The Second Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff Party!

 As I sure most of you out there in Blogland know, yesterday Bonnie released the first clue for Grand Illusion!  Today was our second annual mystery kickoff party!  We have doubled in size since last year's party!  You can read about that here!  Of our original twelve folks, we were missing Jan (who moved to Minnesota) and Becky (who had her kids this holiday weekend) all the others came again this year and we added more!  We had it at the Chandler Police Station this year, so we could fit more folks!  This first picture is of me, Ann, Celeste, Kelly, Kathy and Ros with our flimsy or completed Celtic Solstice from last year!

 I love that they are ALL so different!  We then decided we should wear them like capes and get more pictures.  It really was fun!

 Kathy Kreig's Celtic Solstice arrived after our picture session, but I snapped a photo of it with her on the left and her longarmer Barb on the right!

Here is our whole group sans the picture taker Karen.  She did a great job working everyone's camera and phone and kept it moving along!  What a great looking group of ladies!  Really a fun group and I made some new friends and hope everyone else did as well.

Top row:  Ashely, Candy, Ann, Sheila, Celeste, Kelly, Kathy, Laura, Marguerite, and Ros.

Bottom:  Terri, Angela (me), Jeanette, Laura, Kathy, Jennifer, Andi, BJ, Andrea and Limbania.  Not pictured:  Barb who came later and Karen who took the pictures.  

 We sewed from 9-5 and ate potluck and snacks when we wanted.  Some of us walked to the nearest quilt shop (The Cutting Edge) and others walked for Subway or coffee.

 It was a great day and I am already looking forward to next year!  Kathy and I paid for labels and Ros designed a label and printed them all and heatset them twice so that we could give everyone a party favour.  Here's to hoping we will have lots of Grand Illusions to wrap around our shoulders next year to show off!  All thanks for our mutual love of Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com!

*edit* Still without a good laptop (and got bad news on the old laptop) so I am just editing this post so I can link up to Quiltville for the Grand Illusion Mystery linkup!  I have less than thirty blocks left to go (with partial units sewn) for clue one.  My sciatic nerve is on fire for some reason tonight and I just cannot sit and sew anymore!  This week is nutso with work and such but I will try to get in some each day til they are done so that I am set on Friday!  Loving my Grand Illusion colors and the first clue!

Clue One in Progress

Rainbows, Sunshine and Geese!

 This morning I spent about an hour laying out the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler blocks!  I used Angela's picture and tried to copy it exactly.  I had holes left over--I am not sure if I didn't make a few of the blocks or if the small picture just made it hard to see for sure what was what.  In the end I moved a few blocks to keep the colors together.  I have lots of churn dashes and an one other leftover block from a Bonnie quilt that was the right size.  I now pinned them in order and am awaiting sashing directions from Angela--though it is gorgeous like this!  I cannot wait for next year's RSC Challenge to see what sampler Angela will be doing or what the plan is!  I wimped out on the blocks I had chosen because they were not coming out to size and I didn't like them.  I may choose another block this year and have been looking at the Reverse Rainbow Starburst block on Flutter Kat's blog.  Bev chose this one for her RSC at Nimble Thimbles and it is super cool!
Linking up with Angela at SoScrappy since this is the last RSC thing I have done this year! 

 We finally got a chance to go to SanTan Mountain Park and try out the trails there.  This is a pay to get in park and the trails are extremely well marked!  BONUS!  We started out on the "easy" LittleLeaf trail, but didn't like that we had to walk through a sand filled wash.  Too hard on the knees, so we doubled back and tried out the Goldmine Trail which is rated moderate!  It was great, challenging for Kathy but doable.  About the time she was ready to turn around we found a bench--I sat her down and kept going for awhile, took pictures and then came back and she was ready for the trip back.  This is the first time we have hiked two days in a row.  (We had to skip last Thursday because I worked late).  I finally have an exercise that I actually enjoy!!!  I also worked out on elliptical and bike earlier today because we were not sure we would be going hiking.  Hoping to lose at least .4 this week so I can hit my 70 pounds!  We weigh on Wednesday this week because of the holiday--so we shall see!

 Back to quilting--I did manage to get my Wild and Goosey block done so I could check in on Quiltville's Open Studio.  Really makes me more accountable to get my one block done and I see lots of folks starting this up or continuing working on it and it is fun to see these geese take flight!

 Here is what I have so far.  Looks far bigger than it is!  Can you believe only five more sleeps til Grand Illusion starts over at Quiltville?  You still have time to join in if you are on the fence.  Bonnie says this one is easier than the last few...come on and join us!

City Sampler and Moth in the Window

Saturday's sewing consisted of these two City Sampler blocks.

Sampler is wild and crazy, bright and cheery!

Listening to this one for the third time or so.  It is a good listen and Coleman borrowed the TV.  It is technically his and his huge TV is suddenly not coming in in color, so we have been sharing it.  In other bad news, my laptop was having issues so we bought a new one.  Three weeks later it suddenly was insisting on a password and no amount of anything would get me in.  Half a dozen calls to Dell and a visit to Best Buy later, they are sending us a box to return the computer in so they can replace the motherboard.  It is asking for a Bios password we never set up, UGH.  So I went back to using the old computer (which we haven't yet taken in to be factory reset for Kathy to use) and this morning it died!  Not sure if anything can be done with it or not.  Blogging from Coleman's old laptop which Kathy has been using.  Technology is killing me!

I also finally took some time to cut out more Moth in the Window blocks!  This one will be for Coleman for Christmas, but he may be getting it in the new year.

The blocks I had to start with.  Linking up with Jo's Country Junction for her Bonnie UFO Challenge!

Four more blocks made.  A whole bunch more to go!  Goal is to get this into a flimsy before Christmas.  That way I can wrap it up for my son, then send it to the longarmer, lol!

We also went hiking to South Mountain!  My ankle seems almost healed finally!

Nimble Thimbles Quilter's University

 Last Tuesday at Nimble Thimbles, we had a Quilter's University.  We split up and rotated around to four different stations.  It was fun!  The first rotation Laura showed us how to do the split hour glass block.  I have done various split blocks and love how something so simple looks so complicated.  There is one of these in my future.  If you have never made one, I have heard Missouri Star Quilt Company has youtube videos that show you how, but basically you make the hourglass block, cut it into thirds both ways and twist the pieces til it looks like the star!  There are free patterns all over the web too.

 Our next rotation had us with Ruth and she showed us how to make these cool fabric boxes.  Really cute and makes a great gift!

 This rotation was cool to see.  I would not normally even consider doing something like this, it looks far too complicated for me!

 However, Pat used this book and showed us how simple it is.  You cut a stack of squares into the shapes the books shows you and then you twist and turn them and lay them straight on the batting to create the scene.  You use a dab or glue to hold them on since you are layering.  Houses first, then roofs, etc.  Next you lay netting on the top and quilt over it.

 I would try it with something postcard size, lol!
Our last rotation was with Coleen.  She was our camp queen this past camp--she gifted each of us with one of these at camp.  So since we all wanted to know how they were made, she showed us how to make these cool scissor cases.  Really simple!  She even gave me the samples she used to teach us. Free pattern on Moda Bake Shop.

Scrappy Mountain Majesties!

Ros has quilted Scrappy Mountain Majesties!  Mackenzie is going to love this!  I almost don't want to give it up.  I love the quilting design she chose--she has a great eye for these things.  Thank you Ros!  Linking up with Angela since we are on light blues and there are plenty of those in here!  

 Free pattern for Scrappy Mountain Majesties on Bonnie's blog!

 In other news, Kathy and I went hiking this afternoon.  We went to South Mountain and veered off the trail to the left...went up a good size mountain...looking forward to getting to the top of this one one day!  It was fun!

I am down 69.6 pounds as of last Thursday!  I started back to Pilates too, life is good!

Looking for a New Year's Eve Day Mystery!

Every year since 2006, Kathy and I have sewn along with one of our Yahoo groups all day long and made a mystery quilt.  It is one of our favorite traditions and we take the day off work to do it.  This year I just discovered that the usual gal that does the group does not have time to do it this year.  Most of these quilts were designed by Ann B. Smith, one by Wohlgemuth and one by Carol Lange.  The baton has been passed over the years...I have decided the tradition will continue even if we have to make a mystery that we already know what it looks like!  I have all the patterns above as well as others that I never made (either from my online group or from shop hop, etc.) and so if we must, we will do one of those.
Meanwhile I asked on the Quiltville Open Studio group if folks knew of other mysteries that were happening that day...there are a few on New Year's Day, but we both work that day and are off on New Year's Eve Day!  I can find a few that are retreats, but we stay home and do this.

New Year's DAY Mysteries:
Merry Mayhem (Patchwork Planet, no info for this year yet)
Janet Wickell  (about.com)
Quiltbug (no info for this year yet)
Cindy Roth's Blog

New Year's DAY or EVE mystery info:
Quiltmaker (no info yet)
Carterquilter (no info yet)

So even with all these suggestions, I have not found one with any information online for NYEve.  If you know of any, please share with me!

My Blue (Purple) Heaven!



 Ros just posted she finished quilting My Purple Heaven!  Pattern is at Quiltville (My Blue Heaven) for free.  My daughter Hannah will be getting this one since purple is her favorite color and she doesn't mind a bit when I gift her with a quilt.  I started it for Coleman's fiance but then they split up.  They are sort of back together again but meanwhile I reassigned this quilt.  Oh well!  Maybe she will get one one day. 

 Ros does the most fantastic job quilting my quilts, I am so thankful I found her!  She even adds a label right on the backing for me now!  So nice to have that and the number of the quilt it is (252) for all those who find it in the future! 

She even credits Bonnie Hunter, thanks Ros! 

Prepping for Grand Illusion!!!!

 Kathy and I are hosting the second annual Quiltville Mystery kickoff the day after black Friday.  Kathy will do the mystery in Bonnie's fabulous colors but I will be changing it up so we don't have two just alike.  Here are the regular colors plus black and white.

Here are Kathy's fabrics:

And then I had to try to figure out how I wanted to change it up this year!  I love doing the mystery as  a Packer quilt but wanted something different this year (thinking I will do the NYE mystery in Packer colors if that works out!).  So of course I headed to Design Seeds for some inspiration.  I wound up making a Pinterest board of my favorites (you can see it on my page on the upper right) and then narrowed it down to this picture!

I LOVE it!  I also love that the bottom three colors are similar to Bonnie's pics so that makes it easier for me to trust the design will show up in the end!  I decided to do the grey where Bonnie has black and will do blue/periwinkle where she has greens.  I ordered a few more fabrics tonight because I did not have enough of the right apricot (and that is the constant) and I am not too sure about the range in the purples and blues.

There will be more variety because when Bonnie tells us the size of the strips we are to cut from we always check the strip bins for colors that match first before we cut into the yardage.  If you look closely you will see that some of the fabrics in Kathy's picture and my picture are the same--lol we share but no worries, we won't run out!  The scrappier the better!  I can hardly wait.
Now to order the cake for our Second Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff happening here in Chandler the day after Thanksgiving!

Arizona Block Pincushions :)

 A few years ago on Shop Hop, Kathy and I each thought we had to have a kit to make a tiny Arizona block pincushion so we bought them.  So since they have been sitting around waiting patiently for us to get to them (and I didn't have time at Quilt Camp) I finally made them both tonight.  They required the use of the tiniest Thangles I have ever seen.  TINY!  I like triangulations better so I pinned my papers on so I could at least sew several straight lines instead of doing each strip individually.

 How tiny are those pieces?  Not my best sewing, but I took my time and ironed and everything.  Too tiny for me!

 In the end they turned out okay!

 I will gift one and keep one to share with Kathy.  I won't be lining up to do anything that small again any time soon--unless it is paper pieced!

I got tons done sewing today which was fabulous, but I have less than 1000 steps on my fitbit!  Sheesh!  Hiking in the morning and I will be working out tomorrow during the Packer game too!  Gonna shoot for 10,000 tomorrow!  Lost two pounds this past week (after a gain the week before) so now I am at 67.8 total pounds lost.  :)