Quiltville Mystery Clue #3 and Tiny Trees

I spent a lovely day in my quilt lab yesterday!!!

I had planned to also spend some time making Christmas cookies and quick breads (intended as gifts) but the main/good wall oven decided to give up the ghost before I even got the first tray in so I guess it's time to rethink those baked gifts...or at least rethink cookies that need multiple trays in and out of the oven when I am reduced to the smaller/annoying wall oven.  

As I've said before, I'm only making about half of each mystery clue. I slightly overshot this week's number of HSTs but I wanted the variety of blues so I was ok with making "extra". We can always make extra HSTs into something, right?!

I still don't think we've made many parts and pieces yet. This Jolly Green Giant box is only about an inch high and about 9x12". I'll have time this weekend to play in the quilt lab so if Bonnie is planning clues according to my schedule, I'm willing to make a bunch of hard bits this weekend!

I also made a lot of progress on my Temecula Tiny Tree sew along. The green rows are all together so tonight's goal will be to start adding the neutral background pieces. Several of these are intended as gifts and I'm going to be cutting it short given that I have Christmas party/meetings the next 2 nights. Maybe I just need to focus on the gift I'll need for Friday and then move on to the others for next week. Yeah. That's what I'll do. Focus Sarah!

Happy 9 days to Christmas - no pressure!

Quiltville Mystery Clue #2 and Tiny Trees

Bonnie's second clue for her annual mystery quilt was released Friday morning. I had our annual Hexie Club Christmas party Friday night and an art fair to vend at Saturday so that left Sunday to spend in my Quilt Lab playing catch up.

As in the past, I am making about half the number of required units since this allows me to keep up better with the weekly clues.

When I put my paired berry/neutral rectangles into my Jolly Green Giant box, it looked like a paltry little pile of units. I know it's only about half what the pattern calls for but I'm thinking we'll be getting socked with tons of hard blocks any Friday now...

Next up I wanted to play catch up with Temecula's Tiny Tree blocks. The pattern calls for making 1 block a day for 2 weeks but I figured I  might as well make 5 as make 1 and then I'll have 4 gifts :)

First I did block #1 - Friendship star

Next up was #2 - Broken Dishes

And that leaves me with just 3 more to catch up plus today's block. Easy Peasy, right?! Except for all those tiny HST that can drive a person insane. Thankfully I had already bit the bullet and bought a blockloc ruler to assist with all the trimming on my shoo fly blocks. Little did I know how much I would use that little ruler.

2 more things:
First, Janet and I discovered that she has only worked on hexies this week and I have only done machine work, on tiny blocks, this week. It's generally the complete opposite and was a little strange for both of us.

Possibly the best part of the whole day was someone near and dear to my heart actually asking for attention. Yes I quickly put the rotary cutter away and then offered lots of smooches and cuddles, right there on the cutting mat. Wonder how long before this happens again...

Quiltville Mystery Clue #1

Sadly, Bonnie is not going to host the weekly Mystery Monday linkups on her blog the same way this year. She's using Instagram, which I don't plan on getting an account for as I don't need yet another time suck on my phone :(

Anywho...Clue#1 came out on Black Friday and after forcing myself to do my usual chores first, I got stuck in to making those 4patches.

At some point, Chantal asked how many I had done and I took this photo of the paired twosies I had just loaded on my ruler to carry to the sewing machine. Now, I carried this around 2 rooms trying to get a better photo (no dice with no sun) and it wasn't until I was 12 inches from my sewing machine that they all slid to the floor. I might have said a few naughty words...

In the end I got them re-paired, sewed, pressed and spinned the center seam.

As with the past couple of years, I am making "half" the number of blocks needed for each clue. What that generally means is that is I cut a bunch of strips in the needed sizes to make the units, cutting more strips as needed until I am close to the halfway mark. I clearly overshot the strip cutting this time as I have way more than half the number of 4patches. They can always live in the orphan bin if I don't later decide to make more than half of the mystery quilt, this is just a good way for me to keep up with the weekly clues.

The 4patches didn't allow me much reason to work on my shoefly leader ender project but I did spend a few hours kitting up the rest of the blocks that I'll need. Now I'll only have to struggle with not just stitching more and more and more shoefly blocks, especially since I had a $10 coupon and treated myself to a blockloc ruler. The ruler is a little fiddly but much easier than not having the ruler.

This weekend Mom gave me the jean jacket she wants me to hexify as her Christmas present. Only a nonquilter would think I can bang out a jacket in 3 weeks when I spent months doing my own. She may get a box with the jacket and a bunch of hexies under the tree if I'm not inspired soon. Wish me luck...

Wednesday Weather Report #81 - 12/5/18

Well... I've been hoping NOT to do this ever since I started temperature quilt #2:

Luckily it was easy enough to fix:

November 28-30, 2018: 32 - 31 - 34 F
December 1-4, 2018: 35 - 52 - 37 - 26 F

And those 3 blues on the left, my friends, completes the first 6 months to Temp Quilt #2!!! Woohoo!!

I bought a (non-Grunge) solid black to use for the background so as soon as I feel confident in what I'm doing I'll applique the first 6 columns onto the black and include it in one of our weekly updates.

I've also been working on clue #2 for the 2018 Quiltville Mystery Quilt:

You will recall that I am making roughly half of each clue to make a smaller quilt. I figure I can always make more later. "Half" is often the same as I'll make units until I run out of precut strips in the color we are using, which is how I ended up with 72 blue/neutral HSTs. I just need to trim all those dog ears. Be sure to check out the linky party for clue #2!


And now, for anyone making a temperature quilt (hexie or otherwise) - we are looking forward to seeing your weather for the last week! Feel free to leave a comment about your weather if you are not making a quilt. And really, why are you not making a quilt? It doesn't have to be hexies, any of your favorite blocks should work.

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey & Mystery Clue #1

I own 5 Christmas cactuses (cacti?) between home and work. Don't ask! Each one is a different color and they all blossom 2 to 3 times per year. We've had our first blossoming but this one is my favorite:

We went to my brother's house for Thanksgiving. There was just enough space amongst all the serving dishes for our plates and drinks!

Tom, Rex, Ron, Denise, Tyler, Kristie, Ryan

And what does one do after supper when the triptophan coma starts to kick in?
Spoon with your favorite dog of course!!

Scooby, Shaggy, Ryan

Friday was all about the new Quiltville Mystery Quilt!! Woohoo for Clue #1. Once again I'll be making abut half of each clue until we get to the big reveal when I see if I need more or less units. Half also equates to "this is close enuf because I have used all the scraps currently available" in that size which is what happened with this clue.

Two of the above are not like the others! Guess I didn't finish quite as many as I thought...I set them aside for now and I'll fix them if I need them.

Clue 1 is done and dusted!!

Linking to the Mystery Monday Linky...

Snow Day Sewing

So. We had this little snow storm over the weekend. Remember that it was a high of 57 Friday at lunchtime and when I went to bed there was barely an inch of snow. Not so when I got up Saturday! It certainly wasn't the 18" originally predicted but it was enough.

Luckily my neighbor likes to play with his snowblower and treated me to a blowout which probably saved a good 2-3 hours of shoveling this heavy snow. 

All I had to do was find my car! Of course that required getting into the car for the scraper. Remember the rain from Friday? Well it froze the doors a bit and I'm always leary of breaking a door handle by pulling too hard. It's just a matter of opening it enough to get a finger hold on the edge of the door and we're in.

My snoopervisor hates this kind of cold weather  - often growling or hissing at the cold when I open the window (at HIS request) to go out. If anything he does what I call Porch Patrol where he sits outside for 30 seconds before begging to come back in.

Well. As soon as the driveway was clear he Just. Had. To. Go. Outside. Immediately. He was thrilled to bits. I can tell he's been a little depressed being inside so much but this lifted his spirits.

Saturday was cold enough for me to stay home. The local quilt show was delayed a month and the roads weren't great so I skipped Guild sit-n-sew. Instead I sewed in my jammies. Perfect!

I finished making the brown and coral geese, married them and then got into making blocks. I've got 14 out of 32 blocks done for my smaller quilt. It shouldn't take too long to finish the remaining blocks and then make the rest of the sashing that I'll need.

Yesterday afternoon I made one last run to Sam's Club before they permanently close in a couple of weeks. I had a shopping list for me, my parents and the fire department (it's really their account). The guys teased me about how much I could really buy when I asked for a dollar limit, given my small car but they've never seen me pack to go camping! And really, it came down to how much space was in the shopping cart cuz I still had half a car left after this cartful. Thankfully a good Samaritan helped me get through a snow drift outside the store cuz this was a heavy load, mostly water bottles for fires that I hope we won't need . I debated going back inside again but didn't want to wait outside in the line again despite a good book on my iPhone.

I also went to several other stores while I was in the city (an hour from home) but I was less than inspired other than a new pair of socks. I know. Sad. Even goofier is that I realized this is my 2nd pair of socks with skunks on them. Not sure of the meaning behind that but what normal person has more than one pair of socks with skunks?

Happy Monday!

On Ringo Lake Linky Party

Wow! Those last clues for Bonnie's Mystery quilt came fast and furious on New Years Weekend!

I was a bit behind so I started the weekend by catching up on these pieced triangles.

Next was adding the coral triangles.

I didn't photograph the photograph the "married" brown and coral geese.

But I did feel the need to finish a couple blocks, just to see how they would look. Fabulous! Love these colors together!

I didn't want to make all the blocks until I had determined what size finished quilt I wanted. As you will recall I had been making half of Bonnie's allotment for each clue which would have ended in a square quilt. I've now opted to go with a rectangular quilt and have begun making the bits for 7 more blocks. The last bits tend to be a little low on fabric variety so I like to be able to mix the new bits in with the other bits before I make blocks.

I've made the additional 9-patches and this morning I finished the pieced triangles. I almost forgot to make even a few more pieced triangles for the setting triangles.

While cutting the turquoise fabrics for the pieced triangles I also started cutting squares for the setting triangles. It's really a very ingenious way to make setting triangles and I'm really looking forward to getting to the point where it's time to sew them! On the other hand, I'm being very conscious of how I cut into my remaining turquoise fabrics. I've been collecting them for a year because I'm also making another quilt with them and I'm trying to make the best use of each FQ.

Be sure to check out the linky on Bonnie's Blog. Lots of pretty quilts to gush over...

It was a little chilly here in Western NY over the weekend. I think the lowest I saw was -6F/-21C.

Everything is better with cheese on top.

The weather prompted trying a new recipe for Chicken and Biscuits in the crockpot. The recipe was a winner other than I'll be eating it allllll weeeeeeeeek loooooooong. I'm picking up some more freezer containers today...

Wednesday Weather Report #31 - 12/20/17

Did you miss me this week? It's been crazy! Friday was shopping day in the city. Saturday and part of Sunday were busy sewing gifts and cutting for the latest Ringo clue. The rest of the week has been work and parties.

My boss wore his new tie yesterday so I'll take that as a thumbs up! The fabric is kale which is as close to lettuce as I could find. One of his side businesses is to grow leaf lettuce in a 'high tunnel' - he then sells it in a road side stand and to several local restaurants.

Lemme just tell you the directions for this tie pattern were the worst that I have ever seen. At some point I just started winging it because they were so bad. Ugh.

I've cut all I need to make half the Ringo bits for this week. Those piles aren't exactly the same height. I hope I counted them correctly...

I've even sewed a little but that's mostly delayed until after I'm finished getting ready for Christmas.
If you hope over to Bonnie's linky party you can see who else is working on the same mystery.

It also snowed a little on Saturday. Wink.
What was that? You can't quite tell how much snow from that picture?

Is this better? Yipp. It snowed a little...

Zorro came outside to snoopervise while I cleaned up the driveway after a neighbor surprised me by plowing most of it while I walked to the post office :)

He is not a happy camper when it's cold and snowy but he was happy to be tucked in after his morning escapade.

And yet with all the hustle and bustle (I've survived 5 of 8 parties so far this week) I have been a little remiss in working on my weather rosette. I'm sure all y'all can understand how a girl can get behind...

16 - 16 - 25 - 25 - 22 - 39 - 45F

Yes those temps are correct. And my yard?

We are back to this. Boo! So much for my White Christmas...

An InLinkz Link-up

PS - For anyone new joining today, say from Bonnie's Linky party, my Wednesday Weather Report Linky is a place for anyone also making a weather related EPP quilt to link up. Each of the participants has created a colored thermometer and picked a time each day to check the temperature. Depending on the temp we make a hexie in the appropriate color and add it to the rosette. My "week" is Wednesday to Tuesday but everyone has put their spin on the project. If you are also a hexie-ologist, we would love to have you join in the fun!!

Quilty weekend

Woohoo!! I've got internet back at work - it was 3 of the longest days possible without internet radio to fill the silence. Zorro even got a fan letter that he was missed on Feline Friday. He was pretty chuffed.

Anyway - I spent every spare moment this weekend cutting and stitching. I had a blast to work on something for ME, even tho the need to work on gifts kept nagging me.

I spent Friday evening cutting fabric - first I wanted to cut the neutral and coral strips needed to make Bonnie's Mystery Clue #3. Then I cut the strips needed to make Straits of Mackinac, another Bonnie pattern. I've been collecting turquoise fabrics for some time to make Mackinac and it worked out great that the mystery is also using turquoise. I'll be thinking of a different name for my quilt but I'm not inspired yet...


Saturday I took all my strips to guild sit-n-sew to subcut for Clue #3 and for Mackinac. I probably would have made a little more progress on cutting if I had double checked my drawing. I cut the neutrals for the tri part of the tri-recs. I wasted a lot of fabric recutting them into the recs part. Live & learn!

I was also texting with a friend who was saying something to the effect of hoping to not lose track while cutting up to a high number. I've shared this before but I'll share it again...

If I were actually counting - this would be 140 pieces.

I use antique thimbles to count what I've cut. a thimble on it's side is 5 and standing up is 10. A button is 100. It's easy for me and I get to enjoy the vintage/antique thimbles, most of which don't even fit my pinky finger.

I did a little grocery shopping after guild and then spent the evening on the couch working on hexies. I watched Spare Parts. I love true movies!

Sunday morning was housework and then a work related Christmas party but I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening back in the quilt lab.

First I had to finish pressing Clue #2.

Then I had to sew and press Clue #3. Don't forget to check out the linky party today!!!

Am I the only person with a callus from ironing? I've had the callus on my hand for a while and never thought about it but with all the ironing with my (heavy on purpose) iron it was irritating the callous. Who knew...

I've got quite a little pile of bits for the mystery quilt so far. I'm excited for clue #4 but I really need to work on some gifts this week.

In the meantime I'll keep plugging away at my Mackinac blocks...lots of pressing to do...

Wednesday Weather #28, Clue #1 and a new project

Have you ever been in a blogging slump that you just can't drag yourself out of? While I worked at my fall seasonal job during my lunches I restricted my blogging to the bare bones. That job is 99.9% over but I haven't found my mojo just yet. I'll skip all the excuses and just say that here's a little catch up and hopefully that mojo will show up over the weekend...

46 - 40 - 35 - 46 - 40 - 33 - 53F

This is my missing rosette from last week. I had thought that the top right hexie would be another dark green, making a neat design for the colors but Mother Nature surprised me.

34 - 32 - 52 - 52 - 34 - 40 - 60F

And this was this week's weather. That yellow was a total surprise but let me tell you it was a great day for decorating our office building with a slight breeze and gorgeous clear blue skies.

I've added the sashing to 2 or three of these blue rosettes for Mickey's On The Road project. It dawned on me that I may not want to make the quilt as big as Mickey's so I'm trying to sash up all the finished blue rosettes so I can lay them out and see what I really have so far. I've got 2 more to add grey sashing and 3 or 4 to add white. It's a slow going process but great for watching DVDs. I'm currently watching Wayward Pines Season 1. It's got M. Night Shyamalan's name all over it. Love that guy.

I'm sure no one (Janet!?) is surprised to hear that I've started a new project and I "mustache" you if you like it??!!? LOL. Have you seen the new Brimfield Block papers from paperpieces.com? I was on a FART with Lisa last Friday and we just couldn't get over this Santa fabric so I pulled a couple FQs and just fell in love with this. I have yet to stitch this, saving it for after the bazaar I am doing this weekend. Actually, I always take a hexie project to work on at bazaars so maybe this will be the one...

And last, but not least, I did my Bonnie Mystery Clue #1 blocks last weekend. I'm am currently making half the needed blocks until I see the final layout and then I can decide exactly how many bits I need for a smaller quilt.

For anyone joining today from Bonnie's Mystery linky party - I host a weekly Wednesday Weather Report linky for anyone working on a weather quilt. We would love to have you join in our project - let me know if you would like details or check out this link.

An InLinkz Link-up