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!