A Fresh Start

It's time for a fresh start on here. A lot has happened since I last posted, things that kept me too busy to write and some that were too personal to talk about ( at least at the time they were happening).
But tomorrow Bonnie releases the fabric colours for this years mystery and I want to be ready to jump in, so time to play catch up.
In January during a trip home, my oldest daughter opened up to us on the problems ongoing in her marriage. We spent the next month and a half devising a plan to get her out of it. Since she was on the other side of the country this was complex. We pulled it off and extracted her without too much trouble. Then came the work of fitting her into out downsized life here. Fast forward a few months and my nonagenarian in-laws decended into a medical crisis and needed to be relocated into a seniors home. Still dealing with the aftermath of that move to this day. Throw in my second daughter's marriage on the east coast just to add some happiness to the drama.
Between all this, the sewing continued, quilts were made and gifted, fabric was bought. The only thing that didn't happen, was blogging. Time to correct that omission.
First up: last years mystery.
Usually I need Jo at Jo's Country Junction to kick start me into finishing last year's mystery but not this year. It actually got finish some time in February, date uncertain, due to the Monday sewing group I was in. That worked so well I joined up again this fall and plan to use the mystery as my Monday project.

  There it is in all it's finished top glory, not quilted as yet. Too busy with other tops.

This one at the moment is under the needle and would even be finished if I hadn't run out of quilting thread. See that cone of thread on the machine. Been using it for over four years and it finally ended. New ones are on the way but couldn't work on it even if I did have thread, son is sleeping in my quilting room. Why ? That's a tale for another post.

What? IT’s Tuesday? Already?

Woops. I was so busy sewing yesterday that it completely slipped my mind to blog. What was I so busy with? The final clues of the mystery of course.
It was the first sewing day of the year with the group and I used it to full extent. Pedal to the floor ( actually button mashing ‘cause I took my Featherweight).  Finished putting together the blue/neutral HST and the chevrons. Big sense of accomplishment from both having all of them done and ready to sew, and getting all of them together plus ironed. And I did get all the red/neutral 4 patches made into 16 patches. Well, made into the 24 that we needed. If only I had all the orange string pieces done I could start putting those blocks together.
Here’s my stack of units in their trays. This has become my favourite way to store completed and working on units. Food trays from Costco, with the lid to seal them up when I’m not working on them. And they stack nicely in the bag that I take to the sewing group. In the middle is the tray of orange pieces with a puny 21 done. I was sure I had more. So, time for a clean up to see where the missing pieces are hiding.
Part of the clean up is getting a handle on the amount of projects spread over my work area. So I spread them all over my bed instead. And organized them by project. Turns out I had 6 things on the go. No wonder I was running out of room to sew.
From the top left: Show Off; A Day at the Beach; Toy Box Bargello.
From the bottom left: Blue Diamond; Good Fortune; HST Sampler; Talking Turkey.
( Blue Diamond is a Becky pattern that’s actual name is Diamond Row, which I can never remember so just call blue diamond).  Show Off is another Becky pattern that is now a finished top. Sewed the final border on yesterday. 
Now that I’ve gotten them corralled into containers and grouped in their patterns I can focus on finishing.  Blue Diamond is the closes to completion so that will be the goal today.
After I find the orange rectangles I was looking for..  And after I link up  with Bonnie.