Weekend Stitching With Good Fortune

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the family, but it was nice to have the house to ourselves Saturday night and we all just chilled out.  The Scientist in Training had to head back to college just after lunch on Sunday.  She's got three more weeks of class before Christmas break.  Once she got on the road, I headed to the sewing room to make a start on this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Good Fortune. 

All but one fabric was already pressed and ready to go, so it didn't take very long before the first set of strips were cut and ready for stitching. 

I kept the beige neutrals that Bonnie worked with, but changed the red to a purple/violet fabric from the stash.  After a round of strip sewing, more time at the cutting mat, a bit of seam matching and more stitching, the pile of 4 patches started to grow.

I'm no where close to done with this clue, but that's OK.  I won't keep up with all the clues as my schedule is just too hectic this time of year.  My goal is to get enough parts done of each clue so that I can make a few blocks once Bonnie gives us the final reveal.  If past practice holds, it will take me all of next year to get the quilt finished.  

This weekend I was also sewing to another deadline.  The Christmas Mystery quilt needs to be in finished flimsy form for the final meet up at the quilt shop next Saturday.  I finished stitching the last block while spending time with the family, so the blocks were ready for sashing. 

Christmas Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

All that's left is to sew the top row to the rest of the blocks.  I should be able to get that done and the borders on before the meeting on Saturday.  I'll be stitching up the Good Fortune 4-patches as I finish off that project.  

Today will kick off Bonnie's mystery quilt linky party, so I'll be linking up there and with the normal Monday linky parties:

Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall  

Week 47 of 2018: Stitching and De-stashing

We haven't quite recovered from Thanksgiving yet.  We hosted dinner this year and it wasn't till late yesterday afternoon that we were settled in at home by ourselves.  It was a wonderful holiday, but my system is ready for some not quite so rich food.  I'm also ready to get back into the sewing room, I did some handwork while we were visiting, but that was the extent of my sewing time over the holiday weekend.  How did you do on finding time to stitch the last few days?

The handwork made it easy to get in some stitching time every morning, so my week looked pretty good. 

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Nov = 23/24 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 308/328 days
Success rate = 93.90%

It's hard to use a lot of fabric with hand stitching, but I did manage to use a bit before the family activities kicked off. 

Fabric used this week = 0.43 yards
Fabric used in 2018 = 40.17 yards
More in than out for 2018

I did manage to avoid buying any fabric during our excursion to the local quilt shop, so it was a good week on the stash busting front. Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.   

On the stash organization front, I did do a bit of a sewing room clean up before the holiday got kicked off. 

Now all the left over bits and pieces from the Halloween and Christmas Mystery quilts have been cut down and stored with the other scraps.  There is quite a collection of strips in some of those bags, the plan for 2019 is to get some of the scraps in these bags moved into a quilt.  

For those in the US, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Now, how well is your stitching time faring with all the other competing activities that are par for the course this time of year?  

1. maggie f 2. Aileen

3. Marti's Plain Stitches 4. Kathleen Mary

5. Christina's Handicrafts

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Happy Thanksgiving

Weekend Stitching: More Mystery Making

It was a quiet weekend, which I was more than ready for. Work has been a zoo and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon.  I'm off this all this week and am looking forward to the down time.  Saturday we ran some errands in Tulsa, had lunch with the Scientist in Training and her room mate.  The SIT only has two days of classes this week, we'll see her sometime Tuesday afternoon.  She's looking forward to a slight break before the madness of finals. She and I have made plans for some serious do nothing time accompanied with the occasional glass of wine over the holiday.   

The only sewing this week was on the Christmas Mystery quilt. 

Christmas Mystery, designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

Most of the squares in the stocking come from the scrap bin.  This was a very fun and easy block to make. It was easy and fun on top of using up some odds and ends from the scrap bin.  

One of the goals of the mystery is to introduce new techniques to everyone, so the second block was paper pieced.  

Christmas Mystery, designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I've done a lot of paper piecing (Vintage Dresses) so this block was pretty easy.  I was surprised by the number of quilters at the shop who had never tried paper piecing.  The last block and the quilt setting was handed out Saturday.  I'm contemplating adding one more row and another column of smaller blocks to one side to keep the proportions.  Or I may just put it together as is.  

The other stitching relating activity has been trying to come up with a quilt that will work on our bed.  The quilt on there now is almost 9 years old and I'm ready for a change.  My Guy really likes batiks and has requested anything new use just batiks.  I've not found a pattern I like, but I've been playing around in EQ.  

This one is simple and includes a lot of brights, which is another of My Guy's requirements. Black seems a bit stark, a dark navy or dark green might be a better option for the background.  Here's the second contender. 

My Guy likes this second one better. it needs some additional work on the borders, but it's a good start.  I'd like to try controlled scrappy, using squares of similar color families to make the blocks.  Not sure I'm sold on either mock up as yet. As I'm still trying to work through UFOs, there is certainly time to decide on something else completely.  

Linking up with the normal Monday morning show and tell parties.  

Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall 
BOMs Away 

Week 46 of 2018: Stitching and De-Stashing

It's been a weird week. We started the work week with snow.

We ended up with just a couple of inches.

The kids still had school, though the Scientist in Training's physics test did get postponed.  It just seems awfully early for us to have a round of the cold, wet stuff.  

It's Sunday, so it's time to reflect on how well the quilty stuff went this week.  

Including how much stitching time I got in.  Finding even just 15 minutes a night keeps projects moving and usually if I can get myself up to the sewing room it turns into much longer.  That was definitely the case this week. 

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Nov = 16/17 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 301/321
Success rate = 93.77%

With the Thanksgiving holiday this week, it will be harder to get in some stitching time all 7 days, there is always a lot of stuff going on that week.  You can link up below to share how your efforts with time management went this week. 

The stash report is pretty typical of my stitching efforts lately. 

Fabric used this week = 0.22 yards
Fabric used in 2018 = 39.74 yards
More in than out for 2018

Some out with none in is still a good week for me, especially the "none in" part. Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report linky party.


It's supposed to be cold and windy today, so it's going to be a good day to hang out in the sewing room.  Before I can get to that, mount laundry has to be at least partially scaled. 

How did you efforts at finding time to stitch work out last week?

1. maggie f 2. Meloney 3. Connie

4. Marti's DIY 5. Mary-Kay 6. Julie in GA

7. Aileen 8. Christina's Handicrafts

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