Tea Party Gets Quilted!

My friend Andi in Arizona really wanted to custom quilt Tea Party and she did an amazing job!  

I got it all trimmed and bound yesterday.

The backing is a fun batik snails fabric that I bought very early on in my quilting life.  I never made the quilt it was earmarked for so I finally decided to use it up!  This quilt is really soft and snuggly!

 

Valentine's Mini Mystery and More!

The reveal of the Modern Quilt Mystery for 2023 is out.  It is awesome.  We are to keep it mum until March 3rd. Here is my clue before the reveal...and you may notice that the next picture has my half circles changed around by direction and some of the colors too.  

I realized that I had some too similar colors on both halfs of the quilt blocks.  I may need to redo more as I lay it out, but have not had a chance to do anything with it since Friday.

I added another row to the Sparkling New Year mystery last week too.  Two to go.

                                            

Barb, Becky and I started another little valentine mini mystery from Kathleen Tracey too.

Mine is done and quilted and hung up!  Guess I can link this us with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge since it is in pink.  Barb did some cool hearts for the challenge, but was not happy with them so she decided to do a different block.

This is block two in the Quilting Life BOM.  

BJ finished her Tea Party!  She has really been doing great working on all four mysteries once clue at a time.  She has been rotating through after doing a clue in A, does a clue in B, etc.  

 

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.

 

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!