up.  Bonnie says no more geese, but I think these still qualify because of the 2" corners.  We must be nearing the end and almost ready to join the units together.

  Good news from the Nifty Stitcher....she will be doing posts after the holidays  to help understand the endless feathers that curls around.  Thank you, I am excited about this.  I want to do a skinny bed runner quilt that is just quilted with these feathers....a NewFO.

  We were given this tin of cookies.  Now mind you, they are not the ordinary tin of cookies like I expected.  After one bite, I knew they were a special toffee cookie treat.  I checked on line to see where I could get more....whoa!  $$$  I was sure surprised.  But they are so good.  And I love the egg shaped tin as well as the color.  A keeper here.

       

 Merry Christmas to all.  And happy stitching.  

Doing the mystery dance

    Just to prove I am ...... here are my "parts" so far for the mystery at Quiltville .    I am not even speculating about the arrangement on this one.
   This week was part 4 and involved more flying geese and wings!  I knew it was coming---and expect another batch of them---but I used the no waste method this time.  So much faster for me and I trimmed them while watching TV with Sir Old Man last night.   I still need to cut the squares of the zinger fabric.  I am using red, not lime green.








  And that leaves me some time to work on the scrap blocks.  I have about a dozen put together so far and on the portable design board.  Since the block is a 4 patch, they go together so quick once the units sections are made.  Lots more to go and then I can play around with the layout on the design wall.

  The countdown has begun....only 9 more days till Christmas!  I am enjoying a chocolate a day.
  Happy stitching.