Good Fortune is a top!

It is all together! I met my goal of having the top completed by the end of January. The last 3 years, I have not been able to complete my tops by the end of January. The tops languished until right before the next mystery came out. Not this year. I was determined to get it done. Now to get it onto the longarm and quilt it. This one is for my bed, so I'm eager to get it finished. I'm going to piece the back with leftover scraps and it will be bound with the background fabric.  The outside border floats with the light binding and looks very nice. My colors turned out very well I think. The quilt just kind of glows. Love it! Great design, thank you Bonnie Hunter.

The colors are actually brighter in person. I took several pictures, but they all turn out muted like this picture.

I've been working on a few other things. One is a wall hanging for our local quilt show. It was a bee challenge. We all began with the same 5 inch square. This is what I chose to make. A friend is doing the hand quilting for me. The design is based on a picture of a pillow I saw online. The back is a floral with big mums in the orange color. I named it Bright Blossom.

The second thing I began working on is a red and white quilt. Someone posted a picture of a quilt from a movie she had watched on Quiltville Open Studio. A few minutes later, a very talented quilter had posted the blocks with measurements and fabric requirements. Thank you, thank you!  A red and white quilt has been on my backlist for a long time. I just loved this one. The focus fabric has red roses all over it  The rest is a coordinating red batik. The background is various white on whites. Two blocks are made and I'm getting the rest cut and kitted up to take to a quilt retreat next weekend. Hopefully, if all the pieces are cut and ready to sew, I can get most of the blocks made and ready to put together. That is the goal anyway! 

In other news, I finally finished the binding for Ringo Lake. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. This quilt will also be in our local quilt show.

Update since I wrote this post. I was invited to a quilt retreat where I finished putting my red and white quilt top together. This picture shows it before I sewed all the blocks together. Now on to deciding on the borders. Love the way this one is turning out too! I'm calling it Laying in a Bed of Roses.

Be sure to check out all the other quilts at Quiltville .

Good Fortune The Reveal

First, let me say, I love the look of this quilt. I like six of the mystery quilts I have done, but this is well on it's way to being my favorite. And, best of all, I like my colors too! I knew I wanted to use one fabric for each color this year and I chose batiks to get the look of movement and variation of color without having to go scrappy. Don't get me wrong, I love scrappy and Bonnie's colors are always great, but I needed something different this year. Actually, I was not crazy about the green I chose, but it has worked out well.

The first thing I did when I saw the reveal was make one of each block. They looked like this...

Ok, I love the look of the blue one, but the green one was not exactly what I had in mind. Too much green, I wanted more of the lavender. So, remember these?

Well, I cut them up and made these......

I like this block so much better! Here they are side by side.  (Knew I'd find a place for those shorties, I even have a good start on Emerald City in String Frenzy.)

           

I was able to get a few of each block made so I can really see what it is going to look like. I think with the border, it is going to be just perfect. I am not changing the green triangles in the split half square triangle border, so I'm thinking I may try to add a skinny lavender border somewhere. Have to figure that out later.

I'm hoping to have the top finished by early next week. I still have to finish the binding on one side of On Ringo Lake and I don't want this one to take a year to finish. Check out Bonnie Hunter's blog to see more.

Good Fortune Clue 6

But it's so hard to WAIT!

Sooo...  I worked on this!

See what the others (who didn't have to wait) got done this week at Quiltville!


Happy New Year everyone!

Then, I realized I had taken of picture of the wrong fabric! The green is not the neutral! This is. Glad I followed directions and worked on something else.

Good Fortune Clue 5

Good Fortune Clue 5 is all finished and put in it's bag waiting with Clues 1, 2, 3, and 4 to be sewn into the 2018 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. 

I used a different method than the one shown by Bonnie to make my blocks. I learned a new (to me) technique of making 4 quarter square triangles at a time. It works for me as it makes the bias edges easier to deal with. Not so much need for me to worry about stretching. 

This method involves putting 2 squares together, marking and sewing 4 short seams, then cutting on the diagonals. If you sew with the light fabric up, the light fabric that ends up on the right of the quarter square triangle. If you sew with the darker fabric up, then the darker fabric will be on the right  side. I do not know who developed this method, but it works really well for me. I did have to sliver trim a few blocks once everything was all put together, but that's ok.

 After making these little units, I combine them with the larger blue triangles to finish Clue 5. 

Then, I had the rest of the time this week to finish shopping and wrapping. All of the cooking for Christmas Day was done by my husband, daughters, my cousin and his wife. All made by loving hands. They all did a wonderful job and I cleaned up. Fine by me!

Pork Butter with Ciabatta

Eggplant Lasagna

Veal Parmesan

Cioppino

Focaccia

Panettone

Ricotta Cheesecake

Pistachio Cookies

Sugar Covered Cherries

We do a different country every year for Christmas Dinner. This year was Italian, next year will be French. We have one Vegan, two VERY picky eaters, three that have survived stomach cancer, and four that will eat anything . On occasion, we have one who can't be around fish at all, so on those years we have no fish. Sorry, no pictures. I didn't even think to take pictures of the different foods!

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and is enjoying the holiday season.

Good Fortune Clue 4

This was a very easy clue for me. Since I am using only one fabric per color this year, all I had to do was cut the units. No strings for me this mystery. After I did this....

it only took me a few minutes to get them all cut. I am really liking my color choices. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

The rest of the day was spent working on the binding for On Ringo Lake and decorating for Christmas. Ready for Clue 5!

Can't wait for my copy of String Frenzy to get here. I have some fabric all ready to use for strings!

Check out Quiltville to see progress others have made.

Good Fortune # 3

Finished Clue 3 Sunday night.

Just some quick pictures today. I'm very happy with the way things are looking right now.

Check out more at Quiltville

Good Fortune 2

Merry Christmas to me! My husband walked in Friday and gave me an envelope of money to redo my sewing room! I've been thinking and dreaming about it for a while. Watching Bonnie Hunter get Quiltville Inn all fixed up has inspired me to really get busy and get this done. Several weeks ago, I went to an Estate sale and found a picture for the wall. It is a print called "Pieced Quilt" by Don Finley.

This is what I imagine my great-grandmother might have looked like. She quilted, my grandmother did not. My grandmother crocheted and sewed garments. She could take someone's measurements and make a garment with no pattern. Good thing, she raised 5 girls during the depression.

This is the one quilt I have that my great-grandmother made. Love that it is a double wedding ring. My aunt is actually the one who gave it to me. It was given to her for her hope chest, but she never used it, so she gave it to me. How lucky is that?!

I managed to get all of my Clue 2 units of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt done on Friday. If I keep up with them, I have a better chance of completing it before the end of next year, haha. 

Go to Bonnie's page to see blocks done by others.