Who Knows How a Mystery Goes?

 It's that time of year when  the weather starts cool,

snow is in the future,

and we all start to think about hibernating.

Yes it's mystery time!

Our guild is doing a mystery quilt and 

I'm going to do mine Scrappy.

The clue master assured us that it will look very nice

using scrappy fabrics. Clues come out every 

three weeks.  Just saw the first sewing portion today!

So glad I purchase the Perfectly Slotted trimmer set 

with a portion of my retreat door prize !

Three colors and one background fabric are the 

requirements from the invitation. 

The second clue gave us a hint that there 

may be a lot of half squares,

but with hundreds of patterns for half square settings,

 who knows what it will be?

So here are the three color families I have chosen.

The scrap universe decreed that the most 

scraps win so my colors are:

1.5 m  of green scraps

2 m  of blue scraps  

.7m of red. 

Featured as part of the Monday morning 

Get Goin' Sewn' will be cutting a 

stack of parts for each color family,

100 ~ 4" x 4" of each color and the backgrounds.

That GGS club sounds like a winner!  I 

have a few quilters I will invite to join me Monday

morning to stitch!

Now, back to the mystery!

I'll be using beige and white scraps. 

Then a big stack of 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"

of everything. 

Thank you world for rotary cutters!

This project should relieve the stress on my overfull

scrap drawers. 

The chunk stacks will also get a break if 

I dice up some them for the mystery units!

The box of 4" squares can 

be sorted too!  

I have 2 young helpers 

I can enlist to pile up the color families!

Have a great week stitching!

Oh , we are off to school, not the fabric store!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings

Sunday Stash Report

To Do Tuesday

Thread, thread , what to do , what to do!

 Since my recent inheritance of a quantity of thread,

(not really inheritance but it sounds so cool),

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding 

how to store it, display it, sort it etc.

It's currently in about four places in the sewing workroom,

Since there's an OCD individual residing inside of every  quilter,

I'm having a great time figuring 

out what to do and playing with it all.

So, in a little break between stitching the Irish chain tops, 

 I sorted out all the spools that were still in their new packaging.

Then I pulled out everything that I currently

 been storing in Ziploc baggies.

I saw this being done by a fellow quilter 

at a retreat and thought it was a great idea.

All the shades of the color can be seen at a glance.

It makes sourcing that perfect match much speedier.

You can also tell where you're lacking in variety.

Then I took a cruise of the drawers where I gently placed

(crammed) a bunch of the Legacy thread

Can you see the Little Treasures here?

Ten wooden spools. 

My BB collects these and saves them in antique jars.

I think I may be overwhelming her if I give her all I'm finding.

Some of the more interesting colors,

 I wind onto bobbins to save for my use.

Leaving a bit of color on the spool makes a wonderful display.

I do the old "take a big piece between your hands and yank" test,

to see if the thread is still viable.

It's certainly not an engineering tensile 

test but it seems to work for me. If it is at all

weak, fragile, excessively linty, it goes off to

the crafty bin for use in kid's pictures.

I also pulled out and reviewed

my travel case of smaller spools.

 One small sewing room Bandit,

likes to organize these by color every time 

he visits and wants to play downstairs.

This little case goes to retreats 

and sewing days to provide backup for my 

main color selection.

Some quilters find certain machines 

only perform well with specific threads.

So far, the mishmash of thread I 

use has worked well. I find difficulty 

only with thicker threads. Usually a 

needle change does the trick. 

My new sewing room buddy is calling me!

Stay safe and sew on !!

Divide and Quilt

 The second Irish chain quilt has hit the sewing table.

The first was the orange one with the interesting binding. 

Only six more chains to quilt up, yikes!

Also,there are  two or three full sized tops

 hiding amongst the chains.

The major decision when the layering is done,

 is always a tough one for me. What to quilt? 

Where to quilt? What colour to use?

 I really have difficulty deciding.

This time I just matched the backing 

color with a beige-greenie thread.

The front will be using up all my small spools of yellow to 

stitch vertical lines up and down the quilt.

It certainly makes you aware of where your seams don't line up!

The goal is not to stitch into the ditch 

but to stitch very close to the edge of the ditch.

This task is always difficult for me because I can never choose

how much quilting to put on the quilt!

Always needing options, I leave the decision open ended

 and divide the number of rows

by how much quilting I want to start with.

This top ended up with quilting stitches every three rows,

Unfortunately, when I decided to increase

 the number of rows stitched, there was no even number.

 I ended up stitching every vertical row of the pattern.

It was fun and I think it looks great as it complements the design.

I have emptied three spools of thread too, so, bonus!

When the quilting is all finished up, I will roust out

dazzling yellow for binding and put it all in a pile. 

There is one more legacy top to quilt up . 

This pale green, lap sized top will get a zigzag treatment,

to emphasize the zigzags on either end of the design.

Good practice for the new machine operator too!

A matching red print binding should enhance the red in the fabric. 

The binding will be made and added to the finishing pile.

These will get bound up one evening before the 

next pinning frenzy begins. 

If the work tables are empty,

I like to pin a batch and spend a few days happily quilting away.

My new machine really gets humming.

Enjoy a great week of quilting!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with : 

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wednesday Wait Loss 

Midweek Makers

Put Your Foot Down

Design Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

The Learning Curve Hurts!

Sometimes it's fun to learn but sometimes it hurts.

I finally decided to start really 

using my "new to me" sewing machine.

Yes,  I did read the manual and visited YouTube

to get some good advice on where to start

and some hints on making free motion quilting easier.

I started doing some straight line quilting and gradually

upped the speed for the sewing.

A really productive morning happened.

Two small quilts were stitched up.

Later that afternoon stitching began on a slightly larger quilt.

A little bit of distraction got in the way 

and I ran over my finger with the needle.

Yes, it hurt and yes, I did the instinctive thing 

and pulled my hand away.

You won't have to see the painful result but here is the needle!

 Yikes! Yes it went all the way through 

but the poke cleaned itself out effectively. 

Now I only have a little bruise and no permanent damage.

It is a good reminder to not let your mind drift 

while  stitching .

Here's a quilt I was working on.

It was one of the smaller legacy quilts 

finished and bound last week.

This week, I managed to pin base three lap quilts.

The top  one here, 

the bottom quilt here and

the finished one on the bottom.

Stitching went fairly fast but safely. 

Three are binding ready!

Look at this great line up of 

quilts on the move!

I am enjoying the new machine.

 It has a feature like my featherweight.

Unusual, I know but the bobbin area 

underneath a singer featherweight is open.

It is easy to keep the area clean with a small brush

 or a nice blast of pressurized air.

My new and much more modern 

machine also has a bobbin free to the outside world.

 A  blast of pressurized air chases out all the thread

cutoffs lint and dust bunnies. It is oddly rewarding too!

This product is available at my local bargain store.

I  stock up with three of four cans and label them,

1/4, 2/4 etc. When I get to 4/4, I swing by and restock.

The week is getting pretty busy, with some family time, 

snow, home chores, and some medical assistance,

so it may be a lean week for finished quilts.

Happy stitching this week and keep focused 

so you don't run over your fingers.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Design wall Monday

Monday Musings

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Midweek Makers

Put Your Foot Down

Needle & Thread Thursday

Free Motion Mavericks

Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Beauty Pageant

Oh Scrap!

Patchwork & Quilts

Ohh! A Favorite Find!

 Another winning streak continued for me with a

vendor prize at a quilt retreat. I used my gift 

certificate to buy this little goodie.

Here it is all set up.

I am hoping it will keep me from having to do

a clean up on the sewing table every time I get a drink.

This contraption holds a drink, and has a side hook

for a thread catcher, sewing scraps or even some garbage.

I was going to pack it away in the retreat supplies,

but I realized I do more spilling at home

 than I ever do at a retreat!

Here it is all set up with not bag as

there are waste baskets nearby.

A little homage to the US here, as it is election day today!

A new plan came up and 

now there is a baggie hooked on to collect

dog bed scraps.  

There is a debate on using scraps for

bed filling but some vets find the 

beds useful for recovering animals.

A win for everyone!

Happy stitching

Quilting Time!

The first ice has appeared on the

 pond this morning so it's time for quilting.

What we need to do first is do a big tidy of the sewing room. 

My new machine, (new to me),

is giving me that use me now vibes 

so I'm going to start with something simple.

First,  here are a few  pictures of the Big Tidy.

Clean work tables, 

clear sewing tables,

and the extra quilt support area all cleared off. 

This keeps me from acting like a cat at 

a flat Earth convention and 

pushing everything off the edge and onto the floor

while quilting.

Lots of little goodies went back in their places.

Some errant scraps were

stuffed in a box too, for later use in a  crumb session.

Now on to the quilting!

First trim up the top, 

pull the the binding out of the bag,

and get to work.

After trimming the quilt, I use a quarter inch foot 

to put the binding on the back side of the quilt.

Then I fold the binding to the front clip it thoroughly.

Next, I stitched it down using the stitch in the ditch foot.

The central fin rides easily on the edge of the binding . 

I move the needle just a bit to one side to make sure my 

stitches are always equidistant from the edge.

It turned out well and the corners mitered nicely.

This quilt was made by a member of my guild, the SPQG.

I only had to trim and bind it.

Here are three more little charity quilts,

done up and ready to be donated. 

These legacy quilts, I pinned, quilted and bound.

These quilts were pieced by a friend, layered and pinned up.

I quilted them up and put the binding on.

It sure is nice to have a pile of 

something done in the sewing room.

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with :

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

Sr Pit Stop

Sew & Tell

Finished or Not Friday

To Do Tuesday

Off the Wall Friday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Beauty Pageant

Midweek Makers

Needle & Thread Thursday

Put Your Foot Down 

Free Motion Mavericks

Another Successful Retreat

 Retreat weekend is over and 

it is  now time to unpack and review!

One item that got finished up at the very 

beginning of retreat,

is the flannel teddy bear.

This poor bear has been hanging 

around my sewing room for quite a few years.

I managed to cut out more pieces for his head,

so it  is all together and now it actually looks like a bear!

A little bit of finishing, stitching on some eyes,

clipping the extended seams all 

around to make him fuzz nicely,

and it should be ready for gifting.

Then I finished up the curved nine patch.

This UFO had been languishing in my 

sewing room for some time.

I was avoiding it since I didn't want to make additional blocks,

but I didn't know how to finish it up!

The center was stitched up at the last retreat,

and this weekend gave me a good chance to organize,

and randomize some postage stamp squares into a complete border.

The colour family postage stamp blocks

around the outside were quite large.

They were divided into smaller units to 

 decrease the impact of the colour blocks.

I had to add a few rows here and there

 to make the corners line up,

but I am quite pleased with the result!

This quilt doesn't have a designated home yet but I'm hopeful

whoever receives it will enjoy the bountiful colours

and curves of the nine patches.

Remember all those twosies 

left over from the Stash Buster Challenge?

I spent a very enjoyable evening stitching

them all up into another Irish chain quilt.

This could be the last one, but it is doubtful.

I really enjoyed stitching this up.

Another retreat attendee displayed

 a spectacular Irish chain quilt

completely from solids.

That may be the next quilt on the sewing table!

Last stop for the weekend,

was a bucket of Halloween Fabrics.

The pieces went together quite rapidly,

using the quick cut and piecing method I learned years ago.

The searchable name for this block is 

shaded four patch. The quick method makes it  fun to do.

On the last day of fun and games with my quilting friends,

I put together enough to see the pattern develop.

Look at the adorable Halloween characters

peeking out that appeared when I placed 

them together on the design wall.

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Finished or Not Friday

Monday Musings

Beauty Pageant

Sew & Tell

Off the Wall Friday

Wait Loss Wednesday

TGIFF

Midweek Makers

Patchwork & Quilts

Put Your Foot Down

Oh Scrap!

Needle & Thread Thursday

Free Motion Mavericks

Sr. Salon Pit Stop