Step 5 and 6, BKH Mystery

There has been lots of time to sew this week.  We had our Family Christmas on Monday, so the week was short, but uneventful.  I finished the mystery step 5 on Tuesday;

Easy, peasy HST's

  

     Then, step 6 went live this morning.  I read thru the instructions and thought "no problem".  I didn't buy the Essential Triangle tool because I have the Easy Angle and Companion Angle and have used it before.  I really didn't want to learn another method when I was familiar with this one (she said so confidently).  So here was the first one I made.  Notice anything?  Check out the ruler at the top.  Have you ever seen a 6-1/2" unit in a Bonnie quilt?  Neither have I.

Apparently I don't have the memory of a 20 year-old any longer.  I remembered the 3-1/2" measurement and cut my strips that size and used that size on the CA ruler.  Wrong!!  The unfinished hourglass is 3-1/2".  Luckily, I had only cut four blocks, but had cut enough strips to make all of them.  By the way, the purple is my green.  You thought I'd goofed again, didn't you?  Here are the correct units.

They are sure cute. 

     We are almost there.  I keep playing with the units, trying to guess how they will go together.  It won't be long before the big reveal.  

    Here is what I have started in between mystery clues.  There has been a lot of internet chatter about organizing and cleaning sewing rooms and I knew mine had some problem areas.  This being the major one.

This is my Civil War stash.  I cleaned all of the fabric out of my Dear Jane project box (no idea when I will get back to that) and now it won't fit in the bin.  I've been working on folding and sorting, but it will require another bin.  That is one of my goals for 2017, to use some of those CW fabrics.  There must be six or seven quilts in that stack. The open box on the shelf below holds all French General fabrics.  That needs to become a quilt also.  

What are your goals for 2017?  What quilts are on your 2017 list?  

Judy

Greetings of the Season, 2016

If you have snow or if you don't, if you celebrate Christmas or if you don't, please enjoy the season with those you love.  

Judy

Clue 4, BKH Mystery

   
Linking up today with Quiltville

     I can't believe I'm keeping up with these mystery clues.  Are this year's clues easier or am I getting more proficient after doing them for three years?  I can remember getting my first look at one of Bonnie's books and thinking "I would never be able to do that".  And I did struggle with the first one, Grand Illusion, and didn't like it when I finished.  Then, in September 2015, my guild sponsored two Bonnie workshops and a trunk show and I've never looked back.  I'm saying all of this and hoping I won't be eating these words on Friday when the next clue goes live.  Meanwhile, here is Clue 4, as well as Clue 3, since I didn't do a post last week.  I'm only doing half until I see how it comes together and substituting blues for purples.

     After the second clue was posted, those of us in the guild that are doing the Mystery, had a Launch Party.  It had a French theme and we were all given berets to wear for the day.  Here is our picture.

  

     It was a lot of fun.  Gina is doing weekly emails with everyone's progress, so it keeps us all on track.  Our picture even made Bonnie's blog this morning!  (That's me on the left, with the green beret').  

    Some other sewing is going on in-between mystery quilt clues.  I'm making some placemats from the beautiful Holly Taylor collection, Town Square.

And one of this year's UFO's came out to play!  Here's the flimsy.

If I get it done this week, I will gift it to the two granddaughters.  They have a new kitten and will appreciate the cats playing with the ornaments.  This was a panel from a quilt store close out sale many years ago.  I think it was $3.99.  

     And finally, here's the reason I've had a pretty productive week.

See all of those icicles?!  We had freezing rain and sleet on Friday, then snow on Saturday, with below zero temperatures all week-end.

   I just kept on stitchin'!

Judy

BKH Mystery, Step 1 and 2

     I hope to link up with Quiltville (http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2016/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html) and ( http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/12/05/design-wall-monday-december-5-2016/) tomorrow, so here is a post about my Step 1 and 2.  I am only making 1/4 of the blocks so keeping up easily.  I figure I can always enlarge later.

Step 1 , I'm using scrappy neutrals.

Step 2.  This red fabric has languished in my stash for years.

I think it came from a guild silent auction or stash sale.  I have no idea how old it is.  

  

My Christmas decorating is done and this is my newest addition. 

 I finished this quilt just in time to decorate the guest bedroom.  Love this fabric!  It is Richmond Reds from Barbara Brackman.  

Happy December!  We had our first snow this morning.  

Looks like a sewing day to me.

  Judy

FMQ a Poinsettia

 
    My current project is a large quilt from a Missouri Star pattern called Quatrefoil.  It calls for a layer cake and I used Barbara Brackman's Richmond Reds collection.  It is predominately reds and greens, but doesn't really scream Christmas.  The biggest decision I make when machine quilting is deciding on a design.  Once that hurdle is overcome, I enjoy the process.  I browsed my reference book of quilting designs and decided on an adaption of a poinsettia design, adapted to my limited skills in the machine quilting department.  I think it could be used for most block designs, especially anything that is basically a 9-patch type.

The first step is to mark a circle in the center.

Here is the template set that I use.

Begin stitching at the top of the circle, stitching a pointed petal shape to the outer margins of the design, returning to the circle.  Stitch on the circle to the next petal location.  There will be gaps in the stitching line along the circle, but we will pick them up later.  Continue around the circle until you have stitched 8 evenly spaced petals.

To stitch the shorter bracts, follow the previous stitching line about halfway up the petal, then stitch another pointed shape, meeting the stitching line on the next petal, and following it back to the center circle.  Stitch along the circle until you reach the next petal and repeat the process.  This will fill in the rest of the circle stitching.

After all of the bracts are completed, move into the center of your circle (without lifting your needle) and stitch pebbles to fill the center.  I stitched one row around the perimeter of the circle, then stitched the center ones.  This seemed to push the fullness toward the center, making the pebbles stand out against the stitching.  I backstitched on the last pebble and cut my threads.  

Here is a completed one against all reds.  I think it shows up a little better. 

    My quilt has 30 blocks, so I have stitched a lot of poinsettias.  I'm ready for the Christmas season.

    Hope your Thanksgiving Day includes a little stitching.

Judy 

November Activities

    Since the first day of November, I have been moving piles of fabric around the sewing room trying to decide on my choices for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  Currently, these are my choices.  That burgundy is well aged, so I especially would like to use it for my constant.

     I seldom use Bonnie's exact colors because brights just don't do much for my antiques and primitive decor.  I saw a Civil War fabric selection that was really pretty, so won't settle on anything until I pull some of those to look at first.  

     Our guild meeting was last week and it was the collection day for the quilts we are donating to the Baby Grace program.   You may remember that I have been making crib quilts from the monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors.  Here is the selection that I took to the meeting.  

I kept two of my favorites for any baby gifts I might need and gave my neighbor a choice for a grandchild she has coming in December.  The parents never want to know the gender ahead of time, so she took a boy quilt and the only girl quilt I made.  (Just couldn't resist the pink and green month.)

Here is the pile of quilts that the Baby Grace representative took with her.  I think there were a few added after I took this pic.

As I remember, there were 41 donated.  This program is sponsored by the Methodist Church, so they plan to hang them in the church for awhile before they are distributed.  As you can imagine, I'm very proud of our members.  We plan to continue supporting this program next year, so I will probably be making more, although I don't think I will attempt one a month next year.  I have some UFO's that I should have finished this year, but they got pushed aside to make room for finishing the crib quilts.  

I'm going to dig one of those out this week and see what I need to do to finish.  

Judy  

PS.  Hooking up today with SoScrappySaturday on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/11/scraphappy-saturday-begining-of-end.html

RSC October 2016

     The RSC colors this month were yellow and orange.  Those colors don't lend themselves too well to Civil War repos, but I could interpret the yellow by using cheddar and found a red shading to rust for the orange.  Those Father's Choice blocks make up so pretty in almost anything.  

     The Baby Grace donation quilt was a no brainer.  I have had a yard of this adorable bunny fabric for quite a while and was dying to use it.  There were also those little 4-patches lying around, yellow with polka dots, that went with it so well, so a simple design was born.  Is this called double 4-patch? Not sure, but it worked and used up those orphan 4-patches, as well as the bunny fabric.  I have some yellow thread to quilt it.  That will be fun.  

    Sorry, forgot to crop this photo.  You get to see my messy design wall.  

I'll be linking this post to SoScrappy.  http://superscrappy.blogspot.com  Hop on over there (get it?) for some quilty inspiration.

Judy