En Provence Week Five

I'm a little late with this post - I've been too busy celebrating the holidays and enjoying the heck out of being off work for a week!  I actually had this week's step finished Friday night. I was surprised to see purple again!  When are we going to use those greens and yellows? I am thinking this week's step is going to require a lot of effort considering it in theory will consume 3.5 yards of fabric (assuming green and yellow are the only colors we use). I am looking forward to seeing the reveal.

I couldn't resist including a picture that my daughter took of my little guy at the vet last week. He's been having trouble with one of his back legs so we had him checked out. We learned that the poor little guy has a dislocated patella. It's seriously dislocated - all the way over on the side of his knee! The doctor said we could have it repaired surgically but that it would be pretty tough on him at this age (he's nearly 11) so pain management might be the better option. He seems to be handling it pretty well with only occasional pain so we will have to wait and see if it gets any worse.

Back to sewing... I have been working on my Magic of Christmas blocks and finished two each of two more. I still have quite a few more to finish.  They are pretty tedious with LOTS of pieces so I plan to continue mixing them in between other more mindless projects.

While working on En Provence and the MoC blocks I managed to finish another row of tumblers and then joined the two sections I had assembled thus far.  I still have a very long way to go but I love it!

I decided to get a head start on my 2017 UFOs by working on my Disappearing Nine Patch. I have just completed all of the nine patches and will head to the sewing room now to cut them up and start assembling blocks.  This one has been hanging around for a long time...started in 2007.  I'm thinking it deserves to be finished by its 10th anniversary!

Back to the sewing room for me!  Check out Bonnie's Monday Link-up to see how others fared with this week's nice and easy clue!

En Provence Week Four

Friday Night Sew In was a complete fail for me. It started off well enough - I actually managed to wrap up working by a little after 4pm and was going to run a couple of quick errands before dinner to free up the evening to sew. And then the freezing rain started. Traffic came to a screeching halt with accidents everywhere and some vehicles unable to navigate even the slightest of hills. Thankfully I had a nearly full tank of gas and was finally able to get home without incident, albeit at nearly 7 pm. By the time dinner was eaten and cleaned up I was too tired to do much of anything. 

I got up early Saturday and started cutting for Step 4 of En Provence. Tri-recs units aren't my favorite to cut - I end up with the little corner confetti all over my sewing room. And while I couldn't spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend - I had to get the tree up and some cookies baked - I still managed to complete the step and stay caught up!

This quilt is very purple-y so far!  I can't even imagine how the greens and yellows will factor in. I assume we will see those this week - and we know we are done with tri-recs units, so I'm guessing something with half square triangles?    

Head over to the Mystery Monday Link-up on Bonnie's blog to see the fantastic progress everyone is making on En Provence. Not much sewing time for me this week - I have to get my act together and finish my Christmas shopping (and baking, and wrapping...).  I hope to have everything finished by the time Friday's clue is posted so I can start sewing early - it's a holiday and the beginning of a glorious 11 day break from work!  

En Provence Week Three

I definitely set the bar low going into the weekend - work was insanely busy last week and I knew I would be working much of the weekend just to try and keep my head above water. Isn't it wonderful how everyone suddenly gets motivated to try to finish everything off just before the end of the year? Anyway, I figured there was no way I would be able to finish step three this weekend - that is, until Bonnie posted another really easy one!  I have to believe that one or more of the next few steps will be killers - I have never, ever been able to keep up before!

I'm so excited to report that as very late Saturday night (okay, 1 am Sunday morning) I had all 168 purple four patches sewn and seams spun.  

I was hoping we would be using more purple 2" strips but I suspect that's not the case. Unfortunately I was a little over-zealous in my cutting. Guess all of these will have to go to the scrap drawer for future use! 

I even took time between work and sewing to make myself some snickerdoodles. I've been seeing so many posts and Food Network shows on cookies that I decided I needed to make a few for a pre-Christmas snack.  The Christmas cookie baking will begin in earnest next weekend (and I assure you these will not last until then)!

I even managed to find a little time yesterday afternoon to finish one more Magic of Christmas block. I am way behind - this is my first #15. I need to make a second and then two each of blocks 16-15.  I am anxious to see the proposed settings for these.  I am hoping I can come up with a decent-sized quilt using the double set.

I can't wait to see what the next mystery clue brings! Check out the link-up on Bonnie's blog to see how other mystery quilters are coming along!

En Provence Week Two

This weekend was perfect for sewing and I was able to get quite a bit accomplished while catching up on my recordings on the sewing room DVR. I also had the pleasure of sewing along with Bonnie - I stumbled onto the impromptu Quilt Cam announcement when re-checking the number of four patches needed and was able to tune in and listen to Bonnie while I stitched!

I am happy to report that not only did I get all of Step 2 completed but also was able to make significant progress on Step 1...so much so that I am daring to think I will be completely caught up before the next clue! By the time I wrapped things up and headed downstairs to prepare dinner yesterday I was down to the last 30 four patches, all of which are cut and ready to sew.  The hubby has a dinner meeting tonight so I am planning on hitting the sewing room after work to finish those off.

Not much other progress to report for the week. I did manage to get quite a few hexies prepped on my flights and even pieced one flower in the small amount of spare time I had in the evenings. My flights were definitely not conducive to sewing, particularly the O'Hare to Kalamazoo leg. I actually timed it on the way home - 11 minutes from the time the 10,000 ft bell to the "prepare for landing" announcement. I glued hexies as fast as I could during that 11 minutes, though!

I have been trying to work on my Old Settlement rug a little every night. I've been doing mostly background so my progress doesn't look all that spectacular, but it is coming along.  The picture really doesn't do it justice - this half is 27" high by 36" wide.  It's a BIG rug.  Now that I have all of the motifs hooked in this half I am going to force myself to finish all of the background and grass on this side before moving to the right. The down side of that plan is that it will likely be difficult to keep my frame from tipping over when I try to do the other end!

I can't wait to see the next step of En Provence. I'm pretty confident that in six years of doing the mystery I have never, ever been caught up at any point...and while I realize it probably won't last, it's very exciting for now!  Check out the link-up on Bonnie's blog to see how others are doing - it's really fun to see some of the other colors being used (I think I even saw teal being used as the neutral??)!