So Many Triangles!

I have4 been enjoying a little time at home the past couple of weekends and have been trying very hard to keep up with Triangle Gatherings as well as make progress on this month's UFOs.  The weekend before last I caught up on my 6" block and then thought I would get a start on catching up the 3" version. I finished one block and am not sure I am going to take that one any farther.

I'm no stranger to small blocks - I started out quilting making miniatures - but I am not a fan of the triangle papers for these.  The seam allowances are about 1/8"amd are not at all fun to press open.

The little dog ears were a pain to trim also.  And then the pieces aren't quite as easy to line up - somehow the "bulky" 1/4" seams fight the little seam allowances. I may try another one as I prepped about 8 of them but I did not find the first one to be at all enjoyable!

Lisa posted block 17 at the beginning of the week and thanks to having pieces prepared for several more blocks I was able to finish it that night.  Blocks 18 & 19 posted this weekend and I knocked those out too.

So far, so good!  I am really hoping to keep up through the end so it doesn't become another long-term UFO. Speaking of UFOs, my Mosaics quilt is one of the assignments for this month.  This is how it looked at the beginning of the month (yes, it is in exactly the same spot as it was when the workshop ended last October).

It's hard to tell from the photo, but most of it is not sewn.  The inside of the circle, the bird's head and a little bit of one of the branches have been stitched.  Sadly I have not made much progress since the beginning of the month but am still hoping to at least have all of the center appliqued by the end of the month,

Magic of Christmas is my other UFO for March.  I have made some progress on this one, completing two blocks each of the last two weekends.  I think I have about 10 blocks left to make. These are not at all quick to put together!

I have really been going to town on my 1875 Ship rug - that's part of the reason no applique is getting done.  I took this one with me to Lenexa since it was smaller  (19"x 40").  I hadn't worked on it since the class in 2015 and only had the ship, water, houses and part of the flowers finished.  If I am able to keep up my current pace I think I will have the hooking finished by the end of the month.

We're only halfway through the month - let's see how much farther I can progress my UFOs by then!

Allietare Week #2

Wow - Blogger does not like the word "Allietare"!  I had to change it back from the auto-corrected "Alliterate" three times before it gave up trying to help me!

I got off to a very slow start with week one of the mystery. I had such big plans - we held our first kick-off party and I had lots of great company - but unfortunately a sinus infection got the best of me and I was feeling too lousy to really enjoy the fun!  We had twelve Bonniacs hard at work on clue #1, some following Bonnie's color scheme and others getting creative with purples, blues and other gorgeous colors.

Most of the group are newly-addicted. Only four of us have done the mysteries in years past.  We had a couple versions of Grand Illusion and one Celtic Solstice for show & tell. We are planning another get-together in January and I am hoping to be feeling much better for that one.

Almost everyone finished (or nearly finished) clue #1 by dinner time that day.  Not me...I plodded along in a sinus headache fog and only finished about half of the clue.  I have since finished all of the sewing but still have around 60 squares to trim up.

I got a decent start on clue #2 over the weekend, completing a couple of sets of "Santa hats", about half of the headless geese and the cutting for the rest.

I decided that I had better pick up a little extra blue-gray so I can expand my quilt to queen-sized. I'm not sure how these blocks will go together but the gray seems to be everywhere so far, so I am guessing I will need more to finish. 

Prior to starting the mystery quilt I tried to progress my Dresdens from my class with Edyta back in April.  I want to make the quilt larger - the pattern is a kind of awkward very large wall hanging or slightly small lap size - but haven't decided how many I want to make yet.  Here's where the pile stood before being cleared from the sewing table for Allietare:

I absolutely love these blocks!  I might not love them so much when it comes time to applique them, but they are so fun to make and look very cool!  I think I may try to make 25 of them.  I currently have about 12.

I am also making progress on my new rug from my Sally Kallin workshop. I planned to go back to my runner once the pineapple was finished, but am concerned that I need to try to remember what Sally and I came up with before packing everything away.  In the meantime, I cut wool for the background (it't going to be a blend of about 20 different pieces so cutting was loads of fun!) and stated filling in around the ship. I am really liking the variety of colors in the background and am very happy with the way the water turned out,

This pattern is a little different from my usual florals so I am finding it very fun to work on. It might be hard to put it away and go back to the giant runner!

Only two more days to clue #3! Check out the Link-Up (yes, from Monday - I am behind as usual!) on Bonnie's blog to see how others are coming along with their first two steps.