Sunday, November 26, 2017

On Ringo Lake - Clue #1

Great news-- Quiltville's annual mystery quilt has kicked off and I'm joining the fun!  Clues are revealed every Friday (with the start always on Black Friday) and on January 1st, the layout is revealed.  This is my first time participating and I've caught the fever!  The title is 'On Ringo Lake'.

My fabric selection is still a bit in flux.  I'm going with cool and taupey greys for the neutrals.  I might use a constant brown instead of scrappy (we'll see!) and I'm not 100% certain about the orangey-corals.  I've mixed in a few pinks and goldy yellows and not sure if they will stay.  The inspirational photo is of a lake at sunset(sunrise?) with a fishing boat at the shore, so the range of warms should fit together.  A sunrise isn't just one shade- it's a spectrum.


Friday night was our monthly Late Night Sew Night at Blue Bar Quilts.  While I was there, I starched my fabrics, cut and did some piecing and then finished the blocks for clue #1 on Saturday.

My cute aqua/chocolate nine patches!


I can't wait for clue #2!

In other Late Night Sew Party News-- I bought 10+ yards of fabric to use as a background on my soon to be started "Kings Cross" quilt.  This is the Fons and Porter pattern that Mary Fons brought to her trunk show.  I forget the 'real' name, but my name is Kings Cross, because of the large crosses (duh) and that the pattern is king sized (did NOT realize that when I bought it!)

Here is the inspiration:

And here is my new BOLT of fabric!!! It's 'Pepper' by Pepper Cory.  I have no clue what I'm going to use for the accent fabrics.  Perhaps something rich, bold and saturated?  I love deep purples and burgundies.  Maybe creams for the stars?  We'll see!  I'm thinking this will be a great project for me to work on at my January Retreat.



xoxo,
Kristin

Friday, November 24, 2017

Finish! Kitchen Sink Scrap Quilt

Happy Finish News!  Wooo-hoo!

I have a fully complete quilt to share.  I started this as a way to use scraps to make the back of a quilt and too many people protested and said that it was worthy of being it's own quilt.  I caved and promoted it to being a top.

It's bright, fresh, fun and used up all kinds of leftover bits.


Here is a close up showing the quilting.  I did a simple loop-dee-loo that stitched up super quick and is whimsical and bouncy.


 In other news-- I splurged on a photography frame to hang quilts on to get better photos.  One slight problem right now--  I have limited daylight hours that I'm not at work and then Mother Nature has made those times windy and/or rainy!  I tried to take pictures outside, but it was way too windy.  Here's a picture showing the frame. I ended up setting up on my covered front porch and had a little bit of wind protection.


This quilt is one of my Q4 Finish-A-Long projects.  And I will be donating it to the Dane County Foster Program on behalf of the Mad City Quilt Guild.

xoxo,
Kristin


editing to add link to my original FAL goals post

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Binding Binge

When you quilt up three tops in short order, it means there is a lot of binding in your future!  I spent most of yesterday cutting, piecing and attaching binding to the 2 charity chop quilts.  I really don't enjoy how fussy it is to make a scrappy binding, yet I seem to do it all.the.time.  =O


Finn decided to 'help' me with all of this work!  Oh my!!   I managed to finish the machine portion on these 2 quilts and have the binding cut and assembled for Galaxy of Stars.



I did manage to do a teeny-tiny bit of other sewing, too. Two more blocks for Mad Mod's Block Lotto.  This brings my total to 4.




And-- a LOVELY package arrived from Thousands of Bolts!  I decided that I am going to participate in Bonnie Hunter's 2017 Mystery Quilt!  Woooot!  Her name is 'On Ringo Lake'.  I might pick another name, but for now that will do.  The colors sounded really appealing (aqua, coral, chocolate) and I'm in a pretty good place with my other projects--  why not?!?!? =)





I need more neutrals, so I poked around online.  The aquas are so enticing! I got a few more browns, should have picked out more corals and managed to throw in a few other 'extra' fabrics to the order.  Bonnie's Facebook Open Studio Page has a lot of activity about the mystery quilt and many people are sharing their fabric pulls.  I'm tempted to use cool greys instead of creams.  The first clue doesn't come out until Black Friday, so I've got some time to decide.

xoxo,
Kristin

Linking up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash and Judy's Design Wall Mondays and Lorna's Let's bee Sewcial and Cynthia's  Oh Scrap!!