Grand Illusion Week Five

I am incredibly excited to report that not only did I finish this week's step, but I also managed to complete steps one through four this week! This is the first time in the four years I have been participating in Bonnie's mystery quilts that I have actually been caught up!

I am enjoying Bonnie's posts about the Grand Hotel. I have no memory of the decor from my visit there (I think I was four years old at the time) or from watching "Somewhere in Time" a million times when it was on HBO back in the day. I find the colors amusing...and charmingly tacky!  I am anxious to see how all of these pieces come together. They certainly don't look like they belong in the same quilt! I have complete faith in Bonnie, however, and know that it will turn out awesome!

It seems that most everyone is having great success at keeping up with the mystery this year - check out the Monday link-up on Bonnie's blog to see the fantastic progress!

Grand Illusion Week Four

Progress on the Grand Illusion mystery continues... I managed to get a few minutes in the sewing room here and there over the past week and finished a few more blocks from steps one and two before clue four was posted. I am quite confident I would have all three steps completed if it wasn't for the shopping and cooking!  I need to hire a personal assistant! Of course, assistants can be a problem when you are completely OCD like I am.  My husband was on vacation Friday and I asked him and my daughter to take care of getting a Christmas tree. I should have thought that through a little better before asking...first, neither one shares my OCD tendencies. Second, they really, really like a bargain. They were thrilled when they found a tree at Lowe's that was marked down to $4.88.  It didn't matter to them that it was the world's most crooked tree. They decided they felt sorry for it....they knew no one else would want it. I really think they did it just to mess with me.  My daughter posted it on her Facebook page right after they got it in the stand.

I did the best I could....after considerable maneuvering of the position of the trunk in the stand to make the tree appear at least somewhat upright....trying to turn it to find its "best"side....and throwing on a bunch of ornaments and tinsel, we ended up with this. Yep, it's still making me crazy. It's really hard to get good help these days!

I made fairly decent progress on step four over the weekend.  I did all of my cutting at once and even finished my cutting for step three, too. I really hate cutting but it was really nice to have it all ready to sew. I sewed all of my black and white HSTs and then sewed all of the half blocks. I was happy to find that I only sewed three of them the wrong way....not too much rework.  Then I started putting the halves together. Three blocks in I figured out that I was putting the wrong halves together...so a little more rework.  I managed to get half of my blocks completed before breaking to cook dinner last night.

I still have 39 of the second block to finish. I'm hoping to catch up on all four clues while I am off this week.  Of course, the sewing will have to wait until the shopping, wrapping and cookie baking is finished.  I know better than to ask my husband to help....

To see how other Grand Illusion quilters are progressing, check out the Mystery Link-up on Bonnie's blog.

Grand Illusion Week Three

Not much progress to report this week! I went out after work and did a little Christmas shopping on Friday and followed that up with a late dinner at Red Lobster (had to use up a gift certificate from last Christmas!).  Saturday was Wool Club, where I celebrated Christmas with great friends and wonderful food. So I didn't get to the sewing machine until Sunday. This week's clue was definitely an easy one! I finished 40 of the double four patches and have the strip sets ready for 20 more with only a few hours at the machine. My greens are pretty bright....I am really starting to wonder how all these colors will come together!

I don't get much time to sew during the week but have been chipping away at the first two steps every chance I get.  I can't wait until next week when I am on vacation and can catch up!  Bonnie posted that the next couple of steps will be easy like this one so I might actually stand a chance of finishing this one before next November!

Check out the Monday link-up on Bonnie's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Grand Illusion Week Two

For the first time in what seems like forever I had a completely free weekend...no place to go and no one to cook for.  I spent nearly the whole weekend in my sewing room!  I made great progress on step two.  I decided to use Bonnie's first method to do my cutting.

This method worked well for me and the best part was that it gave me a use for my duplicate Easy Angle ruler.  (Sadly, I actually have three of them for some reason....)

I really like the look of the double diamond block. I am enjoying these colors - they are definitely different from my norm!

I finished 57 complete blocks and the rest of the halves.  I still need to trim rabbit ears and then can get the rest of the blocks together.

I got a little farther on step one over the course of last week.

And I've made quite a bit of progress on my giant rug:

Okay, now that I look at the picture it really doesn't look like all that much progress, but I do try to work on it pretty much every night.  It's hard to tell from the picture but the section I've hooked is probably two feet long. The rug is 30" x 76" so there's still a long way to go.

I hope I can drag myself away from the sewing machine long enough to get some Christmas shopping done.  Bonnie's mysteries are addicting!

That's my progress report for the week!  Check out how others are progressing on Bonnie's blog.

Grand Illusion Week One

It's that time of year again - let the mystery begin!  I was very excited that I was able to get the last border on my Celtic Solstice top on Wednesday.  My goal was to have it completed before starting Grand Illusion and I made it just in time!

I really should have removed all of the junk from my husband's night stand prior to taking the picture...  I am really happy with the colors and how it turned out.  The challenge now will be finding someone to quilt it. The awesome quilter that I have been relying on for years has decided to retire at the beginning of next year.  Definitely sad news for me!

I got a start on this year's mystery, Grand Illusion, on Friday afternoon.  With a completely open weekend I expected I would be able to finish the first step before returning to work this morning but sadly that wasn't the case.  Too many distractions with the girls at home...lots of shopping and cooking. I'm hoping that I can still find a couple of hours after work this week to finish up before step two is posted.

I don't think that the colors came across all that well in this picture.  I am using Bonnie's colors this year. I was able to pull most from my stash...except the pinks.  I have quite the crazy assortment of fabrics - most of the pinks I am using are Civil War reproductions, while the teals are batiks and an assortment of odds and ends - Fossil Fern, a piece from a Christmas collection a few years back, etc. The other colors are all over the place as well. 

I finished all of my HSTs and assembled 26 of the 100 broken dishes blocks. These are definitely color combinations outside of my norm!  I am a big fan of the Grand Hotel, though, and love the fact that these colors were inspired by the decor there.  I have very vague memories of my parents taking me there when I was young (I think I was three?) and "Somewhere in Time" has always been one of my favorite movies.  Reading all of Bonnie's posts and seeing all of the beautiful pictures makes me want to go back.  I can't wait to see where this goes!

Visit the Mystery Monday Link-Up post on Bonnie Hunter's blog to see how others are progressing with step one. I am so envious of the ladies in Chandler, Arizona - the kick-off party looks like it was a blast!

Fall Travels

I've had a busy and incredibly inspiring past couple of weeks!  Houston was phenomenal - by far the best show I've ever seen. Although the special exhibit of 500 traditional quilts was fantastic, the red and white quilts stole the show.  The exhibit was breathtaking!

I have been wanting to make a red and white quilt ever since I saw photos of the exhibit in New York, but after experiencing the Houston display I feel that I absolutely must make one. I am still trying to decide on a pattern. I already have a start on collecting fabric for it, though. We attended a 40th Anniversary Celebration luncheon while at the Festival and were treated to a beautiful room of red and white - white tablecloths topped with squares of a gorgeous red Moda fabric, accented with coordinating Moda fabrics for napkins. Our napkins were ours to keep as a souvenir, and one lucky person at each table won the table topper. I was the lucky winner!  I plan to use both the napkin and the table topper in my red and white project.

Another exhibit I really enjoyed at Houston highlighted Australian quilters. Quilts by Di Ford, Carolyn Koenig and Michelle Yeo were displayed in one section of the show.  They were all beautiful!  All three were available at the exhibit, autographing books and answering questions. Di and Michelle also taught a free broderie perse class at the Craftsy stand.  It was a wonderful and unexpected surprise to get to chat with them and learn their techniques.

There is so much more to tell about Houston - a class with Luixin Newman and a new scanning and cutting toy that I can't wait to try out....But then there was the Birthday Bash at Wooly Woolens over the last weekend. It is always so wonderful to go to Janice's!  The food is terrific, the wool is to die for and the company is always tons of fun.  We sat with Barb from Iowa and Karen from Nebraska. They were great table-mates!  We are hoping that we can all get together again at a class next year.

I started a new rug. This is officially the largest rug I have ever started. And by large I mean huge.  Really huge. Somewhat intimidating, really...  I am making great progress - or so it seems until I take it off the frame and see how much more there is to do.  I am so happy with the colors that I want to work on it every chance I get!

Too bad the new rug excitement always wears off long before the project is complete!

Projects New and Old

Hard to believe that it's been nearly a month since my last post - this year is really flying by!  The past few weeks have been fairly productive - I've made progress on a couple of old projects and started (or prepared to start) a few new ones.  First, a finish - I finally completed my Vines and Flowers rug from Anita's class last November.

My Tulip Cross rug is keeping my frame occupied until I head to Janice's for a workshop next month. I've hooked a little on it but it is tough getting back into a project after a 5+ year hiatus. I really need to stick with it and finish that rug. It is still one of my favorite projects. If only there wasn't SO much border!

I also finished a few more 6" LeMoyne Stars. I am getting very close to having all of these blocks completed.   I'm thinking I should get on a quilter's list for February to force myself to finish up.  I always do better when I have a deadline!

I attended a local retreat a couple of weekends ago and spent all three days working on my Celtic Solstice.  My goal is to have the top finished before the next one begins Nov 28. I am getting very close - the center is together and I started piecing the borders over the weekend. My plan is take over the family room and get the borders on when the hubby heads to Florida.

I've decided to stick with Bonnie's colors for this year's mystery.  I thought I would go Civil War, but I like the colors she went with and seem to have almost everything I need in my stash.  Here's what I have so far:

I need to add a couple more fat quarters of pink and black.  I didn't have much of either in my stash, but I have all of the other colors well covered.  It's always exciting to be able to use up 10+ yards of stash!

I didn't spend my entire weekend in the sewing room.  On Friday night I drove down to Rolla to see Home Free perform.  It was a fantastic show - so much fun!  They are incredibly talented. I'm completely bummed that they won't be coming anywhere close to St. Louis on their Christmas tour.  I would love to see them again!

And speaking of Christmas (shudder!), I started another new project over the weekend - a block of the month tree skirt in wool. I've been wanting to make a tree skirt for years and this pattern is adorable.  It's wool applique, too - much more "do-able" than the Judy Niemeyer pattern I've been considering for years.  Here's the first prepped section...no sewing done yet:

It didn't occur to me until after I had pressed the fusible onto the wool that I forgot to reverse the pattern.  Oh well... No one will ever know, right???