Good Fortune clue 1

Shall I? Shan't I? I thought when I read the introduction to Bonnie Hunter's mystery for this winter. I really don't have time for another quilt at the moment, but I can't resist a mystery!

The first clue was published on Friday inspired by China (the country, not the fine porcelain!) and features a lot of red. Yesterday afternoon the link up started and an amazing number of people had already made lots of units, and when I say lots I mean more, many more than these:

Fourteen 2.5" four-patches

So this morning I hastily fished in my red and neutral scrap buckets and and whittled some already small scraps down to 1.5" and came to a total of fourteen 4-patches. That's it for this week.

I've decided to follow the clues, making some units each week, and deciding after the reveal how many more I need for my project. I shan't be making a bed quilt - we don't use those here. I like to read Bonnie's clues - they're so informative and I learn a lot - and follow people's progress from week to week.

I'm linking to Quiltville

Click on the button to see thousands of mini 4-patches (mostly red!)

Happy sewing
Marly.

2018 FAL Q1 list

Once again the Finish-A-Long is open and sewers, knitters and crocheters have been invited to submit their lists of ongoing projects they hope to get finished in this first quarter of 2018.

I don't have any ongoing projects that will be finished within the next three months, but I do have a number of completed quilt tops. If I can finish one a month that will be good going, so here is my list of three tops plus a small item I haven't yet started sewing:

1. En Provence, Quiltville mystery 2016-17
2. Bears' Rainbow Square Dance, RSC 2016
3. The Sky at Night, RSC 2015, which is complete, there are no longer two missing blocks.
4. Blue/aqua scrappy basket from a pattern by Fiona at BubzRugz     

1.  En Provence, Quiltville mystery 2016-17

2. Bears' Rainbow Square Dance, RSC 2016

3. The Sky at Night, RSC 2015

4. Scrappy baskets: waiting for blue

It is really shameful that these have been lying around for up to two years. I hope I can get this lot out of the boxes and onto beds and laps and in use!

I'm linking to Leanne at "She Can Quilt" where there are already more than 90 participants with a finish list.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

On Ringo Lake: Quiltville mystery part 1

I fell for it! Once again I've succumbed to the temptation to take part in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt along! Looking through my scraps over the last month made me realise there were nowhere near enough browns so I took advantage of the quit show in Nieuwegein, near Utrecht to add to my stash, and not only browns!

The first clue came Friday lunchtime so cutting time began on Friday afternoon and the first brown, teal and neutral 9-patches rolled from the machine on Friday evening.

Not many 9-patches, but I do have a few strips joined

and more strips waiting in the wings.

I should be getting all 50 finished by the end of this week, in time for clue number 2.

I'm linking up to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Blog

Click on the link to see more of Ringo's 9-patches!

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Allietare! finished, at last

I have a second finish to report this week. This one was really a UFO, as it was the Quiltville mystery from December 2015 of which I finished the piecing well over a year ago. It took me another six months to get the borders done.

After my frustration while quilting Star Light, Star Dark I decided on simple all-over "circles-on-a-string" in the centre section which was so easy (but still with the odd pointed bit in a circle here or there!) and on a vine with leaves and bunches of grapes in the corners (a nod to Chianti here) for the outer border.

I could have used any colour thread on the border but because my quilting often has those erratic hooks in it I decided to match the thread to the border fabric. Have you ever tried sewing black on black? Well mistakes certainly wouldn't have been noticeable; when I finished the first leaf I couldn't see where it had begun. When you sew white on white the stitches have shadows; you can't see the shadows on black. It's a shame about the Chianti but it was not to be! More unpicking, and then I quilted "tramlines" with the walking foot - easy and .... boring!

Tramlines! Alas no Chianti!

I was really happy to have this finished and ready to be used this winter.

Fabric: assorted from stash, mostly scraps
Thread: Aurifil light grey (
Wadding: cotton from my LQS
Size 1.75m x 1.75m

I'm linking up to

 

So pop over there and see what else has been finished this week.

Happy sewing

Marly.

En Provence top

Since November I've been working on the 2016 Quiltville Mystery quilt, "En Provence!". Bonnie Hunter published the last clue at New Year and throughout January this was all the sewing I did,
with this result:

Somehow I managed to make more patches than I needed, and to cut more triangle-in-a-square pieces, so at present I'm making a panel to use in the backing in an effort to shift some of the pieces already cut. I know if I put them away "in a safe place" I won't be able to find them when I need them, or, even worse, I'll forget I ever had them!

left-over pieces getting ready to become a panel the length of the quilt back.

I'll use a solid fabric between these blocks and at the side so I can make the backing from one and a half times the height of the quilt, instead of having to buy twice the height and have a lot left over (this measures 69" square).

I hope I did the maths right!!

This is what I was looking at on Saturday, but then decided the large chevrons would be too wide for the space, or too cramped to be effective.

Furthermore I like Friendship Stars; I'll use one of them to make the label.

I'm linking to Bonnie Hunter's blog, Quiltville for the final link up of the En Provence Mystery. Why don't you hit the buttons below and see what other scrappy and mystery quilters have produced?

And with

 

  for more fun scrap projects

Happy sewing

Marly.

En Provence parts 6 & 7 - the final clue

Bonnie Hunter posted the last clue for her mystery quilt "En Provence" on New Year's Day, which took me completely by surprise; I hadn't expected it for another 5 days. Fortunately Dasha, in Australia, alerted me and I've been crazily sewing every free minute since. This is the sum of my progress to date:

and two blocks partly chain-pieced.

I only made half the number of units in each clue, which should be enough for eight blocks but I need nine. I do have some units left, but some are almost finished. There will be one more set to be completed this week. then I'll move on to the rest of the sashing, and the border.

When I join the blocks to make a top I follow Bonnie Hunter's webbing method but I'd like to show how I join the units together in such a large block. In order to avoid inadvertently changing the unit's orientation when walking from design wall to sewing machine I made a couple of design boards from a piece of wadding stapled onto the side of a cardboard box (I didn't have to drink the wine first!).

block laid out on the design wall

I start in the top left-hand corner of the block and stack the units of the first column in order behind it.

column 1, row 1

pick up column 1 row 2 behind the first unit, and so on

until all the units in column 1 are stacked, in order, under the first one ...

... and put on the design board, without changing the orientation of any of the units

I do the same with the second column, and so on.

Finally I have five stacks of five blocks each with the top row visible on the top of the pile

I repeat this process for a second block and then I'm ready to start sewing.

Block 1: I pick up the unit in row 1 column 2 and lay it face down on its left hand neighbour (row 1 column1) and sew these two together. Without breaking the thread ...

... I stay with these two piles and repeat until each unit in pile 2 has been chain-pieced to its neighbour in pile 1.

 

Block 2: then, without cutting the thread, I join columns 1 and 2 of block 2 in the same way.
When I've done that, I separate block 1 from block 2, which is still under the needle.

the first two columns of block 1 joined and ready for column 3

Back to block 1: I then add the units in pile 3 to columns 1 and 2.When that pile is completely added ...
Back to block 2: ... I separate block 2 and add pile 3 to columns 1 and 2 of block 2.

the third pile added to block 1; time to start adding the third pile to block 2

I repeat until all the units of both blocks are joined in rows.

Then it's time to press and to join the rows of each block.

two blocks with the units joined horizontally into rows, with not one unit turned or twisted.

It isn't possible to alternate the blocks here, but I've been using the sashing units as leaders and enders between joining the rows.

(I'm much quicker joining the 50 units of two blocks than I've been in writing all this!)
I hope you can follow my process! If you have any suggestions for improvements I'd be happy to read them.

Finally, a word about leaving a comment. I really enjoy reading comments from other quilters, and in my three years of blogging almost all have been positive. I would like to reply to everyone who comments on my blog. However over the past few weeks I have received comments from "no-reply bloggers" In such cases I always check the commenter's  profile, but sometimes there's no clue there. Then I'm afraid that's the end of the line. I really would like to reply to those who comment on my blog posts, especially if they ask a question. On the tabs at the top of my posts there is one called "no-reply status" which gives instructions for rectifying your blog settings. Usually it's your Google+ settings which block the return contact but as long as your email address is in your Google+ profile I can find you, after a bit of sleuthing. If you've been wondering why no-one writes back perhaps it would be a good idea to check if your email address is somewhere in your profile. However, if you don't want a reply, that's what you'll get - NO-REPLY!

Have a nice weekend; I just read there's quilt-cam on Sunday.

I am linking up to 

Hop over there; more than a hundred links have already been posted.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Allietare!: still waiting for the grey!

Bonnie Hunter gave the first clue to her current mystery quilt at the end of November, and the final clue last Friday. I decided to make a smaller version, as we don't need another full size quilt, so started with the idea of making one quarter of the units given. Now I've seen the reveal I've decided to make a lap quilt/throw at half the size of the original.

I haven't done any of the clues using grey, as the grey I had bought turned out too dark; there wasn't enough contrast with black. Now I've seen the reveal I'm glad I waited, but that means I don't have anything like a finished top.

Here are the units I have made:

Clue 3

Clue 4

 and a photo I took in Pisa a few years ago:

Mosaic above one of the west doors to the Cathedral in Pisa

So much quilting inspiration here, and see all Bonnie's colours. I love Tuscany so I'm so glad I decided to join in, and hope to get the rest of this done in a few months.

I'm linking up to Quiltville:

(click on image to link)

Hop over there to see how some people have kept up, and completed the mystery quilt already!

Happy sewing

Marly.