So Much Sewing Going On!

I made a mini goal to get a row on the Sparkling New Year Mystery each week.  Here is last week (and an error I just noticed today) and below is this week's and another error!  So there will be some unsewing happening later on.  Oops!  Bug had to pose too.

Hazel did a little painting at my house on a cool mat that uses water only.  She really liked it.  She is potty trained now, time is flying!  My daughter is pregnant again and due in August...it is another girl.  We cannot wait!

My honorary daughter Rachel (in Norway) is pregnant with her third boy and due soon.  And my son's stepdaughter is due in August as well.

Game night last Friday we played Doomlings which my brother gave us for Christmas.  Everyone really enjoyed it and we will be playing it again.

Last year I made the center of this (above) and this year I sewed it into a pillowcase for my living room pillow.  Finished it today.  It was a Kathleen Tracy mini.

I am working hard on my Modern Mystery Quilt.  The above is another block added to the OOPS group since I used a fabric from each pile on accident.  

Here is one of the clues.

Here is another clue.

And here is this week's clue.  No idea where this mystery is going!  We are making blocks in lights and darks (or warms and cools or something like that where fabrics are really distinguishable, and some blocks are cut with another part of another block added to it.  Sure will be different!

I trimmed up and made there more smaller blocks of Dakota Farmer for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in blue.  Used up most of my HST's (made a total of eleven blocks) except for ones I would need to trim to 1.5 inches so they went back in a bag and I may send them out into the world!  Linking up with Angela!

 

More Sewing!

I worked on the Modern Quilt Mystery this week.  I had forgotten to label my blocks in part one so I went back to do that and realized I had not sewn all of two of the parts in the right quantities.  So I did that and picked back up with part two.

I then mixed up fabrics from my two sections so this block is a no go!

Here is the completed part two, stacked and labeled.

I also trimmed and sewed four smaller Dakota Farmer blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And I finally trimmed and stacked the last hst from the Sparkling New Year mystery.  There are almost 500 hst s here!

 Two rows together!

More Mystery Progress!

I decided to participate in the Modern Quilt Studio's mystery quilt this year.  The fabric pull is very scrappy with two piles of fabrics in darks and lights....here are a few pictures of my pull.  I have already added more to this too but you get the idea.  If you are doing this and do not want to be spoiled for the first installment, skip this post.

Here the first clue..done but not photographed real well.

                                        

You can see some blocks are light and some are dark.  The second clue is out and so far I have not started it.

I also added two more plainer blocks to my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Dakota Star blocks.  I also have lots of smaller hst's I hope to make into more blocks.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I started A Quilting Life's BOM Mystery too.  I decided to do it in the smaller block size and to use my sewing themed fabrics.  Hoping it will be a cool wall hanging when it is done.  

Meanwhile, Becky completed her Sparkling New Year quilt top.  She is gifting this one to her daughter.  I love how it came out with the mushrooms!

BJ (above) and Barb (below) completed the inner part of the Merry Mayhem #176 mystery.  Barb does not plan to add more borders, not sure about BJ.

                    

Barb also completed her Tea Party quilt top.  It turned out great though she had to do some unsewing a few times (so did I) because it is a little tough to do this one without a huge design wall or floor to lay it out.  

 

Tea Party is a Flimsy and Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023 Gets a Start!

Tea Party (from Mystery Quilts Anon NY Mystery) is a flimsy.  It still needs a good press, a quick square up and a backing, but the binding is made.  Andi from Arizona offered to custom quilt it for me, so I will be sending it to her in a few months when she can slot it in.

Today everyone was busy so have been listening to "Middlemarch" and I spent quite a bit of time sorting through a zillion HST's that have been accumulating for decades.  I put each color/neutral in a bag and all the bags in a bin.  Those that did not have a neutral went back in the odds and ends bin.

Next, I sorted through the blues since they are the January color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023!  I had enough of the 2.5 inch squares (after some trimming up) to make two blocks with varying colors.  I may make some that are 2 inch too since I have lots of those that could be used.  

Here are the first Dakota Farmer blocks.  The pattern is from Quiltmaker Nov./Dec. 2013 and is a great use of leftover HST's!  I also have a stack of all the same blue and white (leftover from a 10 dollar quilt me, Kathy, BJ, and Barb all did and which I got all the cut offs and leftover hst's) that could be a block.

 

Reading Update!

These were my December reads.  

These are my top books of 2022!

I actually read 271 books this year but need to go back through and figure out what books are missing from Goodreads (they are on Storygraph and in my physical journal).  If the date does not take on Goodreads it counts the book as read but not towards the current year.  Annoying!

This is my January pile of possibilites.  Already finished "The Gown" and "A Tale for the Time Being" and working my way through "Middlemarch" and "Priory of the Orange Tree which I am buddy reading with Roving Reader Karen.  

                                             

Tea Party and Chilhowie Updates!

I sewed Tea Party together yesterday...I made a mistake in one corner and "fixed it" and continued on with it only to discover when I laid it out that I fixed the wrong mistake and made more work for myself!  

It needs a pressing and a quick trim up.  Andi has asked to custom quilt it in the spring so I will be mailing it off to her!

This morning I whipped up the binding. Now all the fabric is put away and things are not so messy in here!

Two days ago I completed clue six of Chilhowie.  

Bottom left I had one oops which an eagle eyed person found, so it is fixed now and I am waiting for the next clue today!

 

More Mysteries than Ever!

New Year's sewing weekend was a lot of fun!  My health cooperated and I was able to sew two days in a row!  I put our usual Burgendy Beef in the crockpot (with organic soup which still gave me a bit of a migraine, darn).

 This pic is the start of BJ's Nuts and Bolts mystery.  While I was waiting for my mystery to start I worked on my Chilhowie blocks but once the mystery started there was not time to get back to them!

BJ started out with her Cuts and Bolts mystery (the rest of us did not cut that one out) and then switched over to the Sparking New Year mystery with me, Barb, and Becky sewing along.  Andrea joined us but worked on one of her Quiltville UFO's since she just moved and was still unpacking her stash.  

Mine have the strawberries and Becky's have the mushrooms.  

As you can see there are a zillion hst's in this quilt and they had us make them "eight at a time" which is not the easiest or most accurate for me.  I much prefer using Bonnie's Essential Triangle Tool.  I can make them with that and almost none need any size adjustment.  The way we did them for this mystery you had to use a scant seam (even though you had to draw lines) and so some where big and some were small.  I am still trimming them (almost 500 of them) and this clearly was not a one day mystery.  Many people complained, but I think Craftsy just did not explain well that this was not to be completed at the time.  It was frustrating how fast they seemed to think we could sew. I do love the pattern, but will not be attempting other one of their's in real time.  

                                                    

BJ's in progress above.

On Sunday Becky had other plans so she did not join us, but the rest of us were back at it.  Again I started out the day sewing Chilhowie while waiting for a clue and was able to make some good progress, I hit it every time there was a lull in the Merry Mayhem #176 mystery.  

This was a doable one day mystery.  I had it complete (sans borders) by the time the last mystery started at 2 PM.  

I used fall fabrics.  Barb used Scooby-Doo!

BJ's blocks so far.

I forgot to get a pic of us all sewing, but here are some of us!

My top.

I was able to get the borders on between clues of the last mystery and then I went back to Chilhowie between.  I pretty much tabled the Sparkling New Year other than Kathy helped me with trimming (still not done) and I ironed and stacked as much as I could.

                                        

One the Mystery Quilts Anon Tea Party started we were off and running on that.  Everyone set aside the other stuff for the most part and worked on this one.  The last clue did not come out til midnight my time or something so I knew it would not get completed on Sunday!

This pic is as far as I made it that day.

Below with the browns is Barb's.

BJ's blocks are these:

Yesterday I sewed the block below and then today Barb got hers done (above).  

The last clue got done today too.  

I also managed to sew some more Chilhowie yesterday and finished up the clue today.  I am ready for Friday's clue again!

Super fun so far.  Plenty more to go!