I Succumbed....

Last year was the first time I participated in a 

Bonnie Mystery Quilt.

While I love my finished En Provence,

making a quilt with 4 million little pieces

is not really my thing.

(I know... I exaggerate a bit. :D)

I had done it once and that was it for me....

Until I saw the color palette for this year's mystery.

Oh My!!

"On Ringo Lake" uses my favorite colors...

aquas, turquoises and teals!

And paired with browns, oranges and corals.

Sign me up!

My nine patches are finished.

Yesterday morning I had to go to early church and 

as I was driving out of my neighborhood,

the sky was an aqua/teal color and the oranges

and browns of the trees just glowed.

I am excited about this quilt!

Here is a link to Bonnie's blog,
Quiltville's Quips and Snips,
so you can see other peoples progress.

Progress has been made on my totally scrappy 

Reproduction quilt.

I have sewn almost all of my cut HST's into squares

and then 9 patch blocks.

There are only a few HST's left and they are all greens.

There were enough squares to make 45 blocks,

so 42 of them are on my wall here.

The blocks will finish at 10.5" square,

so this quilt will be 63" x 73.5".

(I had to stand on a chair to take this photo)

I'd rather not add any borders to this quilt,

but I wanted it a bit bigger.

 

Once it's finished,

this will be donated for a silent auction.

Thankfully I have until April to finish it!

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Happy Quilting!

Dribs and Drabs

Wow!

I don't know where this last week has gone,

but it's Thanksgiving week!

And almost the end of November!

And almost the end of 2017!!

Yikes!

I've been putzing around in my Hidey Hole,

but haven't had a lot to show for it.

(Does anyone else say "putzing around"? 

My grandmother said it and my mom does, too.

I learned "dribs and drabs" from another blogger

a while ago. Phrases like these make me smile.)

Anyway,

my Hidey Hole LOOKS like there is a lot going on in it

because of the piles,

but that's just what they are...

piles.

One of the things I've been playing with is the box of

half square triangles I cut from all of my

reproduction fabrics.

It's totally mindless sewing...

pair up two HSTs,

sew,

trim,

press

and sew into nine patches.

 

I'm normally not much for scrappy quilts,

but I like this one.

The nine patch blocks were placed on the wall

as they came off of the pile.

Once all of the blocks are made,

I'll even out the colors that pop.

 Looking at something like this

makes me think about all the fabrics

we as quilters have at our finger tips.

These are just a drop in the bucket compared to

what is available.

 

This stack is ready for stitching.

While looking for a piece of Christmas fabric the other day,

I found a pile of HST's I'd cut from corners

making a tree skirt.

 

They are now little candle mats

or mug rugs.

Nothing fancy,

but they will add a little color to the table.

This my absolute favorite Christmas candle...

Fresh Balsam from Bath and Body.

Happy Quilting!

Metro Rings

This year we were issued a challenge in my

History of Quilting group.

We were to challenge ourselves to make or finish something

we've been putting off

 or to learn a new skill.

My challenge was to make a curved block.

I've been quilting for 15 years and have never made a block

with curves, except with hand applique.

A friend told me about the

Quick Curve Ruler

and I found a pattern I liked that used this ruler

and began to collect fabrics.

(After being folded up and in a bag, the top needs another good pressing!)

There were a lot of steps to making this block

between the sewing and cutting, sewing and trimming

 and sewing and squaring up, etc.

I found it difficult to get a consistent distance between the arcs

and the corner pieces,

but once the blocks were all sewn together,

they don't stand out that much.

I would use this ruler again and would

purchase one of the patterns again.

The directions were very detailed and easy to follow.

And I LOVE the turquoise and gray together!

Now I need to decide if I'm going to add a couple of borders.

I'm thinking of a solid gray stop border and a wider turquoise print outer border.

I'll need to go fabric shopping, though.

Darn!

I linking up to Design Wall Monday at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Happy Quilting!

Prepping...

It's been quite a while since I haven't had a quilt or project

that I needed to make.

The December baby quilt is done and the next one isn't needed until March.

I'm not making any quilts for Christmas gifts this year.

We've pared our list way down,

so there aren't as many gifts to get or make.

I do have a couple of quilts tops that need to be quilted,

but I'm not in the mood.

I'm taking this opportunity to prep some quilts to be made when

the mood strikes.

Reproduction fabrics are not my favorite,

but somehow I ended up with a cabinet full of them.

Last week I took the time to iron all of the fabrics

and roll them up,

ready to be cut.


 

I wasn't kidding when I said I had a cabinet full of reproduction fabrics!

At the end of last week I began cutting.
I have a Go! Cutter and, while there is a bit of waste

using this, the time saved is so worth it.

 

I decided what shapes I wanted to use,
cut the large pieces of fabric into smaller pieces
that would fit onto each die
and began to cut....

4 1/2" HST...

 

Flying Geese Parts

More Flying Geese Parts

for a different quilt

 

Pieces for Log Cabin blocks....
over 90 of them!

I have a few more pieces of fabric to cut and then that job will be done.

Now I have an empty cabinet!


You know I had to play a bit in between cutting!

One down,
who knows how many to go!

There will be a lot of these made, too!

Now to clean up my mess!

Happy Quilting!

Crickets....

I am here, but am having internet issues.

The internet is very, very slow and photos won't load.

I will post again once this issue is resolved.

In the meantime...

Happy Quilting!