Moving along...

The mystery quilt I made, laid out on a bed, takes on an entirely different look!

It's still busy - but not unpleasantly so... I like it, and glad it has a great home where it will be appreciated.  Amazing how something so subtle like seeing the quilt on a bed as opposed to on a design wall makes it take on a whole new look.

On another subject entirely, our move went smoothly... We are in our new home now.  We moved closer to the beach for the cool weather, and moved right into a heat wave.  Sad, as our new house has no air conditioning, but we are handling it okay - opening the house up in the morning and early evening to take advantage of the cool breeze then, and closing things up during the warmest part of the day to keep things cool.   Just opening things up and shutting them down during the day seems like a big job - we're realizing just how big this house is during the progress... it just doesn't see so big until you have to traverse it multiple times a day... it seems to get bigger and bigger... lol.

We are getting very tired of opening boxes and putting things away... but it has to get done.  All the master bedroom boxes are done with, as are the kitchen and dining room boxes... and the boxes for the hallway closets.  We just have a few rooms left to do - the game room isn't finished, and the living room hasn't been tackled yet, neither has the sewing room.  That last is going to be a BIG job, since i have so much fabric.  Once the boxes are done in there, I still have to put up a new design wall and the inevitable television (can't survive without a tv in my studio... what can I say?  I'm an addict).  

It will be weeks before we are finished most likely, but we ARE working on it.  Any progress is good, that's how I'm looking at it, and we do something related to unpacking every day... some days more, some days less, but always progress.  We have made a promise to each other not to live with unopened boxes, like we had in our old house - we found things in boxes that we hadn't opened since we moved in to that house 20 years ago - SO not happening again... not here, not now, not this time. 

Thimblecreek Mystery

I love receiving the Thimblecreek Gazette (from Joe Wood of Thimblecreek Quilts) every Tuesday morning.  Recently, he posted a mystery quilt with 15 different clues.  I decided to make the mystery - it sounded like fun and I had this collection of Downton Abbey fat quarters that wanted to be used for something.  So in I dove.. and what an odd collection of blocks and sections!  I couldn't imagine what it might look like when it was done!... I'm used to mystery quilts where the different bits and parts made a new pattern when put together... but this one worked a little differently - it was a lot of finished blocks.  I just couldn't fathom what was to come.

I dutifully did every set of blocks every week... then the final clue came - how to put it all together.  The process was interesting - putting sequences of borders on a central medallion... border after border after border... It took several days to get it together because I am in the middle of packing to move, so it developed slowly.  Finally I got it all together (it's about 50x50, so it's pretty big).  I love this picture of it, but I can't say I love the quilt itself... It's a little busy for my taste.

It's very odd how I can love the picture, and dislike the quilt itself... but that is the case... Really, how can I dislike a quilt full of purple?  that makes no sense either lol....

So I offered it to a quilting friend who said she really liked it and it would go with her decor.  She will make a back for it, have it quilted and use it in her home... which is great - it will be loved... and she will have a quilt of her own - She tends to make so many things for her 12 grandkids and her kids too, that she ends up having none of her own quilts to treasure at home (ie she gives them all away).  Someday, perhaps I will have grandkids (*peeers at her son and dau-in-law expectantly*)... but for now, I have lots of quilts and no homes for them except my own. 

Anyway, glad I made this one - it was definitely a fun process - and glad it has a good home.

Now, on to Thimblecreek Mystery #2 which just started (it's a Halloween themed quilt by colors, but not requiring themed fabric, and could probably be done in any colors)... If you're interested and don't get the Gazette, google Thimblecreek Quilts and sign up for their newsletter (the Gazette)... clues are free and very well written, so they are easy to follow!...

Now, back to packing for me... We are moving to a new place with a whole building for my husband's mancave and radio shack (he's a ham), a larger quilting space for me, and a huge game room for us to come together with our friends (we are gamers - boardgames, roleplaying games, and the like).   It's no fun packing and getting ready for the move - the sorting and purging has been heart-wrenching and hard... but needed to be done... we've lived in this house for 20 years and had some boxes we never opened since moving in here - scary, huh?  I highly recommend this sorting and purging process, and wish we'd done it a long time ago - we'd have had a lot more room here if we'd done it, but then without the impending move over our heads, we might not have been so ruthless with the purging part of it...

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it is the godmother (at least) of motivation.