Falling Behind

As usual, I’ve fallen behind on the mystery.  I’ve been busy with shopping, baking, wrapping, cooking (I feel like I’ve spent the better part of the last week in the kitchen) and then various family festivities and haven’t had much time in the sewing room.  My vacation time is winding down too quickly -  I have so many things I want to do! I finished up step three today and started cutting for step five.  I figure I will stick with the half square triangles while I’m on a roll and then go back and catch up on step four.

I finally finished my monster log cabin quilt right before Christmas.  I thought I finished it the week before but then laid it out for a picture and discovered a block turned the wrong way.  I had to remove the binding, pick out the quilting, rip the seams, turn the block and appliqué it back in place, re-quilt the spot, and reattach the binding. Luckily it was on an edge or I’m not sure I could have done it.  I had to repair the quilting on my regular machine which was no easy task given the weight and size of that beast.  So the quilting is a little wonky but it’s unlikely anyone could find it without knowing it is there.

I’ve acquired a couple more antique quilts in recent months and am looking forward to receiving my belated Christmas gift of a display ladder from my daughter.  It’s supposed to arrive in a couple of weeks and I am really excited about displaying more of my quilts out where I can see them often.  It seems a shame to have them all hidden away in the basement.

I had fun sharing a few of them at our last TAS meeting.

I will be back in the sewing room tomorrow, hopefully getting caught up on mystery clues and thinking about what new projects I am going to start in the new year - there are so many that are calling my name!

Frolic! Week Two

I love it that the first two clues of this year’s mystery have been easy!  I didn’t have a lot of time to spend in the sewing room this weekend but still managed to complete the second clue. It doesn't make for a very exciting picture....

And this picture didn't work well at all, but I ran across this pattern when I stopped by Nola's over the weekend for help with another rug.  I couldn't resist - it's so cute!  I want to finish a couple of other rugs in progress before I start any others, but I'm adding this one to my list for 2020.

I'm anxiously awaiting the start of a new BOM, Maggie Macguire's Garden, through Homestead Hearth. Here's the picture of the quilt from their website:

I stumbled across the pattern when a friend from Australia posted it on Facebook, and the shop was able to connect with the designer and get it set up as a monthly program. I can't wait to get started on it!

Frolic Time!

I know we won’t be doing the link-up this year but figured I would post my Quiltville mystery quilt progress anyway since it gives me a reason to post (I haven’t been getting much accomplished lately).  In spite of a late start due to holiday festivities, I did manage to finish all of step one of this year’s mystery, Frolic.

I decided I should break out and actually use my Accuquilt this year.  I figured out how many feet of strips I would need of each color, pressed all my fabrics, and ran them through the cutter. It was only when I started sewing the first two strips together that I realized I had somehow cut neutral instead of purple (my substitute for the raspberry).  So it was back to the cutter for more strips.... hopefully all those neutral strips can be used somewhere else!

Once I had the correct fabrics these little four patches went pretty quickly.  I’m using several pieces from a  Laundry Basket fat quarter bundle for my blues so there are going to be lots of polka dots in this one.  


I worked on binding my monster quilt this evening - I’ve been working on it every night for a couple of weeks - and finally turned the second corner.  I might even get all 39 feet of binding finished by Christmas!

Until next week.....