Mystery Clue Trois

I finished clue three of Bonnie Hunter's 'En Provence' mystery last night.  While some of my purples are more plum than purple, and look almost brown in the photo, they ARE plum and came off my purple shelf of my stash...

Looking at them all together, I'm not fond of the plum colors, but I'm sure they'll look fine in the quilt and I'm not re-making any of them.

Can't wait for clue four on Friday!!!

Finished my butterflies top on Saturday.  Kinda glad this one is ready for a back and quilting now.  I did NOT make this one as a labor of love in any way shape or form.. it was purely an obligation, so lacked the pleasure of making to some extent.  Will be happy to gift this one to someone who loves butterflies... I will have to save it for a special someone.

I have counted 37 UFOs in my studio right now, so I've got a lot of 'catching up' to do.  While my word of the day was FINISH for 2016, I didn't do a lot of finishing this past year - more starts than finishes to be sure!  Still, there are 19 days left this month to fix that!  I will make the attempt to finish up one or two more by the end of the month!

Word for the Year 2017

Well... I didn't do all I said I would do in 2016.  Last year I posted:

My word for the year 2016 is going to be FINISH.  I've started so many things in 2015 and I really need to see an end to these projects so I can feel good about starting new ones.   I have made a promise not to start any new BOMs that I'm not already signed up for (only one new one of those, so I don't feel overwhelmed to start the year.  I'm afraid they will do a Bertie's Summer quilt and I will feel the need to sign up for that one... luckily the Bertie's seasonal quilts are all small, just 4-5 month projects, easy to make, easy to quilt. 

I am not forgetting my words from previous years... It's still all about the JOURNEY, and I'm still SIMPLIFYing - ridding myself of extraneous 'stuff' both quilty and otherwise (yes, there are things we moved with that we didn't really need, so still stuff to get rid of), but I want to finish UFO's this year - I have a lot of them...

I would love to choose a word like 'PLAY' or 'MESSIFY' (I know that's not a real word, but I don't know how else to say it), but I feel like that will have to wait a year.  (By messify, I mean giving myself permission to paint messily, color outside the lines and so forth - I need that encouragement sometimes to be 'me' when I am creating instead of just following patterns by rote). 

Anyway - I look forward to 2016 and all the finishes I will have for the year!

That seems like such a long time ago... and I didn't finish nearly enough things in 2016.  And I surely did NOT keep my promise not to start any new BOMs in 2016.. Sure enough Bonnie Sullivan did a Bertie's Summer, which I HAD to do... and I signed up for Tuxedo Tales, another of her BOMs because, well, it was cats... sigh.  And another BOM, A Kitten's Tale, got added to the list.  One of my local quilt shops was doing Fancy Forest as a BOM, so I signed up for that. And NONE of them are finished yet.  But I resisted the urge to do any Saturday Samplers last year, which was great... and I will try again to resist, but one local shop is doing a pretty cool one, so I may do one.  We'll see.

I have 37 quilts on my UFO list so far for next year... I'm trying to keep that from going up... I'd like to see it come down, which means to finish things... but this year, I have chosen a different word.. or set of words, the finishes will just have to come as they will.

Now to choose a new word for 2017... I am torn between too many options.  I can think of a lot of words to choose from, but these are my main three:

STRONGER...  because I truly believe we ARE stronger together... and in the past I've been taking the easy path, letting things happen around me sometimes that I shouldn't turn a blind eye to.  Time to stand up and be proud and strong. 

NASTY... because there is honor in being a nasty woman now, and I want to be a part of that...

and

BADASS... because I want to be a part of the badass quilting movement... have been a member of the Badass Quilter's Society for almost 2 years now.. maybe even longer, I can't recall exactly... but I'd like my quilting to reflect more of that...  and my own personal attitude as well... (which takes me back to NASTY and STRONGER too)...

Since I can't decide... and there are no rules lawyers in quilting, right... the quilt police can bite me... I am going to go with all three words this year, instead of just one.

I AM STRONGER, NASTY and BADASS!!!  Hear me roar!!!

Kitties

By now, if you've ever read much of this blog, you know I love cats and make lots of cat-themed quilts and other projects.  Right now, I'm working on an Elizabeth Hartman designed cat quilt.  I modified the pattern a little and made a black tuxedo cat with green eyes and a little brick red nose.  I almost like it more than the black-eyed, black-nosed kitties of the original design.  My husband thinks the black kitties look like Batman.  Sigh.  Anyway, I've been enjoying making her 'Fancy Forest' quilt all year (we are on month 11 right now... one more to go!).  So I thought I'd make her kitty quilt, too... blocks are done and rows are sewn... just need the horizontal sashing strips cut and the rows joined together...

But I think I'm done working on this one for the day...

Now it's time to switch gears and go back to work on Fancy Forest... gotta keep up the pace or I will fall behind.  I figure if I get my firefly blocks at least cut today, I can sew them together over the weekend.

This is a tough time of year for most people... me included... with the holidays and such, everyone is uber busy preparing for parties, family gatherings, making or buying gifts, and other activities, plus there's still all the usual day to day stuff to deal with as well.  Sometimes it's wise to take some time and just breathe deep, be calm and have some quiet time... relax!

Mystery part deux

So today I made 100 little pointy units for the second clue of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery Quilt. 

That's 10 piles of 10 units, each pile made with a different neutral , but with a constant magenta for the corners.  

You can see more folks' progress here.

I'm really enjoying this mystery!  But now what do I do for the rest of the week til the next clue comes out on Friday??? Just kidding - I've got plenty of other projects to work on - I am doing a bom and I get my December fabric tomorrow (Tuesday), so I'll be able to make those blocks, but I have a whole month to work on those... and I've got LOTS of embroidery to do on some other blocks I made for a Bonnie Sullivan quilt (Tuxedo Tales)... and 3 blocks to make to finish my Buster Cat Does Halloween quilt (yes, it might be late for this year, but I'm on track to finish it for next year!).... I am NOT lacking projects to work on!... But I will still be waiting with baited breath for the next En Provence clue!

WIP

I've been lax again about posting here... and I have no defense, just rationalizations which are less than useless and no excuse, so I won't state them here.  Just suffice to say I've been busy, and let some things slide.  This blog was one of them.  My apologies to all who read here.

Lately I've been doing more piecing than applique, a sort of reversal from the recent past.  It's been a refreshing return to my quilting roots.   I'd forgotten how much fun and relaxation I got from piecing.

I am participating in an online mystery quilt called 'En Provence', designed by Bonnie Hunter.  So far, we've only had one clue, and here are my neutral 4-patches that I made for Clue #1:

Can't wait to see clue #2!  I'm excited about this one, which is strange for me, as I'm not a 'scrappy' quilter generally.  I usually like to plan and select my fabrics with care and an eye to color.   I am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone for this one.  Anyway, I really love the neutral background horse print I used in some of the patches.  Hopefully it will not prove to be too much for the quilt.  Here is a link to the 'Monday Morning Links' to see the progress of others participating in the mystery.

I worked on a second butterfly quilt.  Now I try not to repeat myself too often, making the same quilt over and over again is boring and I learn nothing new from it usually, and I like learning new techniques, skills or tools.  However, my class wanted to make the butterfly quilt and so I'm teaching it to them...   They should have their butterflies done by Saturday and I will teach them how to applique the antennae on and show them how to trim the blocks... Here are a few of my blocks pre-trimming:

I also made a second tuffet (yes, I know... repeating myself, but it was so much fun to have a finished piece of furniture in the house after making it, and I wanted a purple and green one.)... I even signed up to take a class in January on how to make a square one!  

I also started cutting for Elizabeth Hartmann's Cat Quilt.  I've got the background and the black for the eyes and noses all cut... and I'm ready to start cutting and piecing my kitties.  Looking forward to sewing these and seeing the different kitty faces emerge.

Finishing Binge

I've been on a finishing binge of late... just got another one done this morning... the binding was done as of last night but the label was only half on... I finished it up today. It is a king sized log cabin made of 4 1/4" blocks. Started in 2008, all from scraps I had around from previous projects.

It sat in a cabinet for 7 years waiting for the perfect border. I agonized for a long time over piecing or appliqueing a house border, and then sort of backburnered the entire project and forgot about it. Then this year, the theme of the Row by Row Challenge was 'Home Sweet Home' and LO!, one of the fabrics for the line was a house row print. It was perfect, and I bought some... Just enough it turns out, as I didn't have a lot left over. 

 Glad to have this one done, as it's for my own bed, for use as our 'winter quilt'... Time to wash and put the summer quilt away and get this one on the bed!

Two views of the quilt:  'A Barn Raising: My Life in Quilts'

Old Skills, New Methods

I used to be a whiz at setting zippers... in clothes.  I could do any kind of zipper - normal or invisible, single or double placket... and I was good (and fast) at it!  But that was 40 years ago when I used to make clothes!

So when I bought this pattern for a 'Bionic Gear Bag,' I dreaded putting in these 5 zippers, but figured I'd remember it all, like riding a bike... you get on it and it all comes back to you - the balance, the coordinated movements between pedaling, steering and keeping your balance.

I was surprised... no, call it SHOCK, when I read the instructions in the pattern (didn't even bother with the ones that came with the zippers, saving them to read only in the event that the pattern instructions made no sense to me.  Luckily, they did and it was EASY... zipper FEET have even changed (probably mostly because of movable needles)...

I feel, alas, that my old skill with zippers will have to remain an artifact of days gone by.   I'm rather proud that the Bionic Gear Bag is done, and the zippers (and the bag in general) came out perfect.

This is the bag all zipped up and closed, followed by a picture of the bag opened up showing all the interior pockets and zippers... SO much storage space in such a tiny bag!... and I love the little 'shelf' in front when it's open... I keep my pin cushion there, and use it to store things like binding clips when I'm sewing binding (my other current project).