Mystery Monday Link Up and Design Wall Monday

What do you do after Christmas?

I sew. And sew and sew.

Did you know neutrals are my favorite color? 

How fun to spot my picture as part of Bonnie's collage!!

First I needed to finished clue #5 for Good Fortune.

I really like making this block.

I can't wait to see where it lives in this quilt.

I learned something while removing pages from my phone book.

I didn't knew there was a reverse directory in it. 

I had to look for my own phone number.

Bonnie suggests only working on 2 pages at a time.

I wanted to try 3 just for the heck of it.

It blew up in my face pretty fast.

2 pages sewn together meant the tape and the scalpel seam ripper came out.

That blade wouldn't cut melted butter so it had to be changed.

I love the removable Scotch tape for paper repair.

It doesn't get sticky and gunky when it's ironed.

Of course I don't apply the iron to the tape, 

only to the fabric.  

Like everyone else that is working on Good Fortune,

I cannot wait for the next clue. 

Next up this week will be cutting into some of these lovely sweater knits. 

I figure if I cut it out, it will get sewn up faster.

Pieces have been matched to the patterns.

Crossing my fingers for a new top or 2 this week. 

See what others are working on at 

Quiltville's Mystery Monday Link Up 

and

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilt.

I Like Thursdays #36

I hope your Christmas was magical.

We had a house full of family

so my heart was overfull. 

Monday, I got my fabric order from Knitpop.

Christmas started early for me. 

It has made it out of the package and onto the washer.

Maybe I'll get it inside the washer this week.

Or maybe not.

It's still a pretty full schedule. 

We have a pretty special kids table.

3 of the chairs were my children's chairs,

the 4th is an old school chair I found at Goodwill.

My son built this table in 9th or 10th grade. 

It has been well loved and use. 

After dinner and gifts, the chairs became a fort and then a bed.

Afghans, quilts, table runners and pillows. 

That's how we roll around here.

It was quite funny that they all had new stuff but they went right back to this fun.

Wednesday I work on and finished clue # 5 of the Quiltville mystery.

It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't mess up some cutting.

Nothing serious here,

I just flipped the cut fabrics over and sewed them up.

I have been doing a pretty good job of cutting up the rest of the strips.

If they get down to under 6 inches, they get cut into usable pieces for my 

Scrap User's System.

After taking a class from Bonnie Hunter, 

I've started doing this. 

I love pulling out one of the bins and having pieces ready to use.

Saturday night, Ernie brought home Chinese food for dinner.

(It was his turn to cook.)

This was my fortune.

He thought it was hilarious

Me, not so much!

(Well it is kind of hilarious.) 

It's always fun when you win the game of bobbin chicken.

Lately I have not been a winner.

Really this time I wasn't either,

I needed to change thread color and found this much left.

I still consider it a win.

I Like Thursdays blog posts are so fun.

See the list of friends at Not Afraid of Color.

Mystery Monday Link Up & Design Wall Monday

Quiltville Mystery Good Fortune Step 5 

How fun to mix up all the colors!

I love pulling neutrals out of the bin.

I had fun cutting from the orange yardage.

I strip from each piece. 

I'm sure I won't be using all of this.

I am so glad I made sample blocks first.

I used my piecing machine to sew a couple gifts 

and that means taking off the seam guide, 

so when I put it back on, I had it so wrong.

I even questioned myself when I did it.

But it's all fixed now and these blocks are fun!

I finished my string blocks Thursday.

They were so much fun that I made about 20 extra,

I knew part 5 wouldn't happen for me until after Christmas.

I'm excited to check out the link ups this week.

Quiltville Mystery Monday Link Up 

and 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Club Block Exchange

Each year at the Christmas Club party, 

we choose a block to exchange each of the member.

The year before we chose to do a 6" calendar block.

One member opted out so I volunteered to make 2 sets of blocks.

Mine are the umbrella for April and the Maple leaf for September. 

I chose to make my little sashings from 1" strips so my sashing sets total 1 1/2" wide.

Skinny little sashings can be a challenge to work with.

I finished my wall hanging earlier in the year and

chose not to reveal until our party.

I still have my 2nd set of blocks.

I plan to put them together for a wall hanging in the motor home.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

This year we exchanged 9" Churn Dash blocks.

I cannot wait to work on this project.

This year our block is a barn. 

Any barn, any size.

I'm still thinking about this one. 

I Like Thursdays #35

It was a fun, busy, exhausting weekend for me.

We started Friday with a band concert at school.

Advanced band from the Middle School plays a little Christmas concert at the Primary School

This year 4 beginner band members were invited.

These girls work so hard,

even practice over the telephone. 😃

It was fun to watch all the younger kiddos watch the bigger kiddos.

It was really fun when the 5th grade girls played and were recognized by their former school mates.

I love watching the audience.

Then I went over to hang out with these 4. 

Mom and Dad had a full weekend selling at a craft festival.

Friday evening was spent devouring homemade pizza.

Then it was time to settle in and laugh ourselves through Elf.

Saturday was no ordinary waffle breakfast.

How fun are Darth Vader waffles!?!?!

I worked on finishing this cute messy bun hat for Clella. 

She loves it so much!

She started this scarf maybe a year or so ago on the Kniffty Knitter Loom.

She told me she thought it was long enough and would I help her finish it. 

You bet. So I help her bind it off and

taught her to make fringe.

Granddog Sadie is hilarious.

I also brought a bigger loom with me and some bulky yarn for her to start a cowl.

She's got quite a bit done already.

I might get that yarn stash used up with her help.

While there, I went stash diving in Crystal's fabric for some orange for my mystery quilt.

My girl needs to seriously up her orange game. 😘

But I'm happy with what I found and they mixed in nicely with my fabrics.

This birthday orchid sits on her counter.

It must be the perfect spot for it because it is thriving!

Finally on Tuesday, I finished up my clue #3 for the mystery.

I have a good start on my orange string blocks for clue 4.

I'll finish the last few this morning 

and then I have to finish getting ready for Christmas.

Visit Not Afraid of Color to see more I Like Thursday friends.

I hope your week is filled with all things you like.

Merry Christmas

Mystery Monday Link-Up and Design Wall Monday

No sewing has happened in my house since Tuesday and 

I am not happy about that! 

I plan to make up for it in the next couple of days.

I spent the weekend at my daughter's house with her kiddos.

I asked if I could go stash diving for oranges and yes I could.

My darling daughter needs to up her orange game.

But thank you for a few more orange fabrics.

This is a horrible fluorescent light picture of my orange yardage, 

but how about that texture!

I still need to get out my orange scraps, strings and strips for even more oranges.

I'm pretty excited about this clue. 

But first I will get these finished.

This is where I left off on Tuesday.

I can't wait to fill up this bin.

I'm linking up at

Quiltville Mystery Monday Link Up 

and 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Have a great week!

Get It Done-Week of December 17, 2018

My plans for the week of December 17 include celebrating Granddaughter Clella's 11th birthday Monday. I tried to convince her to be 9 but she isn't falling for it.
We are pretty excited as we await some new baby chicks. We are fostering our friends hens while they are snow birds and we put some of our fertilized eggs under their broody hen. We should have chicks by the weekend.


Sewing Room

• Catch up on Quiltville mystery. 
• Gather up a few quilts that I'd like to baste. Do they need backing, binding or batting?

Kitchen

• Make the menu plans and grocery list for this week and next. 
• Get ready for Christmas dinner

Evenings

• Work on Elliot's hat

How'd I do last week???
My plans for the week of December 10th.

Sewing Room

• Work on Quiltville mystery.  Haven't sewn a single stitch since Tuesday!

Kitchen

• Menu plan and grocery list
• Make big batch of pizza sauce.   I did this at Crystal's house.
• Wednesday is elk processing day...I'm so happy to have to be doing this even though it's going to be a very long day!  Tuesday and Wednesday were both very long days but we have it done.

Evenings 

• Work on Mischief quilt  Not one stitch!
• Finish knitting hat  Finished 2 hats, started a 3rd.

I Like Thursdays #34

What a week! What a week it has been!!!  Where to start?  Here is my list of things I like this week.

Friday was mystery clue day.

I spent the morning cutting my neutral squares and

in the afternoon, I settled in to watch Dumplin' on Netflix.

I love a feel good movie.

Saturday morning around 8, this was happening at the neighbor's driveway.

It was really cold outside so I played Gladys Kravitz and spied from my living room. 😀

The 40 acres up the hill had been sold and the new owners has some

maintenance to do before they can start doing any work up there.

I have a feeling it might be a long loud summer out my window.  

Saturday was our Christmas Club party.

We do brunch, exchange quilt blocks and play greedy gift.

I love spending time with these ladies!!

I took pumpkin bars this year.

I finally bought myself an offset spatula.

Why did I wait so long!

Daughter Crystal is my "Uber Driver".

I saw this and started to giggle.

It isn't the first time I've been called the airbag.

This is a tree in our hostess' yard.

All I could see was a bull elk bugling.

I couldn't stop looking at it.

Finally I got to sew on the mystery clue! 

First 2 seams were sewn the wrong way.

Oye! At least it was only 2 before I noticed.

Tuesday evening dinner was chicken enchiladas for dinner. 

(Do you do a meal plan for the week?)

After a long day of working on meat processing,

it was great to pull the enchiladas out of the freezer in the morning,

then make the chili gravy and pop it into the oven for a yummy dinner.

These enchiladas were made when we had them last time.

I'm a big believe in making more than enough so there is some for the freezer.

Does anyone else have dinner leftovers for breakfast the next morning?

Relaxing time was spent knitting a new hat for grandson Corbin.

It wasn't for a gift, it was a just because.

Then my friend posted  on FB about making new dishcloths using the Moss Stitch.

I had to look it up and give it a try.

I should have a new dishcloth soon. 

My adorable table runner was my Greedy gift prize from our party.

Trina did an amazing job on this! 

Thanks Trina!!!

 Check out more I Like Thursday posts at

Not Afraid Of Color.

Mystery Monday Link-Up and Design Wall Monday

Good Fortune Clue 3

I have all of my squares marked with 2 lines each.

Frixion pen and Bonnie's Bonus Buddy ruler are an awesome team.

Again, I go to my Scrap Users system for my strips and squares.

I will always be thankful for the strip swaps that I have with my friends.

I spent Sunday afternoon on the couch in front of the tv.

Netflix had the new movie Dumplin' 

and I settled in to watch it.

I've read the book so the movie was a bit more sweet. 

I love my zebra lap desk but had to be careful to line my corners on the black 

so I could see where they were.

No greens were cut on Sunday so and

they may not be cut until Monday evening.

Monday is shopping with hubby day. 

Check out all the fabulous mystery progress and design walls by visiting

Quiltville Monday Mystery Link Up

and 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday

Get It Done--Week of December 10, 2018

This is a short week at home for me. I'm going to be doing some Gramma-ing over the weekend. I was informed that someone (Mr. AlmostATeenager)  is too old for a babysitter. 😉 So I'm just going to stay the weekend with the kiddos.

My plans for the week of December 10th.

Sewing Room

• Work on Quiltville mystery.

Kitchen

• Menu plan and grocery list
• Make big batch of pizza sauce.
• Wednesday is elk processing day...I'm so happy to have to be doing this even though it's going to be a very long day!

Evenings 

• Work on Mischief quilt
• Finish knitting hat

How Did I Do?
My plans for the week of December 3rd:

Sewing Room

• Work on Quiltville mystery when next clue is available.  Week 2 clue is complete.
• Work on a secret Christmas project. Done and gifted.  Photo above. Pattern available at FatCat Patterns.
• Work on another secret project.  Might wait until after Christmas.
• Cut more pieces for the Antique Star quilt.  Fabric is ready to cut.

Kitchen Plans

• This week is clear out the kitchen freezer week. I love a good freezer challenge week. The menu plan has been made.  It's always fun to do a kitchen challenge and this one was very successful.
• Clean out 1 more cabinet.  I did...while I was looking for my Tupperware container with the pink lid. I found it and probably will always remember where I decided to keep it now. 

Evening Plans

• I'm going to put the Antique Star quilt parts away for a while and work on the Mischief Quilt. I figure if I sew a row together 1 night, the next I can sew it onto the quilt. Cross my fingers that the next 4 rows will be added this week. Then it will be a top. It took longer than I thought to sew each row to the previous rows so I'll keep working on this. Maybe this week it will become a top.

I Like Thursdays #33

Last Saturday I went to the local middle school bazaar where this darling and

several of her 1st year band friends put on a concert.

It amazed me how good they have all gotten in just 3 short months.

I got a package in the mail from my friend Sue.

It was this fabulous ombre green scarf.

She was working on it at retreat and I asked if it was for me.

Little did I know!

Thank you Sue. 💗

I completed step 2 of the Quiltville mystery.

I must have a leader/ender project working all the time.

It drives me crazy not to have it.

I'm making Chunky Churndash as my leader/ender.

Another freebie from Quiltville. 

I also love to listen to an audiobook while I sew.

This one is pretty good so far.

I'm a big fan of borrowing ebooks from my local library.

I have a good long wish list of ebooks I want to borrow.

Anytime a blog friend recommends a book, 

I quickly open the library browser to see if I can borrow it.

I love trail camera photos.

Hubby set his up where he hunts for elk hoping to see some but no,

it only captured deer.

This picture made my inner 12 year old boy chuckle. 

I'm so easily entertained. 

Visit Not Afraid of Color and 

other friends to see their Thursday Likes.