Easy Street
Week 4 - Construction Begins

Up to this point we've made small units in large quantities - 192 fourpatches, 128 flying geese of one species (purple bodies, black and white wings) and shaded fourpatches. 

This week, we made flying geese again - but geese of a different species.  These have purple bodies and teal/turquoise aqua wings - maybe cousins the the first batch of geese.  And then, we were instructed to stitch 64 pairs of geese - black and white winged species on the top, with the turqoise/aqua cousin on the bottom:

 

 

 

Then,we were told to cut 145  3-1/2" squares from the apple green fabrics.......I'm all done and anxious to get the  next set of instructions tomorrow morning.

 

Easy Street Week 3

The Challenge Continues.................

I'm up early this morning, and thought I'd be a real early bird at the link-up that Bonnie Hunter is hosting for this EASY STREET MYSTERY quilt challenge.  But it appears that I didn't get up early enough - I checked the link up site at 7amCST and there were already 40+ postings there from my fellow "mystery quilt-trippers".

So the assignment for this week was to make 68 of these guys - Bonnie calls them "shaded  four patches"  And I've got them done, all with avariety of purple squares, turquoise traingles and the black-on-white prints for the small triangles:

 Judging from the pictures they've posted, I'm in good company as I try to figure out how all these little quilt units are going to work with each other.

So we've made 192 of these:

and 128 of these

and now 64 of these:

I will admit to playing around with the units yesterday afternoon - the possibilities are mind-boggling and we've not used any of the apple green fabrics yet!

Until the next clue is released on Friday morning, I'll work on something else..................

EASY STREET - Week 2

It's Thursday morning of week 2 of this mystery quilt adventure.  I'm still on track, but there have been issues...........

Last week's assignment was to make 192 fourpatches - I can make fourpatches with the best of them, and had them all finished by Monday.

 
 They're all pressed, and ready to become part of a real quilt.

Then Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com) released the instructions for week 2 - make 128 flying geese..............FLYING GEESE!?!?

I've been making quilts since 1989.  I had some bad experiences early on with triangles.  Since Flying Geese have 3 triangles, I have avoided learning how to make them.  I guess it's time I figures this out.

So, I've learned how to use two specialty rulers recommended by Bonnie - and started  slicing and dicing fabric (purples for the geese with black on white prints for the "wings")

 

 

and started stitching:

I've got 25 done - only 103 to go! 
I'm planning to spend the evening in my studio with a bunch of purple geese - and a glass of wine!

Easy Street, Week 2

OK, I can  make fourpatches with the best of them, so last week's "assignment" was easy.......

So, 192 fourpatches all done, pressed and waiting to be attached to something else.

This week's assignment - 128 flying geese.......I hate flying geese.

My First Mystery Quilt  - Week One


So, I've made the commitment to make a quilt called "EASY STREET" with Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com). I've shopped (in my stash, mostly) for the fabrics that she recommended:

Yes, I found all the fabrics except the grey in the foreground in my stash.

When I signed on to Facebook early Friday (11-23-2012) morning, I found that Bonnie had posted the first set of instructions - I need to make 192 fourpatches (finished size 3") from 2" strips of the grey and the black-on-white prints.

It's now Sunday morning - and I've made a lot of progress:

I've got about 100 done - I'll finish the rest while watching the Packer game this evening.

I've been promising myself that I would write a blog since May of this year - maybe this is finally the right time.

I'vew recently become a fan of Bonnie Hunter and the quilts that she designs.  Her website is www.quiltville.com - loads of patterns (free!) and a real commitment to the scrappy quilt concept. 

Bonnie has recently launched a Mystery Quilt - fabric requirements were published about 10 days ago, and instructions will be posted in steps on Fridays starting on the day after Thanksgiving.  We 'll build the quilt in components, and won't know the final "design" until the end....that's the mystery!

I shopped (in my fabric stash) and found 90% of what I needed.  Colors are turquoise/aqua , limey-apple greens, purples and assorted black-on-white prints.  I did have to go shopping for the neutral gray that the project requires.  I'll make one more trip to JoAnn Fabrics today and use my coupon to get new rotaray cutter blades.  Then, I'll wait for the Friday morning release of the first set of instructions.  

I've never done a mystery quilt before....although I will admit that I have often started quilts with no clear vision of what the end result would be. A perfect example is in the works in my sewing studio right now.

I saw this pattern made with shirting plaids at my guilds recent show....the simplicity of the blocks and the perky little stars really appealed to me. I've been wanting to make a blue and yellow quilt (size undetermined at that point), so this seemed like a perfect choice. I believe the pattern is called "Thousand Points of Light" from Fons & Porter.

Well, here we are  about two weeks later, and I've pieced a queen-sized quilt.  I've added a solid blue border and will bind it in a yellow print when the quilting is complete.  I think I may hand quilt this is a simple grid pattern.....I'll make that decision later.  For now, I'm happy to have the top pieced.   

I think I'll go sweep the sewing room floor..............