A Christmas challenge

Jo of Jo's Country junction has offered a block of the month challenge on Saturdays at her blog. I have no trouble finding a few block of the month projects that I have let slide into the abyss of UFOS to work at completing. The one I want to focus on first is a Christmas Block of the month from a LQS.
I signed up for a block of the month about 40 miles from home several years ago. The sign up fee was 15.00  for all the fabric we would need, and we received a hunk of jelly roll strips and a hunk of 5 inch squares in Christmas colors. Our job was to attend a meeting every Saturday, and they would give us a spiel about new fabrics and new tools in the shop, and if we brought our completed block to the meeting, the next pattern was free.. It seemed well worth the expense, and I was convinced I would have no trouble attending the Saturday meeting. After all I am a responsible person. Gosh, I hated that drive....I have 7 blocks completed. I think I will need 12 before I can think about what to do with them.

 There were several different kits, so I am inclined to think it was their way of cleaning out their scrap bins. We didn't get to choose, they came in paper bags. I liked the colors, but felt that there was a lot of darks.

 There were no instructions in my box, so I have misplaced them. And I didn't attend the last few meetings. Everything was made using 2 1/2 inch thangles. So I can just make my own assortment of triangles and call it good.

Today is the rainbow scrap challenge at super scrappy. The color for January is light blue.

I started with my 2 1/2 inch strip bin and cut for a quilt called soul searching. My blue bin still won't close, so using the lighter blues was a blessing.

I cut the pieces at my Friday sew group. It didn't take long before I had one ginormous block ready to go.

After  working on On ringo lake the pieces and the block seemed huge. I think I am really going to like this quilt. And Elvis has made an appearance LOL

I don't know where it comes from. I am winging it from a picture I saw on a blog.
I am linking to
 SewCan She

rsc17 super saturday

 and Jo's country junction

playing catch up

I have raided the green scrap drawer for the fabrics I will need for the turtle quilt. I have anything less than a 1/2 yard in scrap drawers. I hope to cut it out at Friday group today. I don't like to cut in a group, but I am not getting it done here at home. I gravitate to sewing On ringo lake - just one more block here at home.

I am still plugging along on the mystery quilt

I have a mountain of mess I am sorting. Sew one block, clean a minute, sew another block, repeat.

But, the best news of all, is I found my bag of 150 glitter blocks that had gone missing. I was seriously worried they were gone for good. I had taken them to my Friday group to help others make their own glitter blocks. I spent the time sewing twosies. Oh! I am so happy, I could do the dance of joy!

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts

and confessions of a fabric addict

another clue done

All of these are done for On ringo lake mystery quilt

And I had to try one...

Lynette asked how I had altered my quiltville mystery quilt expectations so that I had enjoyed it more this year.
I have worked on the older mysteries over the years after the fact. In other words, all the clues were available but the quilt was revealed. I enjoyed them so much better. I asked myself why. It wasn't that I needed to see the quilt first. It was that all the information about the colors was available at once. I could pick one scrap of a color, cut it till it was gone, pull another, cut until it was gone, etc. I didn't have to pull all the fabric I had in that color to be sure I had enough.

Bonnie is big on saying the more variety, the better. I have decided, I want to follow that idea to a point. I have been to several of her workshops, and I have seen many of her quilts made by others, and I have decided that there is a talent to what Bonnie does. She makes it seem like she is every woman and every quilter, but I don't think so. There is a talent to making a variety look good. I feel better about the variety in mine if variety is limited to just a few. And then there is SO much less mess and SO much less time.  There is still a place for scrappy pieces, but it is so much easier to use bigger chunks of fabric when cutting for a big quilt.

This year, I kept every clue in a separate container. I also hate having to sort through a big tub to get all of a piece, or thinking that I am short when a few pieces have migrated into other sections. I was afraid I would lose a whole container but so far, I haven't.

I enjoyed using starch on my fabric and feel like it helped me be more accurate with less effort. Another reason I prefer bigger chunks of fabric, it is easier to starch bigger pieces.

I also used other tools that I like better for different methods. I feel like I should be put in a corner for saying that I can't get the great results Bonnie does using her tools all the time. What kind of fan says that? I was really thrilled with the wing clipper for flying geese. But I am good on the essential triangle tool / easy angle for bigger triangles. And I like the square and rectangle method for for small sew and flip corners. I prefer the corner pop for bigger ones. I didn't get good results with the new simple folded corners ruler. Since it has to be tweaked for each change to the quarter inch seam, and I don't want anything called a booty ruler. But I love the accuquilt.

I am linking (links in the sidebar) to:
needle and thread thursdays
oh scrap

6 and 6 and one monthly goal

We are finally up in the double digits outside but our thermostat won't rise above 66 - sigh... and a flat tire sigh....
I have finished clue 6 of On ringo lake quiltville mystery quilt. I used 10- 3 1/2 inch strips cut with my accuquilt die and the essential triangle tool to make the coral triangles. I didn't have any trimming to do since each of the pieces were accurate ( for a change).

I wanted to make a list for my One monthly goal at Elm street quilts.

For the month of January, I am hoping to cut out a turtle quilt.

and add borders and quilt the butterfly quilt that I have had for a few years.

There is a new ufo challenge -6 and 6 challenge at pomegranate and chintz
January is something new which will be the turtle quilt.

6  new
turtle quilt
jared's space quilt
rsc
vintage embroidery with gingham
tokoyo subway
portage lake

6 old
BOM christmas from always in stitches
carolina crossroads
quiltville mystery quilts
snow
marie webster
On ringo lake
butterflys

I see how this can run concurrently with the other challenges I hope to do.
I want to do the scrap attack at confessions of a fabric addict. Most of my goals involve scraps so I am good to go for project ideas.

I am linking to:

WOW

midweek makers

Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

WIPs with friends

Sew,stitch,snap,share

Jet girl

And one monthly goal

spinning

It is really hard to believe we have a new year. I am afraid the holidays were different knowing that we would be losing employment in the new year. We had a few bouts of colds and bugs, nothing too serious, just annoying. But, I am hopeful that there is a plan in there somewhere.

I have started spinning a bit. The plan was to have a project for those evenings when I am too tired to think and sew. There is something very relaxing about spinning wool. My hands are methodically and slowly drafting the wool in a dance like way. But the spinning wheel is the part that is going fast. I can be slow and deliberate and let the spinning wheel do the work. I have almost 2 pounds of this merino, romney mix. If I spin it thin enough, there should be enough for a shawl. It is an eggplant color.

Just for fun, I looked back to this time last year to see what I was blogging. I had trouble with bleeding quilts and I remind everyone that I have a link to a tutorial on bleeding quilts in my sidebar. My goal for last January was to finish my tumbler quilt, and realize we have had a whole year to snuggle and enjoy. I love quilting!

I am linking to:

Fiber Tuesday - 

Free Motion by the River

to do tuesday

too cute tuesday

mystery quilts

Time to hurry and finish the on ringo lake mystery quilt from quiltville. Bonnie has ramped up the last of the clues and today was the reveal. I am toggling between the last clues. I needed to starch the fabric for the coral triangles in clue 6. I have a few more to trim on clue 5 and I have sewn half of the clue 7 together because the pieces were all done earlier.
I am choosing to do the studio 180 technique for the flying geese using the wing clipper template. I used it in clue 2 and I really liked it. I like that it makes 4 at a time.

Jo of Jo's Country Junction has a string fling challenge each Monday. She is planning on making all the quilts from one book called String fling.  When I did the tally from my book. I was surprised how many I have started. But, for my challenge, I want to finish all the mystery quilts from Quiltville. I have them all started and several just need quilting. So for 2018, I plan to finish all 16 mystery quilts.


2007 Carolina Crossroads - I need borders

April 2008 Orange Crush - finished in 2017

August 2008 Tobacco Road - finished in 2017

January 2009 Double Delight - just needs assembled and borders

January 2009 Christmas Lights (3 parts in Quiltmaker magazine) - just needs quilted

2009 Carolina Christmas - just needs quilted

2010 Roll Roll Cotton Boll - needs assembled and so on.

2011 Orca Bay - I think I have the string part finished

2012 Easy Street - just needs quilted

2013 Celtic Solstice - just needs quilted

March 2013 Lazy Sunday (3 parts in Quiltmaker magazine) - just needs quilted

2014 Grand Illusion - finished
2014 Grand illusion denise schmidt fabrics - needs borders

2015 Allietare! - needs borders and so on
2016 En Provence bright - finished 2017
2016 En Provence civil war - needs quilted
2017 On Ringo Lake - in pieces.

I am linking to:

Jos country junction

Making Monday  link in sidebar

Moving it Forward Monday 

main Crush Monday   link in sidebar

show and tell monday

design wall monday   

boms away   link in sidebar

and there is a mystery link up at Quiltville

flying geese clue

I have finished clue 4 for On RIngo Lake mystery quilt at Quiltville.

And I have cut all of clue number 5. I am excited to use the wing clipper again to make the flying geese. I talked about how I did it here.

Clue 6 came out today, and looks to be an easy clue. I have found the mystery quilt to go much more smoothly this year by altering a few expectations.

I am linking to:

TGIFF

Finished or Not Fridays   

Whoop Whoop

crazy mom quilts