Two Colour Mystery Quilt

Hmm, I said maybe I'd put the Two Colour Mystery Quilt together next week - wonder where my mind was. The last clue came out yesterday! I decided to just go for it. I know I don't have time to quilt it right now but it is together.

I really like it and the borders really add to the design! Next time I'd like more contrast between the colors though. The red/white quilts that were made during the mystery were striking! The Two Colour Mystery was fun and Joanne wrote clear, easy to follow instructions. You can see her blog and her patterns at Canuck Quilter Designs. The pattern for Two Colour Mystery is called Half 'N Half.

Quilt Updates

I want to share photos of some WIPs. First the Two Colour Mystery QAL - this week we are putting all of the previously made units together into blocks. It's too late to join the quilt-a-long but the pattern has been released for purchase. It's called Half 'N Half.

At the recent retreat, I began sewing units together to make the blocks. I was more than 90% done when I stopped to measure a block. Oops! I forgot that I didn't have a 1/4" foot on my Featherweight so my block was too small (seams were too big). I just put everything away and Monday I began ripping. I have now finished the ripping, the pressing, and the sewing so I have all of my blocks made in the correct size. Whew!

I think you'd be able to see the pattern better if I had used two plain colors. I'm looking forward to put the whole quilt together - maybe next week.

The top of the hockey quilt is done. My design wall isn't big enough so I took two photos.

First Half

Second Half

I put the quilt on the floor and took another photo. It is flat; I just didn't get on the floor to straighten it out.

The numbers going around one corner are the recipient's all time favorite Blackhawks. The opposite corner has the numbers of his current favorite Blackhawks. When I quilt this, I plan to put in the players' names and more.

I learned about Potato Chip blocks from Joy at The Joyful Quilter.  While at the retreat, I enjoyed making a large potato chip quilt with a Thimbleberries bundle. The pieces were 6.5" by 12.5". 

I also made some 12" Potato Chip blocks. I now have 16 blocks done with scraps from a quilt top that's in the to-be-quilted pile. One of these days, these blocks will become a quilt. It's really fun to sew potato chip blocks.

We had bad storms go through last night and received lots of rain with strong winds. Today the temps are in the 50s but it is very dreary. It's a good day for quilting! Of course everyday is a good day for quilting.

Some finishes and other news

When I was looking through some fabric recently, I came across a fat quarter bundle that I recently inherited from my late friend Colleen. I decided to make Triple Star and I found some background fabric to use with it. I've seen various pictures of Triple Star over the years and decided to draft a pattern. I have no idea who designed the original nor its measurements. My quilt is 62 inches square. 

I used a meandering stitch and Glide #24655 Light Tan thread to quilt this.

The back of this donation quilt is a speckled tan from my stash.

There was quite a bit of fabric left from the fat quarter bundle and I figured that if I added a little fabric (the leftover backing from Triple Star), I could make two more quilts. Squares with Light is a 49" by 55" donation quilt. 

I quilted this with Glide #24655 Light Tan thread and used ruler work. I made simple diamonds within diamonds. 

The backing is a speckled brown fabric that I bought in February.

The other quilt from the scraps is Squares which is also 49" by 55" and a donation quilt. I had to piece two squares, using the same fabric, to have just enough to make this quilt.

I again used Glide #24655 Light Tan thread for the quilting. On this quilt I used diagonal scribble quilting in opposite directions on every other square. 

The backing is the same speckled brown fabric that I bought in February.

And just like that I have used all of that fabric! 

In other news: 

I just returned from a quilting retreat with three friends. We had a great time - a little sewing, delicious food, great weather, and a wonderful time visiting. I'll share projects when I have enough done to share - recall, I said we did a little sewing. 

Ray has spent a lot of time at doctors since the end of January. He has recurrent prostate cancer. He had cancer 10 years ago and his prostate was removed. Evidently a small cancer cell was left behind even though they had clear cells all around the cancer at the time of surgery. The urologist suggested that a small cell might have been dropped as the prostate was removed. Ray had a PET scan in March and cancer cells have been located in a hard-to-treat location. Our 'local' hospital cannot treat the cancer as they would like. So we will meet with an oncologist at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center next week. UW has some treatments that our 'local' hospital doesn't have. We pray that they will have an effective, direct treatment that can be used. In the meantime, Ray is doing well. We are both anxious to get treatment started so we can move forward.

Time Passes

This finish happens at the perfect time since we turned our clocks ahead 1 hour late tonight or early tomorrow morning. I began this quilt in late December after reading a fictional quilting story that used a similar pattern. They used light with dark hourglass blocks of an unknown size, no sashing and arranged the dark triangles alternating between horizontal and vertical. I decided to use all kinds of scraps (I was definitely in scrap clean-out mode) and decided my quilt needed sashing. Time Passes is donation quilt measuring 51" by 53".

Here's a closer photo.

I quilted this with spiral loops using Glide #17443 Bone thread on the back and #80607 Lemon Ice on the top. 

The back is colored circles which was in my stash. Whenever I'm fabric shopping, I look at the wide backings. If there is something I don't often see or that I think I will use, it might come home with me. It's nice to have a good option in my stash.

I laundered the quilt and took photos. Then I saw a four spots where colors had run. Now the quilt has been laundered again   after I treated the spots with Dawn detergent and all is well.

Be sure to set your clocks ahead!

Finshes, Two-Coloured Mystery, Hockey Quilt

I have a couple finishes. I think this is the end of the panels from my late friend Colleen.

Bright Animals is 39" x 46". I wasn't sure what to do with this panel and I didn't seem to have anything to use for a border so I just added a back and quilted it with Glide Steel Blue #38201 thread on the front and Bone #17443 on the back.

I quilted this donation quilt with a meandering motif. 

The back is from my stash.

ABCs is another donation quilt and finished at 37" by 49".

I used light turquoise #32975 Glide thread to quilt this with a loop de loop design. I did figure eights on the ends. 

 

The back is a multi-colored pattern from my stash.

The second clue of the Two-Colour Mystery came out this morning. Joanne gives some tips each week. This week she talked about checking for an exact seam allowance. I hadn't stopped and checked mine for a while so I checked this morning. All's good!

This clue was easy and the pieces went together quickly. I have everything finished for the week but of course, I'm only making a lap size quilt. The instructions are really clear and easy to follow.

Now I'm drawing some diagonal lines on a few pieces - Joanne said we could get a head start on some future weeks since this clue was a faster one. If you still want to join, click here or type in https://www.canuckquilterdesigns.com/. You need to sign up before April 11 to get all of the clues for free.

Work is progressing on the hockey quilt. Bet you can't guess the favorite hockey team! The letters are all pieced from my own patterns. My requirements were 1) each letter finishes at 4"x7" and 2) all parts of the letter are 1" wide.  

It took a little work to make the B and the W. And then it took a lot of work and chocolate to make the K and the S. I'm so glad they all look okay (at least they do to me!).

My plan is to have the words on the sides and ends of the quilt. The top will be a hockey rink. I have my plans drawn to scale and I now have all the fabrics, I think. Guess it's time to begin on the rink...

Hello March and a New Mystery Quilt Along

It sure doesn't seem like March with temps in the 70s today although it's been very windy. 

I've done some quilting. This quilt top is now finished. If I had a back, it might be on the frame.

This quilt top is finished and I recently bought some backing. I just need to put it on the frame and quilt it.

I began a Mystery Quilt - I think I mentioned it in my last post,

Leap Into the Two-Colour Mystery Quilt-Along. Joanne, of Canuck Quilter Designs, has released the first clue and everything is very clear and easy to follow. It's not too late to sign up. If you are interested. the link is here. The first clue came out on Leap Day and we've been asked not to release any measurements so I covered my cutting mat with white fabric to show some of my cut pieces. This is a two color quilt so now you know what my two fabrics look like; I guess my two colors are blue and multi-colored!

I've finally started a Chicago Blackhawks quilt. This has been in the works for some time but It's taken a while to assemble the various fabrics. I began with making the letter C. The 34 letters on the front of the quilt will be pieced and 6 of them are 'C'. It's an easy letter to piece and is black on red.

I'm hoping to make lots of progress in the next month.

A Good Week!

It's been a good, fun week. One day we went to Madison, WI and donated quilts to American Family Children's Hospital (UW Children's Hospital). That is always a rewarding trip for me. I took 20 quilts this time. I have more finished but I decided that since I've slowed down a bit, I'd make sure I'd leave a couple for the next trip too.

On the same day, Ray bought a new laptop computer and a monitor. Now we are in the process of figuring out how to move all his photos (RAW format) to the iCloud. This hasn't been a favorite part of my week but it is necessary. I think Ray still thinks he has his own computer expert. Ha!

Earlier in the week, I made a Mashed Potato Pie and it was good! It did not taste like potatoes - it tasted like a custard pie! I saw the recipe on Facebook, I think, and it is from a 1914 Methodist Church Cookbook from Hamilton, OH.

Irish Potato Pie

Unbaked pie shell (this wasn't mentioned in the recipe)

2 c boiled mashed potatoes (leftovers)

1 c cream (I used 3/4c milk and 1/4 c melted butter)

1 c sugar

3 egg yolks

dash nutmeg

Mix well.

Fold in beaten egg whites.

Bake at 375 degrees 50 minutes or until set (Mine took 65 minutes). Watch closely so it doesn't burn - may need to cover with foil. Refrigerate - this is a custard pie.

We also dipped some strawberries in chocolate. I don't ever remember doing this before. It was easy and our strawberries are huge. These are so good!

I have one quilt finish - Whale and Octopus. It's another panel quilt (I think I'm just about finished with the panels - there may be one more.) I sewed the three borders using a chain stitch on the serger because I wanted to try that. Using serger thread, which is lighter in weight, there isn't even a bump where the seam is. I was impressed. 

The quilt finished at 45" by 55". I quilted this with a meander stitch using Aurifil 40-wt #32975 light turquoise thread. 

The back is a tone on tone turquoise water print from my stash. This is another donation quilt.

I am waiting to begin a hockey quilt but my fabric hasn't arrived from Missouri Star. This is the first time that I've ordered from MSQC since the Pandemic when my order took 3 weeks to arrive. I thought things would be better. My fabric, ordered 1/31/24, arrived in New Berlin, WI on 2-2-24. It appears that it left there this morning for Chicago. Yesterday there was an Alert saying "No scheduled delivery date available at this time.". Today there is a message: "Scheduled Delivery Date 2/20/24 by end of day". Today is 2/10/24. My order was sent by FedEx SmartPost. I've been in touch with MSQC and they are doing nothing, saying their hands are tied. I think this will be my last order from MSQC unless they change carriers or I can choose my own carrier. 

I began a bargello quilt with a bundle of 29 fabrics - I decided that this might be fun. I've never made a bargello quilt but I have played with the concept before. After looking at pictures and doing a little research, here is the beginning:

Sorry about the shadows - one of my evening photos.

I think I found an important piece of advice about the seam pressing - Press each strip opposite (seams going inward or outward for each strip).

 

The seams nest well with the pressing. I have an odd number of strips so I have to switch one seam on some pieces as I sew the final strips together. 

I've also signed up to make a mystery quilt, Leap Into the Two-Colour Mystery Quilt-Along. I like Joanne's quilts (Canuck Quilter Designs) and think this will be fun. If you are interested, the link is here. I'm not sure what my two colors will be and I'm toying with the idea of using a print and a high-contrast plain. I do know the fabrics will come from my stash. Guess I'll decide around Leap Day when the first clue is released.

We've been enjoying our spring weather and our snow is gone. I think that means winter will return soon...