Design Wall Monday...

...And a couple of awesome finishes.

It's been a busy week.

My niece is expecting a baby girl in a few weeks and I need to make them a cuddle quilt.

I like my baby quilts to cover Momma and Baby.

Way back in 2013, I participated in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at SoScrappy blog.

I planned to make a row quilt and true to form, 

I got part way through the year and stopped,

and now I have a box of awesome 6" blocks. 

Then Bonnie writes a post about Getting Serious With Scrap Reduction.

She shows a picture of Dancing Dashes and that's all I needed to get this quilt started.

I grabbed some yellow polka dot for sashing and soft lavender for the corner stones.

I'm hoping to have this top together before Thursday.

Maybe I'll name this Dashing Dashes and Friends. 

Because Friday is Mystery Day!!

I finally pulled my fabrics for On Ringo Lake.

I don't have one single piece of fabric in Bonnie's main colors so I went stash diving.

Red, Blue, Black and Creamy Neutrals

Depending on the clues and sizes of pieces needed, 

I'll pull from my strip bins and deeper into the stash.

Granddaughter Taylor will turn 18 in a few days.

She had hinted about a quilt with black, white and aqua. 

How could I say no.

I knew Bonnie's Scrappy Trips was a perfect design.

This is found on the Quiltville free patterns page.

Fun strips were pulled from the black and white strip bin.

Most of them were from strip swaps at retreats.

I had a blast quilting this.

Somewhat straight lines in a random pattern.

I used gray thread and my walking foot.

Finally En Provence is finished!

These photos are from Jane right after she quilted it for me.

We decided soft yellow thread would be perfect.

The panto is called Lovely by My Creative Stitches.

And Lovely it is!

I used bright pink for the binding. 

It's been dark, gloomy and wet here so no full on pictures.

Check out Design Wall  Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Design Wall Monday

When last we met, I was finishing up the quilting on the secret project. 

Now it is finished and I still can't share any photos. 

So instead I'll show you what's up next at my machine.

That's right!

A major cleaning and oiling and putting stuff away.

So I am procrastinating! 

Big Time!!

Instead of cleaning my machine and grabbing the next UFO,

I'm knitting and binge watching Netflix.

I can't let this fabulous No-Fuss Shade Shawl become a UFO!

Really I've been feeling a little peaked and when that happens,

I just like to knit and watch tv.

I've been fighting off a cold since retreat and I think I'm winning.

And my shawl is almost finished.

I must get my machine cleaned today because 

tomorrow I pick up my En Provence from Jane the Quilter. 

Now, where did I put that binding?

I'm planning a pretty busy week.

Wish me luck!!

Check out all the fabulous design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilt Design Wall Monday.

En Provence Is A Flimsy

En Provence is a flimsy!

I love, love, love this design.

Thank you Bonnie K Hunter of Quiltville fame!

Remember the free instructions go away February 1st.

This is one of the least stressful mysteries for me.

I didn't pressure myself to keep up, to finish, to hurry.

I used my seam ripper very little,

but when I used it, 

I used it!

The very last pieced border, I sewed it to the wrong side.

It was an easy fix.

I guess I had too much on my mind.

We said goodbye to our beloved DJ.

He lived a very long and happy life.

He loved and was loved by everyone. 

You will be missed Old Dog!

Design Wall Monday

I'm so close to finishing En Provence! 

One more border close!!  

It will happen this morning.

I am planning my next piecing project and wanted covered wagon fabric.

I searched online and found a few but they are way out of my price range.

I asked daughter Crystal to please keep her eye out for some.

She said she had this piece in her stash!!!

How lucky am I.

First, I have something else to do.

The next big project!

I will baste the next UFO, Grand Illusion.

I have to make the back.

That will be easy as I bought a bolt of fabric just for that purpose.

Could this be my 4th quilting finish for the month???
That's my plan.

See great design walls at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday and...

...Mystery Monday Link Up

It was a fun Quiltathon weekend.

Thank you Judy L of Patchwork Times.

I sewed more this weekend that I have in a very long time.

It's always fun and I had plenty of encouragement to "stay in the hidie hole and work". 

Nothing better to do on a very windy, snowy, freezing rain weekend!

(And someone had complete control of the remote.)

I can't wait for the next one!

Check her side bar for the schedule.

I'm pretty excited to be this far with En Provence.

I hadn't plan to put any blocks together until Tumalo Trail was complete.

Plans changed after my whoopsie.

Instead of fretting and wasting precious sewing time,

I pulled out my En Provence basket and started piecing blocks.

I now have 4 complete blocks and 10 complete sashing units.

They all need to visit the ironing board.

That will happen soon.

First I will complete Tumalo Trail!

After some TV time (when did I start watching football!!) 

and quality seam ripper time,

quilting resumed on Tumalo Trail.

I have half of the last border to complete and

then I will go back to the blocks and quilt around the HSTs.

I'm pretty excited to have this quilt complete, on the bed and off the UFO list. 

The binding is all ready prepared and patiently waiting it's turn.

It's a fun link up day.

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

and

Quiltville's Mystery Monday Link-Up

It's going to be an awesome morning in Blogland.

Quiltathon Day 4

This Quiltathon with Patchwork Times has been a blast.

Until this morning!

It all started out innocent enough.

I was going to quilt while Ernie slept in.

So I started where I left off yesterday afternoon.

Piano key borders, free motion, add texture, practice straight lines.

What I didn't check when I put the quilt under the needle was my backing.

I flopped it under!

I have 21" of unpicking to do. 

I might cry while I do it.

I think I might put this aside until TV time later today.

New Plan!

I'm going to sew En Provence blocks together instead. 

I will shed no tears while doing that. 

Day 4 is going to be all about fun!

10:30 check in. 

2 blocks of En Provence have been layed out on the design boards.

One block is sewn, block 2 is partially sewn.

I'm also using the sashing for my leaders/enders.

I love how this is looking!

Maybe I can have 1/4 of my quilt top sewn together today.

3:15 check in.

4 blocks and 10 sashing units complete!

It was a good day sewing. 

I even have most of the whoopsie unpicked.  

Only about 5" to go. 

It was nice to snuggle under the quilt for a while. 

Thanks Judy L for a fun weekend.

I'm excited to be so close to finished on my Tumalo Trail quilt.

Maybe by the end of the week I can post about it's finish.

It's Quiltathon Day1

7:30 am
Yeah! It's Quiltathon Day 1 with Patchwork Times. I have to confess, I thought it started tomorrow. Somewhere my brain told me Friday. So I'll take care of a few things this morning and then It's Quiltathon Day!! Dinner is planned and needs a little prepping for the dinner cooker, a couple loads of laundry need to be taken care of and then.......watch out!

Judy L at Patchwork Times is hosting a monthly UFO Challenge and a monthly Quiltathon. You can check these out at her tabs and sidebar. So my grand plan is to work on the UFO of the month during my own marathon sewing times and for the Quiltathon work on one of my Bonnie Hunter designs that need quilted. I'm retreating with her in May and need my show and tell to be completed quilts. These Quiltathons work for me when I have a grand plan for my projects.

I had big plans for this Quiltathon before I got so sick. So my plans have changed a bit. I will be working on my Quiltville mystery today. I am close to completing part 6, just have a few blocks left to trim and then I will get busy on part 7. That's my plan for today, tomorrow my plans change my original plan.  Ohhh the plans we make and what really happens! Cross your fingers.

My original plan was to quilt Tumalo Trail. It's been aging since September 2015. I have flannel for the back, wool for the batting and the binding is ready. Simple quilting and this will be ready for Ernie to use as planned when I started it.  Maybe tonight will be a good movie watching/pin basting night.

Let's get this party started! I'll check in later with my progress.

.

Check in #1--8:30 part 6 is done and in the basket.






Check in #2--1130 Part 7 is all cut and ready to sew. After lunch I'm ready to sew. I have a good audio book playing-too bad I can't remember the name of it.  I feel like I am making good headway with my plan for the day. I even brainstormed about the thread color for my quilting and got it out of the thread box, LOL

Check in #3--6:15 I am done for the day. All of my parts for En Provence are complete. It was a good sewing day.  We went for a nice little walk through the snow this afternoon while the sun was shining bright and the wind was howling. It felt good to be outside. Came back in and went right to the sewing room. I had to lay out one block just to see how my fabrics work. I'm using one yellow for all the blocks as I didn't have enough variety. But that's ok, I like it!

Can't wait to start day 2. I don't think any pin basting will happen tonight.

Design Wall Monday

Happy 2017 Design Wall Monday Readers.

I have 3 things happening this first week of the new year.

Under my needle right now is row 6 of 8 rows for a charity string quilt.

This is a Quilt As You Go that I was going full speed ahead on until...

that dreaded cold/flu slapped me to the floor.

(I think I am over it finally.)

So between Quiltville mystery clues,

 I have been joining the blocks into rows 

and then joining each row to the last.until the last 3 rows.

I just had to change things up a bit!

I have the last 2 rows sewn together so I am going to keep going until it's finished.

Everything is done by machine, including the binding which is ready to use.

Today, maybe??

afternoon edit:  Yeah it's finished!

Last Friday we got the clue for part 6 of En Provence.

I was working on the string quilt so I haven't started those yet.

Then yesterday Bonnie gives us the final clue!

As much as I want to jump right in and get this going,

I'm going to finish my string quilt first.

You can bet that some of these blocks will happen this week!

I've seen some fabulous blocks coming together on the Facebook group.

This is a photo of UFO #3 from Patchwork Times UFO Challenge.

I belong to an internet quilting group and we used to do monthly block exchanges.

I'm embarrassed to admit these blocks are from 2005!

But in February 2015, I quilted them and posted my plan.

Well, that plan was a bust!

I'm making a bit of a change to that plan 

and these blocks will become a fabulous quilt soon.

So it's time to get busy and make it happen now.

We welcomed in 2017 with a blanket of beauty.

I love early morning light photos.

We spent the day with a group of friends,

had a wonderful time and 

now I'm ready to hunker down into my winter hibernation,

See fabulous design walls at 

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday and...

Mystery Monday Link Up

It's hard to believe I haven't blogged for 3 weeks!

The cold/flu bug bit hard this time.

It's that stuff that won't go away.

Just when I thought I was good again, BAM!!!

It knocks me on my face.

So that makes sewing like I do impossible.

When I did start to feel good, it was only a few minutes at a time but

I finished part 3 of  En Provence from Quiltville,

only 1 week late!

On a day I felt really good,

I cut part 4 and then next morning sewed it all up.

Part 5 will hopefully happen today.

It's always fun when the spool of thread gets way down.

I love to predict when I'll run out.

I was way off with my prediction because my bobbins ran out.

All 8 of them were empty.

So I grabbed my supplies and wound bobbins,

changed the needle, cleaned and oiled my baby.

We are all ready for the marathon that will (hopefully) happen this week.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

We sure did.

It was a camo sweatshirt Christmas for the grands.

I'm so looking forward to the new year! 

Today I'm linking up with

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

and

Quiltville Mystery Monday Link-Up. 

Design Wall Monday

Quiltville Mystery Part 2 had to be put on hold until Sunday evening.

I had some serious Gramma duties to preform.

Parents were vending at a craft show so that meant Gramma time!

We had so much fun in those 3 days, 

but this Gramma is exhausted!

Sunday evening it was time to pull out the neutral 3 1/2" strip bin.

There were lots of great strips but I needed more variety.

 Out comes the yardage to get just that.

Now my bin is looking pretty good again.

Cutting and grouping into 20s.

I think there may be a few extras in there too.

Sometime today I will start my sew day.

But first, I'm going back to bed for a little while.

I'm still tired.

It is only 6 am here.

Linking up today to 

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

and

Quiltville Monday Mystery Link Up

Tuesday morning edit...

100 finished triangle in a square blocks finished Monday afternoon. A new audio book made this sewing session easy peasy!  Don't you love it when you find a really good book that you don't want to turn off!!

Monday in Blogland

Design Wall Monday and Quiltville Mystery Monday on the same day! How great is that!!!

I wait all year long for Quiltville Mystery/Black Friday.

Clue 1 is released and I sew and sew and sew.

Expect this year.

This year I had the flu so I watched from the sidelines.

But I pulled out my bin of 2" strips and knew I would be OK.

My friend Trina and I have been swapping 2" strips for quite a while

so I have some really fun strips and lots of variety.

We never know when the other one will hand over a little bag of new strips.

Saturday I sewed strips together.

I cut my long strips in to smaller pieces for variety.

I sewed and sewed and sewed.

(That's a nod to a special little girl as she talks about her Auntie 

who is very busy as she sews and sews and sews.)

After many breaks, I ended the day with 60 fun four patches.

Sunday was more productive with more four patch fun..

I now only have a few more to press and I can call step 1 complete.

En Provence is off to a great start!

All information for this mystery is available at the top of the 

Quiltville blog page in it's on tab section..

It's a fun link up day today.

Judy L's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

and 

Bonnie's Quiltville Mystery Link Monday Link Up.

Bring on the coffee...I've got some reading to do this morning.