Slow progress.

Friday the eight and final part of the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt was revealed. As we had been cutting and making components over the past weeks, the time has come to assemble these parts into blocks for the making of the quilt.

The corner blocks.

These are the set in blocks, the quilt is on point. Very creative set in triangles.

Baked bread early this morning, new flour which we have never used before. Perfect for baking bread.

Reds.

January is already halfway done. Needless to say I have not jumped in and worked on all my red blocks. Above are the shoo-fly blocks for Omygosh. Some blocks will have a red square and others will have another colour. Have quite a lot of red blocks, which was discovered when all the triangle square blocks was sorted into groups of four for each block.

Finding the way will be my second RSC22 project. It has three rounds of triangle squares in every colour. This one will be called "Groundhog Day", as it will be the second time I will be making this pattern. With the first one, the fabric was all earmarked for that quilt and all the fabrics got cut into squares. Once the quilt was made, a count was done of the leftover squares and it turned out there are enough for a second quilt.

Since the start of January the sorting and the tidy up of the sewing room yielded another group of fabrics from fat eight bundles, reds, blues, creams all in the same colour families. Some with stars, dots, florals, geometric shapes and paisleys. For now they will be sewn into triangle squares, not too sure how far what I have will go towards a fullsize quilt.

The mystery quilt part eight was released on friday, so it will be worked on and assembled a little bit everyday until the top is done.

All the parts we made and some which had to wait for the mystery quilt reveal by Bonnie Hunter.

It has been a slow start and it is a much better start to the year. Perfect for the cold weather our side, we woke up to -32C!

Mystery quilt progress.

The progress on part seven of Bonnie Hunter's mystery is slow this week. The reason is the sewing room is slowly taking on a tidy look and a more organized space. It felt overwhelming at the start, have incorporated a chunk of time just for cutting parts of projects, after sorting the washed and ironed fabrics into project boxes.

Have cut some more squares from fabrics which I bought while we were in South Africa last. Needed more variety and colour. This quilt will be infused with happy and bright colours.

A long arm quilter always ask us to iron the top, to make it easier to quilt the top and also to make a quilt more flat and even. All round the back can effect the front, in a manner of speaking.

Each step is important. Trimming the blocks to the correct size, after making these hour glass blocks. Spinning the seams make these centers lie flat. Adding them to the connecting blocks and then the sashings. Taking extra care and a little bit more time and the backs of said block becomes a thing of beauty.

As we want to look after our sewing machines, our workhorses when creating the tops. It only makes sense to do the same when we come to quilt them, either by machine or hand. It is an act of kindness, to both!

What a mess…

This year it is a slow start with a big mess. Why the mess? Last year time flew by and towards the end of the year, it was just easier to ignore the mess in my sewing room.

The house got all spring cleaned and tidy up. It just makes the start to a new year so much lighter. I knew the sewing room was turning into clutter piles, the only way to address it permanently was just not to just pack it away. These fabrics was sorted, I now know greens, orange and a few other colours are required. Have enough reds, blues and browns.

The French General packet of fabric needs to be emptied, cut and used(the plastic bag is falling apart, a sure sign something needs to be done about said fabrics). Have two patterns which should use most of these fabrics.

The stems needs to be finished on this vase for the red and white Love Entwined quilt.

My RSC22 project is these blocks, all along I called them churn dash blocks when they are in actual fact shoo-fly blocks?

All along I was thinking about these blocks and pattern when prepping these blocks?

Part seven of Bonnie Hunters mystery was released on friday, this is the next block.

These pieces are cut. Sewing them will happen this week.

Fat eights sorted and ready for washing and ironing. ( I have become a fabric washer after making a king size quilt and the fabrics bleeding. We have all been there and it is heart wrenching.) Another snowy day starts and an apple crumble will be baked today. Starting the year slowly, sorting things systematically to create order and increase slow progress. The tortoise and the hare, worked last year. A pace that was doing things at a pace that was slower, yet worked so much better in the long run. Patterns which was collected, kitted up from my stash and waiting in the wings... So for this year only one project for RSC22, Omygosh! It will allow me to work on these projects, finding a daily routine in this crazy world with yet more restrictions and lockdowns. The past eighteen months saw lots of finished projects, quilt tops and more, a silver lining to all that is happening externally!

Today is a tidy up day.

We always send and receive christmas cards. They are displayed along with all the other festive decorations. Today it is the fifth of January, all of these decorations will be packed away and the house will be cleaned.

The first block is started for the Christmas Baltimore block. The pine needles is embroidered using a stem stitch.

Also found some other fabrics for the Angel wings. Will work on this block this month.

Red is January's colour for RSC22, have a number of projects with lots of red in it. Last year these pieces were put aside to start when we have red again. Will be sorting all the projects this coming week and slowly adding the others, once they have been found. What can I say, it is a mess and it needs to be sorted.

Last November I turned the sewing room upside down for these African animal prints, they where folded in with this blue fabric? Found it yesterday, after a lovely chat with my sisters.

Which prompted me to look at the collection of Swe-swe fabrics from South Africa. I need some more variety and colours.

There are gaps, which needs to be filled to get the colour balance right.

My sister's are going to help me with this project, once it is sorted. This will be the second time I will make Finding my way.

Originally made one for my brother and his wife in Australia, in the process I just cut all the fabrics into squares. I had cut enough squares for almost a second quilt.

The pattern is from the book Creating Heirlooms by Carolyn Konig. Quiltmania has stock of this book, it is filled with so many patterns. (The Hertforshire quilt pattern is in this one)similar to Mrs Billing Coverlet.

Our Christmas tree has a few more interesting decorations on, eh?

A Fresh Start.

It is a new year and a fresh start. Last year Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt caught my attention. Those colours of fabrics that have been taking up space, needed to be used. it was mostly what was in that collection of fabrics waiting for one day. Above is part six finished. It has been just the distraction I needed while the news have done a crazy yet again.

Needless to say with all this crazy in the world more projects have seen a finish, some was never in the pipeline. They got started, finished and are a distant memory already. All the other components of the mystery quilt awaiting their turn to be used in the bigger picture.

While sewing the mystery, the enders and leaders are my four patch blocks for Omygosh churndash blocks.

Received this pattern set for Christmas almost nine years ago? Pulled out the box, after Kate sent me just the right pink for the Angels dresses.

Will be making a slow start on it a little later today, first we have to go and shovel some snow. it started last night and it is still ongoing until later this evening.

So Scrappy will be hosting the colour challenge again this year. Will definitely be joining this year again, because of RSC2021 Omygosh is becoming a quilt top. All those nine patch blocks got done last year, this year it will be the churn dash blocks. This basket is where all the scraps go for it. Counted how many four patch blocks are still required, 119 in total. They will be a goal for this month as well as all the red blocks. Have a stack of the four patches ready to be used in blocks already, so it will be a good jumping off point to making the alternating churn dash blocks.

Part five of the mystery quilt.

Part five is done. It feels great to see such progress.

All the parts together. Part six will be released in the new year.