A Happy Dance for Me :)

I had a happy dance just before Thanksgiving and forgot to share ....shame on me :).  I actually finished sewing a quilt mystery before the next one started.  I finished Grand Illusion by Bonnie Hunter which is now available here Grand Illusion Digital Download.  I used the colors recommended as I'm not brave enough yet to try my own.

Now I will need to press it, make and backing for it, have a few ideas for that, and then send it to be quilted, but all that will have to wait until after Christmas.  I think I'm going to put it on the bed in my guest bedroom when finished.

Allietare Part 1

I have been working on part one of  Allietare Mystery by Bonnie Hunter the past 2 days.  I got a later start then most, I have a good excuse, I was visiting this little cutie

for Thanksgiving and got home really, really late on Saturday, it may have even been Sunday. I did spend time yesterday cutting out stripes of gray and neutral and have about 60 half square triangles done now.

So tomorrow I'll cut more and sew more and maybe by Friday I will be ready to start clue 2, or maybe not but either way I'm getting it done, slowly but surely.  

 You can check out other folk's progress on this new mystery at mystery-monday-link-up-allietare-part-1

What I do when I'm not quilting :)

I have an  Etsy Shop that has been sorely neglected over the past year or so but I am motivated to get more stuff in there.  Aprons of course and dishcloths but after all it is called  Withthisneedle so I need to put other things I do with needles in there.  However I have been working for the past 2 days on cute Halloween Aprons that will go up today or tomorrow (whenever I get a chance to take better pictures of them).

It has been so pretty here the last few days that I finally got outside and did some weeding.  I have much more to do but it’s a good start and I took my poor little Leia for a much deserved walk around the block, she was so happy to go I will have to take her again later, maybe after supper if I have any energy left J.  

A fresh quilting start

I have been bitten by the quilting bug.  I got nipped over 30 years ago but life got in the way as it usually does and since I also love to Cross Stitch that one won out for most of my life.  I won’t lie, Cross Stitch is my first love, but this quilting thing has bite me hard.  I think part of it is because it is harder to see what I’m stitching and watch TV at the same time.  I can see close up but not far away.  I love to sit and stitch and watch TV.  With sewing I really don’t have that issue, I can see to sew and my TV is pretty close too in the sewing room, it’s usually on for noise though.

Anyway, this bug started almost 2 years ago when an online friend posted a link to Bonnie Hunter’s http://quiltville.blogspot.com/ Mystery quilt for that year, which was Celtic Solstice.  I loved the idea of working on it week by week (how fast that didn’t happen is too funny for words).  I learned a few things though but working on it, and no it is nowhere near finished and may not be for a good while.  I learned from this experience the importance of 100% accuracy when cutting and sewing.  I learned the importance and scant quarter inch versus a regular quarter inch.  All my parts and make for this quilt but they are make correctly as I discovered when I started putting them together. 

Fast forward to last Thanksgiving, a new mystery came out Grand Illusions and I was ready for that one too J  I took what I learned from CS and applied it to GI and though I am not done yet I promise my parts are accurate and will go together like they should.

When you do a Bonnie mystery she gives you the list of colors she used around Halloween and the first clue comes out the day after Thanksgiving, they are free in her shop until around sometime in June, then you can buy them in a digital download here http://quiltville.com/shop.html#!/Digital-Downloads/c/13038426/offset=0&sort=normal if she doesn’t plan on putting in into an upcoming book.  You can get CS and GI there now.  I have however saved all my clues on my computer and a flash drive so I can actually get them done.

So the reason for this intro of sorts is to explain the purpose of this post.  Precision, you have to be very accurate when cutting out your bits of fabric and you have to be precise when sewing them together.  I have learned the hard way i.e. Celtic Solstice that it is   important to measure and cut right in order to sew it correctly and even that must be done correctly. 

I have my tools, my iron, a very good rotary cutter and mat, a good ruler and very good scissors.  I also bought  Bonnie Hunter's ruler for making sure I have my scant quarter inch for sewing. 

I put some of the flex tap on the back of all my rulers so they don’t slide when I am using them.  I also used the tape to make the quarter inch on my sewing machine so my seams are all the same.  So far it seems to be working well for me.

I am working on clue 4 of GI and will be doing 5 next week then the real test will begin will they all line up correctly but that is for another day J

This and That

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything here, keep saying I'm going to do better but that doesn't always happen.

Have had a busy year so far though.  My in-laws came for a visit to avoid the nasty Midwest winter, they came in February and went home the day after Easter.  It was a very nice visit and I am happy they were able to come and enjoy the milder weather down here in Georgia.

I have been plugging away on the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusions Mystery quilt http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/grand-illusion-mystery.html .  I have part one done and am working on part 2, I would say I am more than half way done with part 2 :)

Last year I was blessed with a beautiful granddaughter and this month she turned 1 and moved from Chicago to RI,  my oldest son and I went up to New England for her birthday and spent the weekend there.  Of course I had to sew her a few things so I made her a few outfits, here is one of them.

And  I have made one of these for every girl in my family so why not Chloe :)

I see more outfits in Chloe's future but for now I think I will get back to my quilt making and cross stitching.