Good Fortune Mystery Quilt part 5 link up

How will these all go together?

My mystery quilt stitching paused for Christmas - my sewing table was relocated to serve Christmas dinner. Eeek! I really don't mind, though it is returned in less than pristine condition. I hauled it back into my sewing room last night and set it up.

So many tiny squares! 

That smooth, empty surface called to me ... to trim last years mystery quilt! On The Scene was stitched, quilted and in a bag waiting to be trimmed and bound. So I pulled an all nighter and did just that.

Stitching a mile of binding

I hand stitched the label on about 3am. I'm ecstatic that this is completed. It became such a long project. By the time the last stitch was done, I was ready for bed.

I did make progress on Good Fortune over Christmas. Mainly on the pressing and organizing front.

Needs pressing!

Clue 1 is now stitched, pressed and waiting.
Clue 2 is about 20% done. I need to make a thousand more neutral/blue HST's.
Clue 3 is almost done. All of the half chevrons are stitched and pressed. I pressed all billion neutral/green HST's though I will need to make a few to compensate for the few that I stitched badly, trimmed poorly, etc. Thank goodness it is only a few.
Clue 4 is cut and waiting. I copped out (according to Bonnie) due to only have a few fabrics available. I'm ok with it :)
Clue 5 .... do we have to discuss clue 5? I promise I will start cutting on it as soon as I'm done writing this blog post.

Pressed and ready to go

I'm joining the party linking up to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Monday Link Up.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt Part 4 link up

Hello! Christmas is getting close. Are you ready? I'm not done shopping yet. I need to track down 2 more items and I can stop. I hope :)

Stacks of wrapped Christmas gifts

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville released the 4th clue for her Good Fortune mystery quilt. String pieced units! Yeah!
Insert my sad face though. I do not have enough fabrics to make decent string pieced blocks. My stash was depleted, so I had to shop to have fabric to make this quilt. Since its a mystery I didn't know to buy a dozen small pieces in this color. I bought 3 and thought that would be more than enough. I was wrong. That's ok. I need an easy week.

Yellow with daisies

Big sigh.

So yes Bonnie, I am copping out this week.

Darling dragon flies

In all honesty I have not gotten any sewing done. I discovered I am being defrauded by a family member. My past week has been lawyers and paperwork. Bad time of year for negative chaos.

These fabrics make me smile!!

Stitching relaxes me and makes me happy so you can bet I will be stitching my little heart out this weekend.

Yellow roses! 

Have a great week!
Merry Christmas!!

Linking back to the Mystery Monday Link up

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt Part 3 Link up

Hello! How is your week going? I'm delighted to say the snow stayed south of us last weekend. Amen! I do feel sorry for the poor folks in Texas who got 10 inches of snow!! 10 inches!! That's crazy snow for Oklahoma and Texas.

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville released Clue 3 of this years Mystery Quilt last Friday.
My heart sank.
The bratty, insecure little girl in me started pulling her hair and screaming, "Why?! Why?! WHY?!"
Half chevrons.
Oh my goodness, no.

Celtic Solstice chevrons

A few years back we made chevrons in Celtic Solstice. I messed lots of them up. LOTS. In the end though I completed the proper number and my daughter uses her quilt. However I vowed to never, ever make chevrons again.

My version of Celtic Solstice 

Sighsss I can be so ridiculous. My skills have grown. I have made several quilts since then. Why am I so afraid? They just another unit. Nothing to fear. And this year Bonnie is teaching a method to create little bonus HST's which we are using in this quilt. I hate waste so this is perfect. Now to get over my brain issues, LOL.

My weekend was busy so I worked on Clue 1's 4 patches. I'm proud to say they are all stitched though some still need pressed. Monday I put on my big girl panties and started cutting fabric for Clue 3.

The right side bows out

I think I can. I think I can.

The first unit produced a too small HST. Adjust my tape. I am using my 90's Baby Lock machine and I cannot move the needle over a tick so I am old school adjusting me. I can do this.

Next unit the HST was still a hair small but it can be used. More adjusting. More careful stitching. More pressing. Uh oh. Look at the HST above. Can you see how the right side green bows out? And the black bows down? I'm stretching my fabric as I press. I'm anxious and its showing.

Tuesday and Wednesday brought more success. My half chevrons were becoming dependably correct. My HST's were usually fine as long I pressed gently.

What was I doing here? Oops!

Though I did manage to let my rotary cutter go rogue, LOL.

Currently Clue 3 is 40% completed. Plus the other 60% is halfway stitched ... soooo I'm 70% thru the whole clue? LOL

What are you stitching?

Bonnie's Mystery quilt is free and fun if you want to join in. Ignore my silly fears and try it :)
I'm linking to the Monday Link Up post. Go see oodles of talented quilters sharing their progress. And a few goofy folks like me, hehehe.

Good Fortune Part 2 Link Up

Nutcracker ornaments from Avon 1985

Time is zipping along at an incredible pace. It seems yesterday we were preparing for Thanksgiving and now Christmas is approaching at the speed of light. I have so much to do! In addition to Christmas we have 2 birthdays this month. Are you ready for Christmas?

Paneling is coming down. Next, rewire the house.

I spent several days working on the lake house.

Hustled home to decorate the tree for Christmas.

Today I finally cut a few strips to make some HST's for Clue 2 of Bonnie Hunter's 2018 Mystery quilt.

I'm far from completion of Clue 1 or 2. However I'm smiling at the color and sparkle of the fabrics as they start to come together. Tomorrow Clue 3 will be released. Hold on to your hats, it's going to be a fabulous December!

To explore all of Bonnie Hunter's wonderful quilting including many free patterns, go to Quiltville.
I'm linking back to the Good Fortune Mystery Link Up.
Have a great day!

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt colors

The 2018 Quiltville Mystery Quilt along has started. You can join in anytime while it is in progress. It's free and fun. For now. The pattern will be pulled after the new year. I save the clues because I tend to be slow. Bonnie Hunter released her colors and yardage at the end of October. On black Friday she released the first clue. I'm just now working on my colors. Like I said, I'm slow. Well actually I'm indecisive on this one.

I love her mystery quilt alongs. I'm just extra busy this year. My hubby and I bought a lake house that needs rehabbed. We'll be pulling old paneling this coming Friday when Bonnie releases her 2nd clue. Argh! I'll be out of town and without internet.

Each Monday we link up so we can cheer one another on. You can see this weeks link up here.

Lake oriented and destined for a future project 

Watching friends pull from their stash and buy fresh new fabrics made me sigh. Then Bonnie released the 1st clue and I started seeing stacks of adorable little 4 patches. Sighssss ... I am weak.

Sea glass has captivated me forever. I will find a place for this fabric.

Bonnie's finished quilt is smaller than what I need. New house needs new quilts right? So I decided it must be bed sized. Rather than making extra blocks like I usually do, I decided to find a focus fabric and add a wide border around the mystery quilt to make it bigger bed sized. And it should go together faster.
Did you notice how I found a way to justify fabric shopping? Hehehe

Black Friday sales encouraged me to make the hour long drive to Joann Fabrics. I'm not a fabric snob. I'll buy decent fabric anywhere. Joann's was having 70% off their quilting fabrics. 70%!!! I got lucky and also finished several bolts which meant those remnants were half off of the sale price!Then there was a coupon for 25% off. I spent just under $150. I saved just under $300. I call that a win.

I will pull more from my stash for variety though I did pick up enough to finish the mystery quilt. And a little extra .... it made no sense denying that my fabric stash needed replenishing.

Focus fabric

This is my focus fabric. It is tiny, generic blocks of color. It seems boring, however experience tells me this mystery quilt will NOT be boring. I wanted a little movement without anything too distracting. I considered a big floral but didn't find a pleasing one.

Tying my colors in with the focus fabric means I deviated from Bonnie's chosen colors. Typical me :)
My fabrics are low density to balance the tiny pieces of the quilt pattern as well as the endless tiny squares of the focus fabric.
Her red becomes my pink.
Her orange becomes my yellows.
The blues and greens are still blues and green but different shades.
My neutral will be blacks.
This is very similar to my colors in Celtic Solstice. That quilt lives on my youngest daughters bed in her home. This one is destined to live at the lake. I may never get this color path in MY house, LOL.

Now to cut and stitch ... I'm excited!

* Update *
I squeaked in a little cut and stitch time after chores and before dinner yesterday.
Look!! Aren't they darling? Only a million more to go :D

** I cannot reply to comments for some reason. I'm researching the issue. Thank you to everyone who visited!!

Oklahoma! Tornado and teepee

In summer 2018, in addition to The Road to Oklahoma quilt shop hop, there is a nationwide row along quilt shop hop. It is mainly applique blocks. Not my thing. However my youngest daughter hit a few shops and brought me the patterns. They are Oklahoma themed so I decided to include them. My quilt. My design decisions.

First I made the HOME block which was part of the Road to Oklahoma hop.

Then I got really brave and took pieces from 2 different shops blocks to make this block. It needs more detail before I will call it completed. The tornado is my design. I hand drew my own pattern. I will add some lines to give you the idea of motion happening.

I have another block planned using shop block designs and my own again. It's getting exciting!

Home is where the heart is

I'm happily plugging away again at my Oklahoma quilt. I went a week without any sewing. The withdrawal was awful, hehehe.
I pulled in a green fabric that was not part of the Oklahoma collection. It is 2 sided but not a batik. I decided to use it anyway as it reminds me of cow patty stains.

Stitching, pressing and trimming make me so happy!

Yes, I am weird, LOL. In the spring, look at a pale colored cow's rear end and you will find the stains. Dark stains, light stains, in the middle stains. It's real folks :)

The green is playing nicely.

One shop featured an applique block. I'm not overly experienced with applique, however the simple lines encouraged me to make it. I just love that they used a heart as the 'O' in HOME. Then the tiny Oklahoma state outline was the icing on the cake.

The heart was my favorite.

 And .... it gets me more experience at applique. Those deer heads on the baby quilt gave me some confidence. I did a simple machine blanket stitch around each shape.

It feels good to stretch my stitching brain by using new techniques.

Home is where the heart is!

Oklahoma Quilt - early progress

I have a small stack of blocks assembled. I am liking the variety of color and designs, though the worry of running out of fabric is very real. The Oklahoma white is the first one going. I have a small piece left, maybe 4 x 8 inches. So like it or not I am going to dig out some batiks that will hopefully fit in. Cross your fingers for me.

In this block you can see some of the special Oklahoma symbols on the batik. In the navy fabric you can read the word Oklahoma. The golden fabric has arrows as we were Indian territory at one time.

You can see a heart in the this piece of navy. I am trying with each block to pay attention and if there is a half or whole symbol, try to orient that unit(s) all the same way. It makes the block one side up and I'm ok with that.

The teal is circles. The dark gold has feathers, though when it is cut they are less obvious. You can see part of an oil pump jack in this bit of navy.

I will include a few blocks of simple squares, no piecing, to show off the Oklahoma batiks. I really love them!

Road to Oklahoma quilt

Hello!

I had made a personal commitment to make a blog post once a week. I had to replace my laptop and couldn't find my way back to my blog. I feel so silly. Thankfully I found a really old email that had a link and managed to work my way back. Wahoo!!

I have started on a new quilt. My husband drove me around the state this past summer on a quilt shop hop. We had the best time hanging out together. I picked up several block patterns and plenty of fabric.

I planned ahead for this shop hop and saved money. That way when I requested the free block pattern, I could also buy a yard or two of fabric. I wanted to support the wonderful local shops that participated. And wow talk about fun! I had given myself permission to pet the fabrics and take some home!

This years theme was Road to Oklahoma. There were special batik fabrics with Oklahoma symbols. I love them! Each block finishes at 12 inches. And since each shop designs their own block, this is basically a sampler quilt.

Have you ever made a sampler quilt? I had not. I am frustrated that I don't have a long range plan for cutting or sewing. It stresses me to look at the fabric I have available and wonder if I will have enough. On the flip side, I am really enjoying the variety of blocks. If this was just a scrappy quilt it would probably be easier. However I chose the added stress by limiting myself to the Oklahoma fabrics. I'm a goofball :)

My goal is a generous lap quilt. I do not have enough patterns as there were only 23 shops in the hop and I did not make it to them all. So I have gone offroad with a few blocks. We'll see how it goes :)

Recovering Dining Chair Seat Cushions

Hello!
Today I am working on recovering my dining room chair seat cushions. Work in progress :)
It's a simple project. EVERYBODY seems to have done it. Except me.

See how the pleather is peeling. Ugh!

We have an awesome big dining table. It easily seats 8 people on big comfy chairs. It was bought in 2011, so it is only 7 years old. However the chairs are upholstered in .... pleather? They looked like leather. Fake! The top layer of the 'fabric' is peeling. Our oldest granddaughter loves to sit and peel during dinner. So the chairs look pretty bad.

Staples to remove dust cover

Upholstery fabrics are insanely priced! They were starting about $45 a yard! That does not fit in my budget. I considered denim but it didn't fit with the style of the table. I finally found some acceptable sale fabric online.

I checked a couple of tutorials and dug in.
First step removed the cushion from the chair. Hubby had one off of a chair that broke a leg. I will learn on this 1 cushion.
Second step, remove the staples. All 4 gazillion. Each layer removed showed more staples on the layer underneath. Oh my ....

The cambric dust fabric is free.

The piping is removed.

I started on the staples to remove the atrocious pleather and my hubby said to leave it on to put 1 more layer of something between us and the foam. It felt smooth enough so I agreed. Plus it is less work. There are so very many staples holding the fabric down.

I measured and cut a piece of fabric. Centered the cushion on it. Pulled up the edge, put the staple gun against the surface, squeeze.
Nothing.
Check that the electric stapler is turned on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Check that the power strip is on.
Squeeze. Nothing.
Now I'm flipping switches like a crazy person.
Check the pressure do hickey on the stapler. Check the cord, power strip and on/off button again.
Squeeze. Bing! Success!
One staple down!
What can I say, I'm gifted, LOL.

I stapled in the center of each side as instructed.
Stapled more moving out to the corner.
Tried to follow the directions to make a smooth corner.

The corners are not smooth

Totally mucked that up, LOL.
It's staying as is for now. If I get the technique learned I will come back, pull the staples and redo it. Otherwise it will be fine. We're sitting on these cushions not showing them off to strangers.

TaDa!

Here is the mostly finished cushion. I did not trim the excess fabric from the back yet. I am sure I will learn to do this better as I do more cushions. Just in case I want to 'fix' this one, I want all the excess fabric available to me.

Edited ...
I pulled out some black broadcloth I had from another project and used it to make the 'dust' layer on the bottom of the chairs. I considered buying cambric but the shipping was going to take over a week. I wanted this project wrapped up.

One day I will have to learn how to redo the backs

The cushions are done!! I'm doing a happy dance. I love how they look and tonight my hubby reattached 2 cushions to the chairs, so we ate dinner in comfort. Wahoo!