FNSI Update & Mystery Kick-off

The holiday weekend has come to a close and we are off and running with On Ringo Lake!  I was so excited to get started that I didn't really think about how many strip sets I would need for the first step. I was just cutting away when it occurred to me that I might have too many.  I am really hoping we need 1.5" strips elsewhere in this quilt or I have a bunch to add to my stash!

I finished the first step easily over the weekend.  Apologies for the blurry photo - it looked okay on the little phone screen.  I am very happy with my colors so far.

I had plenty of extra sewing time this weekend, so I not only was able to catch up on the three Triangle Gatherings blocks Lisa posted recently but also was able to sew and mostly prep the rest of the HSTs for the last five blocks. 

I  can't wait to see what Lisa comes up with for setting these. I still haven't let go of the star idea, but am waiting to see the "official" setting. This project will definitely be on the UFO list for 2018, along with my Starlite Skies SBOW.  I was able to finish another week's blocks over the long weekend. I now have seven weeks completed, so just five more to go.

I ended every evening over the holiday working on the binding to En Provence.  I had hoped to have it finished by now but the sewing is going slowly due to a bum shoulder (who would think that shoulder pain would interfere with hand sewing?) and some obnoxious corners. I tried to be so perfect when working the corners on the longarm but the first two sure have been uncooperative!  Not that I ever get them perfect on the regular machine, but they have been a real pain on this one, likely because I cut the binding narrow.  Anyway I am hoping to finish this week so I can get back to rug hooking in the evenings.

I am looking forward to checking out the Monday Mystery Link-up on Bonnie's blog for a first peek at all of the different color options for this year's mystery. It is always so much fun to see what others are doing!

Just Four More Sleeps!

It's almost time for this year's mystery to begin!  I was able to get my binding sewn onto my En Provence quilt yesterday and started stitching it down last night. There's no chance I will get it finished before Friday but I am very close! I decided to bind it with green since that was the only fabric from the quilt that I was able to find (Note to self: set binding fabric aside rather than putting everything away!) and I really like how it looks. I will post a picture as soon as it is completely finished.

It's hard to believe that it has been over a week since we've been back from Shipshewana. What a wonderful retreat!  Of course I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I had hoped. I had prepped weeks 5 through 12 of my Starlite Skies SBOW and only managed to finish one week's worth and make a start on the next. I finished week 6 over the weekend and started week 7. I hope to keep plugging along with this one even after the mystery starts.  It will be at the top of my 2018 UFO list as I can't wait to see how it turns out and am looking forward to trying my hand at custom quilting on it.

Now for a few pictures of things I didn't do!  Di Ford was a wonderful teacher. I had three days of classes with her in Shipshewana and thoroughly enjoyed them even though I wasn't at all productive. She provided a lot of guidance on selecting and cutting fabrics for broderie perse. I still don't really like the technique but am willing to give it a go on her class projects.

Here's Di's quilt from the first class, "Bally Hall Birds".  By the end of the class I had shopped for fabrics to make it a little less pink and precisely cut my 20.5" center block (precision required because of the broderie perse border - no pressure!). Definitely nothing picture-worthy!

Then there was day two, "Couronne d'oiseaux" (or something like that).  Di shared with us that the quilt was named as part of a little classroom comptetition when she was teaching it in Holland. The name in English is the "Birdy Wreath" - I will have to stick with that one because my French is terrible. 

I absolutely love the pieced inside border section of this quilt! Di actually pieced hers by machine - she said she did it to save time, but I am thinking that had to be a real pain. Definitely a better candidate for hand piecing (although still a huge amount of work).  Again, at the end of the day I had a center cut out. Nothing more. Starting to sense a trend?

Day three of workshops was the "Giggleswick Mill Sampler" from Di's second book. This time I not only cut out my background, but I cut out a lot of the broderie perse flowers, too.  I did not get them placed on my background, though, so I came home with a bunch of loose pieces.  This is probably my favorite of the three as it combines broderie perse with more piecing.

That sums up what I didn't accomplish, so moving on to plan what I hope to actually accomplish next. I have landed on my colors for the mystery and am ready to go!

I will be substituting the darker teal for Bonnie's chocolate brown as she said this color needs strong contrast.  I am substituting the tans for the coral - I think the values are similar. Hopefully these will work well in the design.  Only four more sleeps until the fun begins!

November Already?

This year is definitely flying by!  I was watching The Chew during lunch yesterday and they were preparing Thanksgiving recipes. I'm not ready for the holidays yet!  But I am ready for this year's Quiltville mystery to start - I started thinking about colors even before Bonnie posted the fabric requirements this week. I found the fabric on the left - the batik print - while I was down in Springfield, MO this past weekend taking a class on the new Statler software.  I decided I would use it as my inspiration piece, and now that we have the final size of the quilt (75" x 90") it may end up being a border.  I pulled a few fabrics from my stash last night to play with color options.  I was thinking dark teal, light teal and coral:

The coral looks really orange in this picture - I don't think I like it.  I may need to go with a shade of pink/magenta or possibly gold?  I will try those combos tonight.

This week's big news is that I finally finished my Disappearing Nine Patch!  I started this quilt in 2007 as a block exchange with my bee friends.  It was the first quilt listed on my quilt projects tab when I started blogging back around 2008.  I am very excited to be able to mark it complete!

I also was able to get last year's mystery, En Provence, quilted this week. After my most recent class I was feeling pretty confident about using my machine and decided I would try another feather pattern (I tried one on the very first "real" quilt I quilted and it was a disaster!). I am very happy with how it turned out. I still need to prepare the binding and get it sewn on. I would like to finish this one before the next one starts if at all possible.

I'm heading off to Shipshewana for a retreat and classes with Di Ford next week.  I am really looking forward to learning from Di and am hoping to actually make a little progress on my Starlite Skies BOW outside of class time. This will be my last "fun" trip for the year.  It's time to start planning for 2018!