Tropical Twist

Math-----------my nemesis.  While assembling my Tropical Twist I decided it was a row short. I counted, recounted, still could not figure out where I went wrong. I had as many pieces as in the directions........... how could I be short? After adding another row of blocks,  I realized, I wasn't a row short, now I had an extra row. The Tropical Twist turned out very nice. 

Here's the center with the correct number of rows. :-)))) The purples worked well with the blues and greens. 

Tropical Twist -------- with help---or not

I've been working on Bonnie Hunter's Tropical Twist from the recent issue of Quiltmaker magazine. As you can see, my work space is shrinking by the day. I'm now reduced to the kitchen counters for my fabrics and the kitchen table to cut pieces. 

I got a few blocks put together and it's quite pretty. I'm hoping to get the rest assembled tomorrow on Quiltville's Superbowl Blue Horizons sew in. I've got a lot of blue and purple in the Tropical Twist. 

Mr. Big's Shopping Trip

Don't leave the dog in the car while you are unloading food from the grocery store!  Notice the big bags of dog food to the left and there are dog cookies in the Meijers bag to the right. 

Quilting Weather

After our heat wave last week where it was above freezing for two days, Jeff was here to get started on the east side of the house to put the new siding on. They got it all insulated, hauled away the old siding and were putting the last piece of insulation in place and OOOPPS!! There goes the phone and internet. Nicked the outside wire so he couldn't go any further till the phone company came out and repaired the wire.  Of course, they give you a commitment time of end of the day 2-3 days out and it was already Thurs.  Jeff wanted to get the new windows in and start on the siding by Fri morning because it was going back into the deep freeze this weekend (and it has). He got the two upstairs windows in on Fri. While he was working on those, the phone guy showed up. Got the phone up and running but not the DSL. He had to call the 'internet guy' to find out why it wouldn't come back up. Took them an hour or so to get that back up and running.  It's been quite cold all weekend, but nice and sunny both days.  

I worked on another Bonnie Hunter quilt pattern this weekend. Tropical Twist is featured in the Jan/Feb issue of Quiltmaker magazine. As you can see, I had lots of help. When Scribbles fell asleep on my arm it was time to call it quits for a while. He always wants up on my lap, but will usually stay in the kitty bed I had to put on my table so they wouldn't lay on my projects.  Mz Mouse had other ideas. She sees that bed as HERS. Several weeks ago she found Scribbles in HER bed and slapped him silly thinking he would get up and let her in. No, he just turned around and put his back to her. If looks could kill, that would have been Scribbles' last dance.  I got a second bed, one for the chair and one for the table next to the sewing machine....... both are now on my table so I can sew.  

A Happy Quilt

I finished Bonnie's NYE Double Delight Mystery last night.  Bonnie's quilts are always fun, her mysteries are always a mystery till the end.   The Double Delight was no exception, also a lot of fun,  it is also a happy quilt. I stayed pretty close to Bonnie's color selections.  It's got stars, pretty pinks, cool blues, bright yellows and oranges, a complement of browns, with a second pattern of flowers.  In the middle of Winter, you get a hint of Spring. This quilt makes you smile. 

As you see, we are back to snow on the ground, there's a foot or more so far with more to come this week in the form of Lake Effect!  Last week it was very very cold, in the negative for a few days in a row. Wind chills were in the double negative digits for days.  It was 12 below last night and will be at least that cold again tonight.  It was up to 19 degrees this afternoon with the sun. It felt like a heat wave. 

The second picture is a finished UFO! I finished the binding last week. 

Double Delight Mystery

TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!! I finished the square in a square blocks for Bonnie Hunter's NYE Day mystery. Who would have thought that these pieces would 

Make into this block! I've still got most of the 9 patches to make, but this is a very pretty quilt. Bonnie has another great pattern to share. 

What Difference A Day Makes

Over the last 24 hours we've had warm temps, almost 60, and 24 hours of rain some being very heavy. Combine that with the warm temps and the 3' of snow we had you get lots of cold water looking for a place to go. Flooding everywhere here.  As you can see, Plow Boys will get a fresh start and Gate Corgi is once again manning the gate. 

Today the winds are very high and very cold. Temps have dropped almost 30 degrees from yesterday and will continue to drop. 

Mosaic Tiles Christmas Mystery

I finished the center of my Mosaic Tiles Mystery this evening. I'm not sure what kind of borders I'm going to do yet. 

I've also pulled fabric for Bonnie Hunter's new New Years Mystery, Double Delight. I'm not for sure on these fabrics yet, until I find something I like better, this is what I'm going with.  If you want to join or follow along, check out Bonnie's blog http://quiltville.blogspot.com or her web site www.quiltville.com. 

Happy New Year

WINTER WINTER EVERYWHERE

Even the gate keeper Corgi is up to his elbows in snow.  

There is so much snow, I've been feeding the birds by just putting the feed on the snowbanks. We've got Cardinals, Blue Jays, Finches, and Morning Doves.  There's even been a few Wood peckers. They were eating the seeds out of the Sunflowers I left up for them until the dogs pulled the heads off the stalks this week. 

Plow Boys are on my naughty list today. They were here in the wee hours of the morning to plow out the 4" or 5" of new snow we got all day yesterday.  I know..... I heard them. The driveway was proof, the tire marks where they pushed the snow into the yard and SANK the front end of their truck was also a tell tail sign. The snow was heavy and wet. The ground still hasn't frozen and with all the rain we got last week, driving on clay with a plow truck isn't the smartest thing to do.  That can all be fixed in the Spring. 

Last time they came during the day,  Plow Boy made a comment that it was really hard to get the snow away from in front of the garage................. not enough room, he needed a shorter truck....... I didn't know that was his way of telling me he was just going to plow the drive and not in front of the garages (yes, we have 2, actually 3, but one doesn't have a drive to it) Silly me, I thought he was apologizing for me having to shovel the 18" high drifts in front of the garage door that I knew his plow couldn't grab.  Since that pleasant exchange Plow Boy hasn't attempted to plow in front of the garage door.  I shoveled all the heavy wet snow out into the driveway so when Plow Boy comes back, he's gonna remove it one way or another.  I will be calling the office on Friday to find out what their plan "B" is to remove the snow in front of the garage doors from now on.  If he needs a shorter truck, it would be in his best interest talk to his boss, not me.......  I'll hand him the shovel and tell him to get busy.  Notice the marker post and how far past the marker post the snow is pushed. I wonder how long it took them to get the truck out of the dirt!  Yes, it is still snowing, raining and freezing, going back to snow this evening with more snow.  Driving is a real adventure.  More snow, rain and sleet to come Christmas night through the weekend.  WINTER  ................. Ya gotta love it to live here. 

Remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas

Updated Mystery Choices

There was a suggestion that I use a brown with my fabrics rather than the light cream. I wasn't sure I had just a brown. Brown is plain, brown is dull, and wearing brown has always reminded me that I looked like I worked for UPS. (I didn't work for them.) But that's what brown was to me. 

I managed to find a piece of Michael Miller's Krystal in a dark brown that might work. I've included it with the other colors. I must say, I do like it, but I am hoping it won't blend with the focus fabric, but not knowing what the pattern is, it's going to be a real 'mystery'.  

It's been snowing since Saturday night. The plow boys are earning their money this season so far. They were here twice on Fri, again on Sat, Sun morning and I heard them again around 3am trying to plow out the drifts that had accumulated on Sunday. I'm glad I wasn't in the cab with them.  I'm sure it was blue by the time they were finished. The drifts were high, heavy and the ice on the uphill drive makes it almost impossible unless you have chains. The job usually takes about 20 min.  I could hear the tires still spinning in the driveway around 4am when I drifted back to sleep in my nice warm cozy bed under my down quilt.  It's still very very cold and not expected to warm up any time soon.  It will be a white Christmas for sure. 

Merry Christmas!

New Mystery Colors

These are the new colors I've decided on for the Christmas Mystery. My dark wasn't dark enough to make much contrast. 

And Mz Mouse is in her usual position when I'm at the computer. No wonder I can't type! I hope she's comfy.  

BINDINGS SHARON SCHAMBERS WAY

After watching Sharon Schambers video on how to do bindings,  I wasn't sold on the glue and spray starch. 

I was in the process of making puppy blankets that just needed bindings. I tried Sharon's method with the glue and spray starch.  I followed each step except the hand stitching on the back. I was really impressed with how much better the corners were on the first try.   

My stitching isn't the best, these are just puppy blankets,  but the corners turned out much better on the first try. I'm sold on the glue and spray starch.  I'll use it on my next binding. 

A NEW MYSTERY

These are my choices of fabrics to use for the upcoming Christmas Mystery. I will probably not be working on the Christmas Day mystery until Christmas night if I get home earlier enough. 

The one I don't use for the Christmas Mystery, I will use for the New Years Eve Mystery. This is the first year I've done the Christmas and NYE mysteries. 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. 

THE TECHNIQUE

This is one of the first quilt classes  I took at the LQS.  It's a 3-D Attic Window.  It doesn't show up well because all my colors sorta 'blend' into each other.  It's a couch quilt so it gets lots of wear and washings. 

I just grabbed some fabric from my stash that looked like it would go together. I had no idea what I was doing or how to chose fabric.  I was new to classes and quilting, the instructor was so kind.  She spent half of the first class explaining color, using those green and red things to show how the colors would blend  and how to choose fabrics that would work best.  I didn't know it wasn't part of the class.  When she finished, she asked if I wanted to look for something in the store that would make the windows stand out rather than blend with the background. 

That's when I said, "I'm here to learn the technique, I'm not really concerned about the color."  I can only imagine what she was thinking to herself, but she was very gracious and we have been friends since then. I've taken many classes from her since then and she lets me know my color choices have gotten 'so much better!' 

SNOW, SNOW AND MORE SNOW

It doesn't look deep, but after one trip around the yard, Birdie came in wearing her snow leggings and curled up on the couch with her son, Mr. Big. They're both cold and wet.  The driveway has been plowed 3 times in the last 2 days and the snow is still coming down. 

I've been working on another UFO that just needs binding. I did finish another UFO that just needed the binding sewn down.  My plans for this winter are to finish up as many UFOs as I can. I've got 4 boxed up and ready to send off to my friend who quilts them for me with several more ready to go when I get those back. 

I've got this one with a friend who wants to do custom quilting on it. I don't know when that's coming back. :-)))) She hasn't started it yet, she keeps changing her mind on what she wants to do. I've given her free reign to do whatever she wants.