UFO Challenge Update

Yay, I did accomplish the borders I had set out to finish last week. This is one of two quilts that I am doing as a favour for my sister-in-law. They were started by her late mother and she wanted them to give to her daughters as a memory of their grandmother. She asked me if I would do them last year while we were visiting them and how could I refuse? The first one is an Irish Chain and is already more than half quilted. Hand quilted that is. So I have been nervous about my ability to match the wonderful stitches that are already there, but finally managed to pull it out and get started last month.
The second needed more work. It is a log cabin and had three outer borders planned and the fabric in the bag with it all ready to cut and sew. So  I finally got it out and  gave it my best shot.


TA DA!

Not something I would have done myself, with all co-coordinating fabrics and all matchy-matchy. But it’s not mine and it has a special memory for my SIL as she and her mother went to a workshop together where this was made. It might even have been a Quilt in A Day sort of thing.
Now I have to get it sandwiched and quilted. And not start piecing something new ( other than Bonnie’s mystery).
Linking up with Jo joscountryjunction.com/ufo-progress-9/ 

Quiltville Mystery Clue One

Well the big day is finally here, the most wonderful day of the year.  Black Friday, when Bonnie Hunter releases the first clue in the Quiltville Annual Mystery.  And since it isn’t the day after Thanksgiving here in Canada, I don’t have a whole bunch of family gathered around stuffed with turkey. But we did have a full day of errands planned in the city,  I had time to pull out my neutrals and cut some strips before we were off to run errands.
And I even had time later to sew and cut and sew again. But that was it for Friday, and Saturday wasn’t any less busy. We had a dinner party and bonfire with friends so all the fabric and machines spread over the dining table had to be tidied away. The cutting mat to the basement and the sewing machine to the bedroom, where I could continue to sew strips together over the next few days.
By Monday I had the grand total of ten four patches together and a bunch of strips to be ironed and sub-cut. And I didn’t want to post until I had more progress to show. However here it is WEDNESDAY ! and that is still all that is done. So here it is, and I’m linking up with Bonnie. Off to a tortoise-like start but the tortoise did finish well in the end and my quilt from last year is finished,.... almost,... well it just needs the border to be a top.

well, this is awkward
Just went to link up and unable to. Apparently it is not taking late link up, the page says
"this InLinkz account has expired. You can still view the linkup here "

Guess I'm going to have to get my act together this year and post faster.
 UPDATE !
Went back today to read more post and found the link up and running so have linked
En-provence-mystery-monday-link-up-part.html

Borders…..

I’ve been trying to come up with a clever title but nothing comes to mind. Borders, I have a lot of them to do. Including now, the borders for Allietare   . I delayed writing last Wednesday hoping to get it all together and by Friday I had.

The only part left to do is trimming the sides and attaching the borders. Oh, and cutting the borders. But at the moment I have at least 4 tops sitting waiting for their borders and some of them have more priority.
So my mission for the rest of this year is to get the borders on all of them and get some of them quilted. Not to get side-tracked into making more tops. ( except Bonnie’s  mystery)
Linking up with Jo  at Jo's Country Junctionto see what everyone else has been doing this week.

Lots of Progress

I made lots of progress this week, despite some very nice weather that made being outside a true joy. I managed to get half of the Allietare laid out and sewn together before getting distracted.

Really, once I had the blocks off the design wall, I couldn’t resist laying out the Smokey Mountain Stars to see what they looked like.  And they looked fabulous, so I carefully removed them in rows and laid Allietare aside while I sewed them.


Very happy with the result but now  it needs a the borders to finish it off pattern .   Actually I now have three tops laid out on my bed waiting for borders.  Turning into a bit of a bottle-neck.
Once I had all the star blocks off the wall, I laid out the four-patches for the Four Patch Revisited . These are still up there. A lot more to do for this project. There are another 200 four-patches to make for the outer border. 

Now off to link up with Jo

UFO update

Finally I can report some progress on UFOs.  I have been picking away on projects but it didn’t really feel like I was getting very far.  I worked on blocks for Allietare during a retreat I participated in back in September but hadn’t gotten the setting triangle pieces finished. I was also working on a Smokey Mountain Stars trying to get all 97 of the neutral block with double flipping corners. They seemed to be taking forever. Annnd I also worked on a Stepping Stones and Bricks while on retreat.
The Bricks and Stepping Stones top was assembled relatively fast since I had the stepping stone 4-patches all together.  And making it even more fun, another retreater brought her bin of 3.5’’ bricks for me to play with. Now that I have it together, I’m thinking it needs another row or two or maybe a large outer border.








Good progress happened with Smokey Mountain Stars after I got Bonnie’s new ruler set. The bonus buddy ruler made all those flippy corners just fly through my machine. So they are all stacked waiting for a turn on the design wall.






And the reason they have to wait their turn is the best news today. I have all the pieces for Allietare done and have started to assemble.

happy dancing all over the place.  I was whining and moaning about not having a design wall to get these blocks in order when I suddenly realized. My closet doors when closed make a blank solid wall. If I hung the new Fons and Porter wall I had by command strip hooks …. and sure enough it worked.
Now to link up with Jo over at the Country Junction and see what everyone else has done.