Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Years Eve -- News Flash!!!

Eureka!!  Happy little dance! No...happy BIG dance!!! My 'missing' Roll Roll Cotton Boll has been found!  You have no idea how relieved I am.

All my readers in blogland and online groups all knew it was only a matter of time before it stopped playing 'hide and seek' and jumped out to where I could find it.  Tonight, after a concerted "Please Lord!!  I REALLY want to find that quilt.  YOU know where it is.  Can you please tell ME???"

I realized that there was one packing box I had not checked in our upstairs landing (on the same floor as my sewing room).  I was thrilled when the box on top was moved to reveal these sweet words:  "Sewing Room".  Heart beats a little faster.

Open the box...oh goodie!  oh goodie!  There it is!  Exactly how I remember leaving it.  What a wonderful gift to close out 2011.  Thank you my dear Lord who cares about the small things that concern us and make us fret.  You are SO good!

Here she is:


exactly as I remember putting you away.  What a HUGE sigh of relief.  I was so worried that somehow it had gotten given away to Value Village in one of our trips to get rid of stuff.

OK...now I can relax and let 2012 happen.  Party on people!

And I shall party on with Orca Bay Step 4 and onwards tonight.  Here's a photo of my Step 4 string triangles:

66 out of 128 done.  I'm only halfway??  Oh well...soldier on I shall and get these babies finished.  The colours in my photo taken by my blackberry make them look more brown but they are actually gold through to rusty red.  I'm very happy with how they play with my aquas and black/whites:



OK...back to my sewing room I go.  I just couldn't keep the good news to myself!

Happy little quilting dance!
Mavis

Friday, December 30, 2011

Orca Bay Progress Report & a Finish!

I'm stuck on step 5 of the Orca Bay mystery quilt on Quiltville's blog here.  Maybe I should recount my foundation papers because the pile doesn't seem to be getting any smaller.  I had a great sewing day with my friend Terry yesterday.  We ended at about 4:30 pm, just about the time our realtor called to say there was a showing request for the next morning (today!).

I looked around at 'quilting central' in my sewing room, and knew we had a lot of work to do to get the house ready to show.  So, long story short, my step 5 is still in progress.  I'm loving the colours of my rusty red triangle strings.

I have done nothing on Step 6 or 7 and am hoping to get caught up before the big New Years Day reveal!  Wish me luck...

But here's something I did manage to finish this week during my vacation days:


This is one of the quilt tops I finished at my November retreat.  And this was my first bigger quilt done on my B-Line frame with my Janome 6500.  Not a bad job but definitely still in the 'practice' category.  But the important thing is that my daughter LOVES the quilt.  It's got a minky type backing on it which was a challenge in itself but that's what my daughter wanted, so minky it was.  And batting too.  Yup...quilt top + batting + minky.  It's a heavy quilt that will be sure to keep her warm.

I better catch some sleep if I hope to get those triangles done tomorrow.  It's been a long day.

Until next time,
Mavis

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

There's a monkey in my house!

But it's all good because I created him!  I made a jelly roll races quilt and it looked kind of 'jungle like' and I really thought it needed a critter...a monkey in fact.


so, the monkey is now affixed to the quilt top.  Next step is to stitch him down (I did fusible applique) and then quilt it.  I am hoping to deliver this quilt to my grand-nephew on Boxing Day so I have a ways to go between now and then.  But it's so fun, don't you think?

Until next time,
Mavis

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Orca Bay - Step 3 Done!!!

I'm elated!  I'm excited!  And I'm exhausted!  But all 350 half-square triangles in blacks and neutrals are done, de-papered, pressed and grouped in 10s.  I'm so excited.  I'm always one of the last ones to finish Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts.  But we're on step 3 and I'm all caught up and it's only Saturday.  I have almost a whole week until the next clue!  \o/   Yay!

But never fear...I have a ton of quilts to work on.  Check out my UFO page and you'll see what I mean.  I'm about to load up a quilt for my daughter onto my quilting frame and do some machine quilting.  I have a 'new to me' B-Line quilt frame, which together with my Janome 6500, is going to be a much more efficient way to get through some of these quilt tops.  I'm pretty excited.


Here is a picture of all my black & white blocks playing so nicely together:


and the Step 2 aqua string blocks, all done!


I'm LOVING these colours!  The only colours that haven't been used yet are the reds.  I can hardly wait to see where we go next with this mystery.

Time to clean up my sewing space a bit. And tuck these little beauties away safe and sound.  And I'm going to try again to find my Roll Roll Cotton Boll missing quilt.  It may be time to clean out a closet or two.  It may have been tucked away in my bedroom closet when staging the house for sale.  It's still bugging me that I haven't found it.  Come out, come out, wherever you are!!!

Until next time,
Mavis

Friday, December 2, 2011

Be Kind to Myself Day!!!

It's Friday morning.  There is a new clue online for the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, "Orca Bay".  I have the day off and got to sew some blocks on the same day as the clue was released.  This is a first for me since I'm a Mon to Fri 9-5 girl.

Every two weeks I have an appointment for an enzyme infusion which means I am hooked up to an IV for about 2 hours every second Friday.  In the interest in spreading the word about orphan diseases and funding for them outside the normal provincial medical plans, I am providing some links:
www.fabry.org
http://www.rarediseases.org/

Fabry Disease is one of the many orphan diseases that needs some air-time.  Our story of a quick diagnosis is as rare as the disease itself.  Help spread the word in the hopes of early diagnosis for those yet unaware that they have it or other orphan diseases.  More info is available on both of these websites.  But back to today...

Today is infusion day for me. I have to be there at 12:45.  This morning, I decided to do something kind to myself...something special...

There is a new bistro in our neighbourhood called Cherries Breakfast Bistro.  I decided to pop down there this morning and check it out.  Wow!  I looked at the menu and saw that they do an all day breakfast and chose the Florentine Eggs Benny.  Yummo!


It was every bit as good as it looks.  I shared some bites with my DH.  I would have bought him one too but he was supposed to be gone by the time I got home.  He's off to the mainland to play with his band at 2 gigs.  What does this mean?  SEWING time for me...guilt free!

So now, that breakfast is taken care of, I'm off to the sewing machine to get in some play time before my infusion.  Then, because of the Benadryl they give me, it will be a nap this afternoon and then probably some more sewing this evening.

Oh yes, and I will either take my kindle or some hand sewing to the infusion to help pass the time in the chair.  I'm reading this 

and it's a great read.   I also have some hand applique that I could take if I could get a kit together in short order.  But then again, I would really love to spend this morning sewing on step 3 rather than gathering a project together.

So, off I go now to do some sewing.  I'll post some pictures later tonight after some progress and that wonderful afternoon nap.

Until then,
Mavis


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Orca Bay Mystery Quilt progress report

I am loving this mystery so far.  All of my 224 hourglass blocks are done and I'm just over half way through the itty bitty aqua string blocks. I think I'm up to 40 something.


Here's a sneak peak so far:
Aren't they the cutest?  The photo makes them look big but they are dainty 3.5" squares.  I haven't removed the paper backing yet.  That will be a future task during TV time.

And I'm taking the day off tomorrow.  I have an appointment in the afternoon but thought I would indulge myself with some sewing on Clue 3 in the morning.  I'm pretty excited about it.  So far I've used my black, my neutrals (for the hourglass blocks) and my aquas (for the strings).  That leaves the rusty reds who haven't yet had a chance to play.  Maybe their turn is tomorrow.  Morning will tell for sure.  :o)



In the meantime, I'm so cozy under my blankie with my dear doggy (we're both cold this evening) and I'm not sure I have the energy to finish my step 2 string blocks tonight.  I'm happy to camp out on the couch with the remote and some TV time.  X-factor is on tonight and we're down to the final 5 tonight.  That might be enough excitement for me tonight.

Until tomorrow when I check here for step 3... after drinking some of this:



 and then some more string blocks or just forging ahead with step 3.  I'll see how I feel in the morning.

Until then, happy sewing!
Mavis