A Monthly Goal and Something New

Well, I couldn't resist putting all my On Ringo Lake blocks together so I could determine whether I had too many or not enough parts. For my smaller size that I am making, I needed two more blocks for a total of 32, so I did have to make more geese and pieced triangles. 

I really like how this is looking and I'm determined that it won't end up like every other Bonnie Hunter mystery I've done, so I am making On Ringo Lake my January One Monthly Goal. 

There are several Sew Along's happening on Facebook that I wanted to participate in, but I have rethought my priorities and am only doing the basket challenge from the Bea and Cecile Quilt-a-Long (you can read about HERE).
The Cherry Basket pattern by Bonnie Sullivan has been on my cutting table for ages, and I thought it might be fun to make a summery version (and in blue, natch!). 

My first two blocks.
 The rules are to make two blocks a week for eight weeks. My setting ( a little different from the pattern) will require 18 blocks, so I will have to do a little hustling to stay caught up and have a top sewn together by April. You can see that my plan for a light background in the previous photo had to be scrapped. I didn't have quite enough light home spun fabrics for the big triangles--they are so difficult to find! But thanks to my friend Brenda P., I had a nice big chunk of deep blue from the bag of fabrics she gifted to me last year. 
Thanks again, Brenda! 

Speaking of home spun fabrics, I don't think I have mentioned that I recently won a big "ol box of them from Janet of Rogue Quilter. 

I had a lot of fun sorting through them--strips, charms, a few triangles and lots of large pieces too! Thanks so much Janet! 

And I had to giggle when I found this little square of fabric buried in the middle of the home spuns!!!

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Linking with Quiltville Mystery Monday Link Up Parts 6,7,8, and 9 HERE

Slow Sunday!

I think anything done today will be slow--minus 29 degrees tends to slow things down...unless you are running from your car into the house or vise versa--then it's the hustle shuffle (don't want to slip on the ice!). 

The end is near for the On Ringo Lake mystery.
On Friday triangles were added to the pieced triangle units.
On Saturday, the two different colored flying geese were sewn together. 

And today the blocks are going together. Now it's just a matter of making nine patches from the pieced units.
 I will be leaving for quilt camp in eight days, so I am debating with myself--should I go ahead and make my blocks this coming week, or bring everything along to camp and sew them there? It's not that I don't have plenty of other things to work on--lol!  Hmmmm......

And here are my New's Years Eve celebration plans:
I will snuggle down into a comfy chair in my warm house, do some Slow Sunday hand stitching (my hexie triangles for Mrs. Billings are coming along nicely) and watch The Thin Man marathon on TCM. Perfect!

Stay warm, stay safe, and have a great New Year's Eve!

Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

December Goal

It's amazing to me that 2017 is coming to an end--how did that happen?

My One Monthly Goal for December was to get my Primitive Garden top put together.

Sorry about the horrible photo--wouldn't you know that the sun would decide to shine as soon as I got the top pinned to my garden shed. I couldn't quite get it up high enough to be out of snow either!

I added a couple extra flowers to the top border above the sunflowers--it just seemed a little bare compared to the other borders. I'm so pleased with how it turned out and a little sad that it's finished! 

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE

Clue Five....

I finally added border 11 to my Mrs. Billings coverlet.
This border has been ready to attach since October. I'm not sure why it took so long--maybe my issues with border 12....

You may recall that I also almost finished border 12 but ran out of fabric pieces while I was at quilt camp. I assumed that I hadn't cut enough of these triangles , but while searching high and low for more fabric, I actually found a little note I had written to myself ( I know, shocker!). I had cut 96 (6 extra according to the pattern) but somehow was still 20 short to finish the borders. I don't know how many times I recounted and recalculated before finally realizing the pattern was incorrect! To finish Border 12 I needed 116 total of template M.
And I didn't have anymore of this fabric.  Sigh. 

Janet of Rogue Quilter to the rescue!
She very kindly offered me a piece from her stash--such a life saver!
The fabric was ever so slightly a bit darker, but once it was cut up and sewn into the border, I think it's undetectable to the human eye--lol!

So here is Mrs. Billing's with border 12 attached--only three more borders to go!
Thank you again Janet! 

This week the On Ringo Lake mystery includes flying geese, and I decided to use my favorite method using the Eleanor Burns rulers. 

If the geese are made according to Eleanor's instructions, both "wings" will be the same fabric. I wanted my geese to be scrappy like Bonnie's, so instead of  matching the same triangle pieces after step one, I mixed them up so I had different backgrounds sandwiched together. 

This is what you get after step 2 is trimmed up....

Four scrappy geese. 

I'm ready for the next clue!

Linking with One Ringo Lake Mystery Tuesday Link Up Part 5 HERE 

Breaking News!

The final border for my Primitive Garden quilt is finished! 

I also managed to get it sewn to the rest of the top and will post a photo when I get a chance to take a good picture. You may be able to see some of the sleet coming down when I took this one! 

My Clue 4 triangles for the On Ringo Lake Mystery are done too.
 It was nice to see we are adding more of the browns and blues.

I cut my brown triangles from strips using Bonnie's Essential Triangle Tool and everything went together really slick. I also used one of Gudrun Erla's arrow ruler stickers to mark the line I needed to use--so helpful! And I'm loving my new cutting mat--a Martelli that I purchased during their annual half price sale in November. 
There aren't too many clues left to solve the mystery--can't wait until Friday!!!

Linking with Quiltville's Mystery Monday Link-Up Part Four HERE

Oops!

I tried to resist, but just had to jump in.....

Yes, I'm sewing up the clues to Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery, On Ringo Lake. 

The last couple years, I passed on the mystery sew alongs only because I had several that were still unfinished. Now that I'm all caught up, I figured I may as well do a little stash burning--lol!
This is Clue One--Nine Patches. 

Clue Two was Flying Geese.  

Of course, I had to try to solve the mystery--pretty sure this isn't it.
But after laying these out I realized these were the exact same colors I had used to make a previous mystery, Easy Street. 

So...back to sewing machine.
Thankfully I hadn't made very many red geese. I'm not making the full amount of units as I want a smaller, possibly throw size quilt. My very scientific formula is to divide the amount of units in Bonnie's requirements by 5 and then multiply by 3. Don't ask me how I came up with that plan---I have no clue.
It's a mystery! 

Clue Three is complete (according to my formula!). I may need to make more of each of the units, or I may end up with extras.
 We'll see when the mystery is solved!

You can still catch up with the Clues by visiting Bonnie's blog HERE.
Today is the Clue Three link up HERE--it's fun to see how some are trying to figure out the mystery--check it out! 

Slow Stitching and a December Goal

I have kind of a different One Monthly Goal in December. Since it's so busy around the holidays, this won't get quilted, bound and labeled. My goal will be to get the last two borders on my Primitive Garden top.
I've been working on this project all year thanks to a sew along on Facebook, and this month we are working on the top border. 

This is the November block (border). Several people in the group added their pet dog or cat to some of the blocks. Since I don't have any pets right now, but have lots of squirrels around my bird feeders, I decided to add a couple to this border. I changed up the roof of the feeder and made it into a copper dome just for fun. 

My final border is all prepped and I will be doing some relaxing Slow Sunday Stitching today. I'm so excited to get to the end of this project!

Linking with One Monthly Goal HERE
and Slow Sunday Stitching HERE