2014 Grand Illusion Mystery Reveal

There was much speculation on the Quiltville Open Studio Facebook page a few days before New Year how many more clues and when the great reveal of the assembly instructions and the quilt design would happen...a few guessed New Year's day and this time they were right!

Bonnie pleased many with the reveal a day early and posted here the final instructions.

Although many were surprised it was interesting to see the comments from the different quilters as they began to assemble their blocks, sashing and borders.  It was unlike the previous year's mysteries with their bold ordered design as the quilt was a study in movement and really needed good contrast and fabrics that offered a definite color story.  I was glad I decided to for-go scrappy this time and use planned yardage because I am not sure if I would have been happy with many fabrics for this project.
So here it is

First in progress when I discovered I havn't made enough of the border pieces

And here is is finished as a bed runner...but just the top for now.

I do like the border a lot but wished I had not used the pink as it was a much stronger intensity than the lavender that were supposed to be star points...if they were reversed in placement it might have worked much better.  I also had to resolve the corners because my layout eliminated the sashing between blocks and made the outside borders 4 inches too small.  I ended up making two extra diamonds that reversed the diagonals.  Picture soon!

Thanks to Bonnie for giving us this great end of the year gift and can't wait til mystery 2015!

Grand Illusion Clue 4 and 5

Got so busy this past week that I never posted my pic of the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt created with Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.  That's OK, I am just posting the completion of both clues 4 and 5 in this post.
I took a picture of all the clues together for clue 4 which was more broken dishes blocks like clue 1 with some different fabrics.

 Again the colors are still showing much darker that they are in real life.  The pink is a lighter warm pink, the yellow is much softer.  The white and dark green is OK

Clue 5 is a bit better in coloration but still somewhat too dark.
Simple 4 patches.  I wonder at the one on the left as Bonnie calls for 4 of them if they might be used to resolve corners or make a center block?  If I need to make more at least they are easy enough to do.

Next week is the last clue!  Can't wait to see what we are going to be making  LOL

Stocking Dilemma

Oh, my!
Yep it's true...since the last time we hung stockings here we have had three new granddaughters join the family and they need some Nana made stockings!  So, what am I to do but...
I have always been a good Girl Scout at heart and live the motto
"be prepared" 
 and that is my excuse for the lovely fabric I have stashed away over the years.  Sitting high on my shelves was a set of fat quarters...quilter's talk for pieces measuring 18x20 inches...that have been pulled down over the years but never seemed to be right for the project at hand.

Oh, so pretty and very girly in nature.  I think I bought them maybe 4-5 years ago at a wonderful sale.
Good thing I also had some time to sew and that's what I did!

What a mess when I was done!  

The other thing that was stashed were laces and trims from as far back as when my daughter was younger and many that I had bought through the years since then.  I was able to gussy them up so that they finished up like this

Such pretty stockings for two of my granddaughters.  The other one lives in Arizona for now and since she won't be here this Christmas it gives me a bit more time.  

Wish we had a mantel here but displaying 11 stockings might have even overwhelmed the longest mantel!  

Oh yeah and I was able to do some Leader/Ender blocks for a challenge too!

Grand Illusion Clue 3

Ahhh
An easy clue this time!
Squares that come from strips cut from my dark pink, white and green fabrics subbing for Bonnies green, white and black.
I still need to make a few of the HST from clue 1 but doing this one quarter size has been great for me so that I could do some work in the sewing room clearing out the "black hole" corner.  More on that later but let's just say one of the results is that I un-earthed FOUR forgotten quilt tops!  LOL

Clues 1, 2, 3 with my "inspiration fabric".  The color is really off as the dark pink is not so orange and the yellow not so bright.

Grand Illusion Mystery with Bonnie Hunter UPDATE

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt

So here it is a year later and time for another mystery quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.

For this year's mystery the first clue began the day after Thanksgiving and Howard and I were still visiting our family in Arizona so my quilt making was put off until I returned to Utah.
  My plans were to start on Wednesday but it was not until Thursday that I began clue #1 which luckily was a fairly easy step of half-square triangles and squares.  Easy enough using Inklingo for the half square triangles and rotary cutting the squares.  That one was done by Friday afternoon and I was ready for clue #2.

OH, my!  It's like last years "diamonds" step that we made into chevrons!  Sigh,  this one is a tricky step and since there is no Inklingo sized for this clue I decided to use the Easy Angle Ruler method.
I have never bought the Easy Angle however I did have a ruler that I purchased quite a few years ago from Kaye England that is the same concept which she uses to cut HST's like Bonnie does with the easy angle.
Hurrah it's wonderful to be able to use what I had on hand already.
So, to be honest mine didn't turn out perfect...and for some reason all the "diamond" shapes I cut from the printed template Bonnie provided turned out about 1/8 inch too small...sigh...

UPDATE: I figured out what the problem was!
I made measurements of the page comparing it to Bonnie's measurements and low and behold my printer was printing too big!  Took some trial and error but I need to reduce the printing to 95% of normal...When I did that and measured again the templates were accurate with the exception of the longwise measurements which were less than 1/16 of an inch too large. Glad to have that figured out but unfortunately I will have to live with what I have as the light pink fabric is almost gone and I am hoping that we won't need it for any more clues

I am not sure what happened but they are done and I will have to adjust as I sew them into the quilt once we have been given the reveal and assembly steps.

Photo one shows my fabrics and Clues 1 and 2 finished

Photo two shows the Kaye England ruler 

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 5

I was very excited to do clue 5 of Bonnie's (Scottish) Celtic Solstice Mystery because I have done these blocks before and although I knew a pretty easy method I wondered what Linda Franz of Inklingo had up her sleeve for this clue.
WOW!  So very easy compared to cutting all the little triangles and having to sew them on bias!  I am just even more impressed how adaptable Inklingo is to all kinds of quilt blocks.  I will admit that on my own I probably wouldn't have figured out this method so kudos to Linda and Monkey too.

One hundred blocks done!

Now, the bad news.  For some unfathonable reason my HP 1502 printer has gotten dementia or something and instead of printing on command just sits there and blinks at me.   Sigh...
I have done everything I know how to do...rebooted the computer (multiple times), unplugged and plugged in the printer itself (multiple times), uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers (multiple times), banged it on the top hoping to loosten something that might be causing it to bind up (one time) and nothing!
I have two other printers but one is a laser and one has to have the paper (with the fabric fused) stand upright and it doesn't allow the sheet to go through at all so....
I am guessing that I will have to find a new printer.  I need a simple one but from the messages on my Inklingo group, it seems that the new HP's don't allow for custom or user defined sizes which I need for Inklingo use and they have been the more cheeper printers.
so....
I will have to think about this for a day or more but need to decide for the future of my Inklingo use

Visit Here if you want to see some other amazing Celtic Solstice Mystery projects in progress.

Pineapple Blossom at Last!

Well...it's about time!
Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Blossom blocks were the one I chose for my President of New Friends departing gift...I asked the ladies to make at least one block using my favorite color green.
I got an over abundance of wonderful blocks to play around with however they sat in limbo for ummmm 5+ years... sad to say!
anyway
I thought this would be the perfect time to get them out of the box and just put them together.  I had to do a bit of squareing up, which took some time but...it's working out just fine.
Thank goodness the quilt Queen Carmen reminded me that I would want to sash them anyway so I could square up (actually down) and even though the corner triangles were different sizes it was going to look great!
Hopefully I will have the whole quilt top together in a couple of days...Christmas should be a kind of quiet one and a perfect time for some sewing.

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 4

With Christmas less than a week away Bonnie was kind with this clue.  Four-patches!
To do mine I didn't use Inklingo but just cut strips sew them into pairs then used my June Taylor Shape Cut to cut the strips into segments of 2 inches which I joined into pairs and then I had four patches.

So in the Art Bin Satchel you see all the clues so far

 While I was stitching away outside we were getting snowfall.  The birds were busy at the feeders  mostly Finches although I get Buntings, Chickadee and Gross Beak on and off. 
Stay warm birds!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 3 with Update

It's the day for clue 3 in Bonnie Hunters' mystery and I was pretty happy to see this clue to be pinwheels from HSTs
As usual I am using Inklingo for my quilt and Linda and Monkey have a great way to make them easy peasy!  You are able to print a page 7.75 x 10.5 and get 24 HSTs so by printing 8 sheets plus a small 5.25 x 5.5 sheet for 8 more and you have the 100 needed by layering the printed fabric with an unprinted fabric and stitching a grid.   No special rulers, no drawing lines and no removing paper!
Genius!
So after binding a Christmas present lap quilt and making a special pillowcase I started

 Fabric printed and ready to stitch

 After stitching, cutting into triangles and ready to press

Pressed and ready to trim dog ears and create 25 pinwheels and the rest we are to save for later...
I love that things went so well today although I need a major clean up of the bathroom and floors of the kitchen and living room but in my defense Mr Creative has been hard at work creating a train display in the living room for our tree and I have put off disturbing his "stuff" until he is done but that is going to have to happen as the floors are atrocious!

Monday Dec 16
Clue 3 Finished  with a couple of rejects...sew-er's error...Not as much contrast with my sandy tanish brown and yellow/gold but looks good to me

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 2 Finished

Yep, clue 2 is finished...this one took some brain power for sure!  
There are 100 chevron blocks that measure 3.5 inches square.  Many aren't even close to perfect  but I will make a few extra now that I am much better at making the blocks after making 100.
I think I have plenty of contrast so far and Bonnie says that is more important than colors.

Update on Belle she did well but is scratching at the surgical site so I had to tape a sock to her rear foot so that her nails can't cause more irritation.  I will post a picture soon.

Scottish Celtic Soltice Linky Day 2

Here it is Clue 2 Linky day for Scottish Celtic Solstice
Friday was clue 2 release and of course it ended up being a busy busy day so Saturday was the first day really get

to going and then DH Mr Creative needed help on and off Saturday with his Christmas train set up under the tree so not even a real sewing day for me.
So by Sunday night I managed to finish a bit over 40 units.
I am hoping to get them all done before Clue 3 but who knows.

Took our dog Belle to the vet for some surgery this morning so I will have time while waiting to hear when I can pick it up.

Stay safe little girl!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 1 Finished

These are my original choices but I took out a few and added some others as I began.
My theme is Scotland, where many of my ancestors came from
to
North Carolina, where my family (except me ) live now and I did much of my growing up.
Yellow for the Gorse in Scotland and the sunshine of NC
Green for the trees and bushes of Scotland and NC
Blue for the Flag of Scotland, the St Andrew's Cross and the beautiful blue skies of NC
Tan for the peat that kept my ancestors warm in Scotland and the wonderful beaches of NC
White for the sheep that give the wool for kilts of proud Scotsmen and women and the Dogwood flowers at Eastertime in NC

So clue one is finished!
That is 92 units with sand colored triangles and 96 units with white triangles and the same green smaller triangles...I think Doreen Speckman called the smaller triangles Spike and the larger triangles Peaky.
I finished the last 36 or so on my Singer 27-4 treadle and it was a good way to get some experience.  I am not a very smooth treader and hope the more I use it the better I will get.
Now the wait is on for Clue 2 next Friday morning!
Oh, and the Inklingo part went smoothly it's the sewer who is at fault for the mistakes! LOL
You can see many other quilters who are reporting in on Monday Dec 2 for the first Linky Party at Bonnie's Blog
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html

Scottish Celtic Solstice day 2

Too tired to upload my finish last night so here it is as of Sunday Dec 1, 2013
I ended up printing some extra fabrics since I think I had discarded a fabric or two because the lines just weren't very visible...not because the fabric was too dark all over but because the backside had too much of the colors showing.  Lesson learned look for backs that are less busy!  LOL
I have about 36 more to finish up with clue #1. 
I tried a few on my treadle but I am not experienced enough to control how the pieces feed when I have to stop add the next pieces and then start again.  I think maybe the belt has stretched again and Mr Creative will need to shorten it once more. 
I am hoping to get the last bunch done today because I may be called to babysit my grand daughter since my DIL has a newly broken bone in her foot and maybe hand too...sigh it must be very hard to be about 6  1/2 mo pregnant and dealing with a toddler and a broken foot.  Luckily she's had her DD C there to give her a hand this weekend but she will need to go back to school on Monday.

I'm Back!

Been so neglectful of my blog for months and months but because I need to do a link to a blog for Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery I am repenting for now!  LOL
It's just too easy to post pics and comments on Facebook these days but I do miss my blogging world so I will really try to do a little of both now.

Thanksgiving was Thurs and we had D's family at our home for dinner.  I is ready to bite into the turkey!  LOL  D says we should make it a tradition to do the outside Christmas lights on Thanksgiving day so I told them GO FOR IT!  As you can see the Moravian star is up and the simple tube lights are around the house.  Now I need to get the timer set correctly.
We ended the day with a game that big A taught the kids and it's nice that I can play the games  with everyone since he is now 6. 
A wonderful family day

necklace test pic

 

Dance Festival Time Again

It's now been 31 years that Mr Creative and I have been attending the yearly Dance Festival and field day at Forbes School.  Starting with oldest DS D and now his oldest child I.
With no knowledge of where I would be dancing I tried to find a central spot to take a few pictures.  Yeah,  didn't work out so well  LOL  He was way on one side.
So...do you see him?

OK maybe this will help...

The kids danced to Under the Sea and Who Let the Dogs Out and did quite a bit of choreography.  They had lots of fun and looks like with his little sister only one yr old, we will be attending this event for a whole bunch more years!

Time to Mow

Actually I don't mind mowing the grass as long as it isn't too hot and today was the perfect day for that.  I wish someone could fix the auto-start LOL

Outfit for Today 5-12-13

Doing a bit of experimentation with my "look" 
For today I went for the brown/khaki/ combo with a cute polka dot scarf for my yuck-o hair.

Can You Make Pickles....

...with zucchini?

So, if you have a whole bunch of zucchini...and if you planted zucchini you will...like me can you make pickles?  It turns out that YES YOU CAN!
You make them pretty much like you make them with cucumbers.  Unless you harvest them very small (one inch in diameter) then you make them  into "chips".
I found a few recipes that specified zucchini but they were pretty much the same as any other recipe so I felt pretty good about making them.

Here they are after soaking and in the seasoned brine.   

TA-DA!  dill zucchini pickles!  I only did 4 pints as with just 3 of us in the house it seemed that would be good for now.
Before I made the dill I also made a recipe that my mother used to make and I remembered it fondly...Chop Suey Pickles

I also had to experiment with using Stevia/Truvia to replace the sugar as well but in the end they taste wonderfully similar to the original recipe.
Next up...dill relish!  Why not?  LOL

A Foodie Post

When you are inundated with zucchini anything new or different is worth trying  LOL
Here you see something that is both...Zucchini Chips Low Carb Style

Very yumm-o when warm but kind of "ok" when cooled off
The original recipe called for bread crumbs and which I subbed out for Parmesan cheese.  I also added a bit of smoked paprika and Italian seasoning to the mixture and it was great.
Then youngest son A has gotten all the supplies to make his own sushi, which he loves, and did some rolls Friday and Saturday.  This is is first attempts

Now, to find something new to make with the remaining 100's of Zucchini  LOL