Mystery Quiltalong and Uncle Progress

The next block for last year's Mystery Quiltalong from Laundry Basket Quilts had a lot of pieces and I wanted to bring in some more black.  I decided to go a little less scrappy for this set of four blocks for Block 6. 

I had quite a time with the smaller HSTs.  I wanted to use Bonnie Hunter's Essential Triangle tool and kept cutting strips that were the wrong size for the HST I needed.  The cutting board was quite a disaster while I pulled different fat quarters and strips for the scrappy look I love. At least there were only four blocks in this step!

The block is placed correctly in the corner and continues the red chain.  There will be more black and green added so it won't stand out so much later.  Block 7 is a square in square block; I need to make eight of them and that will complete half of the 100 blocks in the quilt.

While sewing up the Block 6 batch, a lot of leader-enders got sewn up into 16 patches.

I ran out of Easy Breezy block pieces (Bonnie Hunter's current leader ender) so grabbed another container of 2" precut squares I set aside while cutting down scraps. Some were already sewn into four patches so I grouped four of them. There are a few alternate block settings I'm considering when I get a bunch made: either scrappy hourglass blocks, scrappy pinwheels, or X blocks like Arkansas Crossroads.  I like traditional quilts as much as modern ones!  Speaking of modern, I signed up for a Mini Mod Block swap with guild and need to get 30 2" blocks made and mailed this weekend. Some I will paper piece, a mind bending exercise for me!  I'll need plenty of caffeine and chocolate for that :)

Update on our Uncle Fred, who had a stroke last month: He was moved to a rehab facility today.  He is still unable to swallow but now has a gastric feeding tube rather than nasogastric.  He can move some of his right side but cannot turn himself over or sit himself up.  He can say a few words. We don't know yet what permanent state he may be left with; only time will tell.

Design Wall Monday--Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery

 I'm very late to Design Wall Monday, but do have something to share. See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

I've been working on the stalled mystery quiltalong that Laundry Basket Quilts gave last year.  The next block was #5 and I needed 8 of them.  I went back to a scrappy layout for this block--the Ohio Star block #4 just had too many small pieces to go scrappy and remain sane.

Lots of pieces to cut but it went together fairly well.  There was a little ripping when I sewed the second small triangle on the wrong side of the square--in more than one block :)  Two of these blocks are located in the center of each outside row in the quilt.

And that completes the 36 outer blocks of the quilt, with 64 to finish. Doing them in sets of blocks makes that number less painful.  I have looked at the Instagram hashtag and there are lots pretty finished mystery quilts.  I'm going to copy a different layout that I found.  Just wait and see!

Slow Sunday Stitching and Ohio Star Blocks

 Kathy's Quilts' Slow Sunday Stitching comes around again.  My current cross-stitch project gets picked up at odd times so progress is slow. 

So far its just a pale yellow blob, of which the top right portion had to be redone as I drifted too far from center.  The bottom row has some problems too but counting stitches late at night is really unproductive in poor light and needs attention during daytime.  

Next stitching project I want to do is from a thrift store find a few years back.  Less than a dollar!

I love the sentiment and the soft colors but not the X next to Friends.  Not sure why that was necessary. 

Meanwhile, in the sewing room a relatively young WIP is getting worked on.  I'm tired of tripping over the box I purposely pulled out!  I started Laundry Basket Quilts' Mystery last year when the pandemic shutdown first started, but only got a few blocks in. 

I got as far as the first three block sets but downloaded each step through block 15--there are 100 blocks total in the quilt.  My version is very scrappy and not blue and pink like Edyta's, but I like it.  For the 4th block, an Ohio Star, I decided to pull in green, my favorite color.

I used Bonnie Hunter's Essential triangle to cut the tiny hourglass block quarter square triangles from 1.5" strips, as I was using 10" squares for the neutral and it was easier.  However, I ran short of fabric and had to search for a match to the neutral.  

The top two blocks have the close match fabric in the hourglass blocks, Kitchen Twine, which I used for my Twilight Hopscotch quilt.  Pretty good, right?  Those need to be sewn up and and trimmed but I'm happy with them.  I also want to add a little black somewhere in the quilt, as well as different greens, and will look at the next few blocks to see where that might be appropriate.

Slow Sunday Stitching-Jan 17

 It's Slow Sunday Stitching--see more posts on Kathy's Quilts blog.

I'm cross stitching on an inexpensive wooden craft kit I picked up at Joann's some time ago. 

I finished a similar wooden ornament deer scene before  Christmas and gave it to my sister.  These are fun little projects.  The needle-nose pliers provide good help to pull the needle after running through stitches on the back. Since this photo I've finished the ground, stars and tree ornaments.

We've been rearranging furniture in the guest room since we gave away the bedroom set of my MIL's to a friend in need.  The quilt is from Judy's Mystery quiltalong some years ago on Patchwork Times, when she used to quilt a lot.  I've since switched it out with the Jewels in the Curio quilt which has been gracing the stair railing since I finished the binding some months ago.

I sent this to David's Quilting and love the Alex pattern with open curvy quilting. It is just big enough for the Full size guest bed, here it is laid out on our CalKing.

I caught the sliver moonset at sunset the other night.  It has been very hot with little humidity, which makes for spectacular sunsets but is always worrying in dry, dry, and windy southern California.  Fire danger is HUGE, there was a fire a couple of days ago in the County, but far from us. Fingers crossed they won't shut off our power in the middle of telemedicine work next week! Today we also remember the Northridge Earthquake of 1994 that knocked out power for millions in SoCal for days and caused much damage ( we lost power in our county for most of the day). Our kids were small then and our older daughter in the top bunk was so used to the bed being jostled by her little sister below, that she never even woke up :)

County Fair Time and Entries

Friday night was County Fair Time for me and my hubby, Grant.  We were expecting big crowds for the first weekend and went early.  Admission prices were unexpectedly lowered, which was nice, and after passing through the gate we immediately proceeded to the Home Arts building to look for my entries.   The first one I spotted was high on the side wall. 

I was pleased to see a 3rd place award for my professionally quilted twin size quilt--pattern is Judy of Patchwork Times' June Mystery Quilt in 2010. I was disappointed that this quilt was not displayed fully as I spent all that time sewing on a hanging sleeve at the last minute.

Next we looked in the display areas for more. 

The big chicken sculpture was really interesting.  I spied my little quilt on the wall.

A lucky Blue Ribbon!  How nice.  More hunting in the display booths.

Interesting quilt on the upper left, and I spy my Twilight Hopscotch block pillow.

Another lucky Blue Ribbon!  Very exciting. 

On the opposite wall, my Modern Row Robin quilt also had a lucky Blue Ribbon!  This quilt was entered as a group project, since four people worked on it.  I had also expected this quilt to be fully displayed since I attached a hanging sleeve on this quilt as well.  

More searching led us to a big display area with a very strange, huge quilt made of clothing on the back wall.  I was not sure what was going on with the tire tracks, but spied another entry of mine on the right.

Honorable Mention for my patriotic tablerunner!  Not sure why it was displayed vertically.  We took another turn around the building to locate the last entry, only to find we had walked right past it earlier without seeing it.

A lovely 2nd place ribbon on the modern Flying Geese Baby Quilt.  I received a ribbon on all 6 of my entries and feel very lucky.  Many other guild members entered items and had wins as well, so we had a good showing from our Modern Guild.

My sister Kathy had already gone to the Fair on Wednesday's opening night to see how her entries did, but was strictly forbidden to tell me how mine did!  I got these photos from her:

Her art quilt with a dark desert sky and dead tree got an Honorable Mention.

Her modern whole cloth quilt received a lucky Blue Ribbon!  Kathy is one of the good cooks we have in the family and I encouraged her to enter in that category too. 

Her Peach Bourbon Jam won an honorable mention.  It was entered under the Liquor category.

She also received Honorable Mention for her strawberry scones, which I love and can eat by the dozen! There was a lot to see and do at the County Fair, and I'll share some more finds on another post.

Tuesday's Orts

Tuesday's Orts--bits and bobs of thoughts and events that land here occasionally

• A month went by during which I thought about blogging roughly daily but never seemed to get myself to the computer.  Life has been very busy and it is apparent that is likely to remain so!  We are spending a lot of time dealing with my husband's 97 year old mother's needs and difficulties with worsening dementia, including a number of emergency room visits for falls, fortunately without any significant injuries.  She has caregivers to help now but we still worry a lot.
• I got back the Mystery Quilt from the longarmer and love the Baptist Fan quilting.  Binding I made about two years ago is waiting to be applied.  I need a new name for this quilt!

 I took another quilt in to be done and can't wait to see how High Cotton will look.

• Our MQG Opportunity Quilt is finished.  I volunteered to take over the binding from another member.  This is the first time I have ever finished someone else's binding and it was an odd exercise.  If I had been thinking better, I would have machine finished the darn thing, but instead persevered with hand binding and attaching a hanging sleeve.  Since the hanging sleeve was an afterthought I ended up taking out the stitching I had already done as well as nearly  two sides done by another guild member.  Thankfully it is all done now, has been handed off for photography, and tickets are being sold. 
•  There were more work hours this past month as I filled in some shifts for another employee who was off taking the MCAT for medical school entry.  That is one gnarly test and only the cream of the crop are even asked back for an interview after top tier scoring.  My co-worker was asked back after taking the test last year, but as there are literally thousands of applicants for few openings, he didn't get into a school.  Therefore he decided to retake the test to improve his score and studied intensely again for months.  It will be a while before his results are back and that can't be easy to bear. 
• Quilting-wise, my continuous attempts at focus and progress have upped a tick, with the use of a visual aid: 

I found this at a school supply store, it is magnetic as well as being a white board and came with two types of hangers and some easel thingies so it can stand up.  I'm happy to report that, yes, I did indeed finish all the goals for August.  They only slightly spilled over into September as I finished the backing to Cocoa Baskets on Saturday.  Still need to choose September goals.

• Baby Spam!

This is a photo from last month, when the quilt Mimi made grandson Hunter was at the County Fair (it got a 2nd place!) so he was posed on a different quilt for his monthly update.  Hunter is now 6 months old; a happy, smiley little one and more mellow than his very active older brother. We love them so!

Design Wall Monday--Aug 1, 2016

I've been busy in the sewing room lately, but don't have much on the design surface.  Our County Fair entries were due last weekend and I waited until the last minute to try to get a few things entered. First I decided to try to finish a whole baby quilt in a day, starting from a few finished flying geese blocks I had.  Sanity prevailed by Saturday evening though I did get all the individual geese made.  In the end, I  submitted only three quilts. A Halloween wall hanging I wanted to submit is missing and I have no clue what I did with it.  Also not completed in time were two mini quilts:

I started with just the center star I made up a couple of years ago and I wanted to add the triple sashing.  It got as far as being ditch quilted and the binding mostly attached but I just ran out of time!  This mini is about 12" square.

Tiny HSTs compose the center flag (it's about 5x10") and I had fun mixing and matching scraps for the corner squares and borders.  I've stitched in the ditch but it could use more frosting--I'll channel Janet if I get brave.  This obviously also didn't get finished for the Fair.  There's always next year!  I submitted grandson Hunter's black and white baby quilt, a comfort  quilt I made for our neighbor's son who was fighting cancer (and won!), and a Christmas quilt.  My sister entered an art quilt she designed of a penguin diving, and a modern abstract piece in black and white. Not sure what day I'll get to go to the Fair, maybe not until after next weekend.

I'm most pleased about a new longarm service offered at my LQS and yesterday I spent about two hours prepping the back of a UFO that has been waiting for years to be quilted. 

This is my version of a mystery quilt that Judy had in 2010.  I loved how my fabric selections turned out but had a heck of a time with the backing and this poor quilt has remained in the closet for about four years. Today I took it to the LQS and selected Baptist Fan for the quilting.  Looking back on blog posts about this quilt, I may need to made some leaders for the sides, as I noted I barely made the backing wide enough and the longarmer wants 4 inches all around.  But she won't be getting to my quilt for a couple of weeks so I have time. By the time she finishes one quilt for me, I'll have another ready.  Time to get these UFOs out of the closet!

See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday--Jan 28, 2013

On my design surface today is the backing for Judy's Mystery Quilt, one of the projects on my Getting it Done list.  Last week I shared the mistaken removal of the side border instead of the bottom border, which is what needed to be removed in order to add additional length to this poor, chopped up mess of a backing! Anyway, after yet another session of unsewing and resewing I have this to show:

This is the ugliest corner with all the multiple seams.  I had to add 13" in length to the previously miscut backing, and that required piecing three sections together so that the motif was the right orientation.  This fabric is "Indonesia" by April Cornell.  Thank goodness I bought plenty of extra fabric!

Seen from a galloping horse, the print is seemingly busy enough to hide all that extra seaming nonsense on this backing.

The final test was double checking that the backing is indeed longer than the front, and yes, the test was passed.  I sure cut it close on the width, however, so will have to be extra careful when pinning the layers.  Glad I can cross this repair off the list now!  See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

MATH is a four letter word

Mini likes playing with my tape measure.  I'm glad someone is enjoying this---because I'm not!  This is the underside of  the Mystery Quilt sandwich as laid out on tables.  You can see three layers and there seems to be a MATH problem because the green print at the top of the photo is the backing, which is supposed to be the LONGEST layer of this sandwich--you should not be able to see the other layers.  So not only is the backing a foot short but the batting is also not long enough. 

Taking a break for chocolate and despair.  Be back soon.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Binding

Through some overenthusiastic and premature fabric ripping, I managed to self-defeat my original plan to match the pattern on my lush botanical print backing for Judy's Mystery Quilt, the UFO pick of the month.

So instead of finishing the backing, I made binding.  Tonight I'll iron and cut more green fabric and make a frame for the print; the red print will be in the corners.  Only a few days left to make this quilt happen before the month's end and I don't have a quilting plan.  My original idea was to quilt from the back around the flowers and birds but I decided the project was just too large for me to do this well for the first time--I'll try it on a smaller project another time.  Back to square one!

Design Wall Monday--Feb 13, 2012

There is nothing on my design wall today because over the weekend I completed two tops, hooray!  There was a lot of getting up and down, sewing short seams, getting up and down, ironing, measuring, pin marking, and sewing long seams.  Okay, obviously I was adding borders:

Three borders to my UFO pick for this month, Judy's Mystery Quilt.  It's big--finishes at 72 x 96.  I had to have Grant assist me again from the stair landing.

Extra care was necessary to make the directional print go the same way all the way around.  I love the way this looks.  Those are 2", 1" and 3" finished borders.  I spent a great deal of Saturday working on this job in between chores and announcing the winner of my blogaversary.

Bricks and Stepping Stones got more attention Sunday.  For the inner border, I was testing either the white or the black and called son Nick over for his opinion.  He looked carefully and then said, "You can never go wrong with black."  He was right--it was the best choice. 

This dark teal print helps bring focus to the brighter teal blues within the center.  I'm really pleased that these choices worked out.  I also got through all the pinwheel blocks being used as my leader-enders. See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Updates--UFO #1, B&SS

It has been too windy again for outside shots so I enlisted DH Grant to stand on the stairs and hold up a finished top for a picture.  This is #1 on my UFO Challenge 2012 list, the pick for February. 

This is Judy's Mystery Quilt pattern from summer 2010 (click name for her free pattern). It was on my UFO list last year but only made it from blocks to flimsy stage.  I have two borders to cut and add and already purchased backing fabric in 2010.  Grant asked, as usual, "Who is this for?" and was pleased that I said "Us!" as he told me he likes the colors a lot.  I do too.  After that I vacuumed the carpet and started laying out the Bricks & Stepping Stones blocks for my brother's quilt.

The quilt inspector waited until three rows were laid out before she plopped herself down.

I literally had to push Mini off the blocks in order to take more pics and play Switcheroo.

A few blocks changed position after this photo but I had to stop somewhere.  They are now stacked up and ready to stitch into rows.  I've been trimming more leftover HSTs to use as leader-enders so will get a lot of those done as I sew these 56 blocks together, which I am off to do forthwith!

Progress that Bores

The leader-ender project has gotten ramped up to a regular project.  However, I am sewing the blocks in pairs so am using the two sets as their own leader-enders as I piece.  Last night I did some MATH and reconfiguring, then grouped all the strips and squares into block sets until nothing was left.  I will have extra blocks to play with when it comes time to layout and play Switcheroo, and the remainder will go on the back, probably.  No pictures of the piles, it is too boring. 

In the interest of progress on the UFO/Mystery Quilt, the backing got washed.  I did finish sewing the remaining rows on Monday night and the center is complete.  Yay, me.

The backing was purchased last year just after I finished up the blocks for the Mystery Quilt.  The colors were just right and I loved the big bold print--not something I would normally gravitate to.

Indonesia, by April Cornell.  See the funny bird and big butterfly?  I am considering quilting this from the back but it depends if I truly have enough yardage.  I bought 5 yards but am afraid to do the MATH just now.  As I keep saying, I am a WORD girl, not a MATH girl. 

Tonight's main event was an archaeological dig to uncover a seldom-seen surface.  This ugly wet bar is the first horizontal surface as we enter the house from the garage so has always been a dumping ground.  Those two trays have been overflowing with opened/unopened mail, unfiled filing, and assorted junk mail for months.  Getting mail for five people is a horrendous cycle of sort, shred, recycle, and ignore.  Our filing cabinets in the office need a complete purge and reorganizing.  Again, really boring, but that's what's going on at Casa de Orts this week!

Design Wall Monday--Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day to all Americans, everywhere.  Our family will gather at our parents' house and there will be lots of food, fun, and fireworks to watch. 

On my design surface today are two projects.  First, the wedding quilt for DD Elaine and Chris:

Almost three rows laid out before I ran out of pieces and had to cut more. 

Since there were so many pieces in each row as I stacked them, bag clips bought on the cheap came in handy to keep them all together. 

My worries over MATH were allayed when I stitched together the row I was the most concerned about.  The pattern called for four 3.5" white squares and I eliminated those in my re-drawing, which changed the way the rows were assembled.  Fortunately my numbers were true and the segments all matched up.  Whew!  Lots more sewing will be necessary to get all the pieces laid out and the rows sewn.

Next is the quilt on my list for the UFO Challenge this month, the Mystery Quilt from Judy's Patchwork Times last June.  I did a bit more switcheroo after this layout.  If you'll notice, there are too many darks at the top and all the lightest blocks are in a diagonal row.  I have backing bought, fabric for borders but decisions to make on that, and of course quilting and binding to do before I call this a finish.  See more design walls on Patchwork Times.