Oh, right! It's Bonnie K. Hunter's annual mystery quilt time! This year it's called Grand Illusion as she got the inspiration from the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. For the link, click here. I know what you're thinking right now... I should finish up the quilt tops I have already. But isn't it a lot easier to just start a new one? I have all the intentions of finishing the ones I have, don't get me wrong... But that would mean totally organizing myself, which right now I'm not quiet ready to do.
And I know Part 1, and Part 2 are out already, but I'm a little slow this year. I was away on Thanksgiving weekend when the first clue came out, then things came up, and I never started. Yet :) And to be honest, after I saw Part 2, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Easy Angle ruler. Yes, I have to admit, I'm not a specialty ruler person, but since it's the 3rd mystery quilt I'm doing with her, and by now I noticed she loves to use this ruler, I might as well spend the $7.50 (+tax) it costs. Maybe it's me getting older, and lazier to calculate the math it's involved, or might be the person inside me saying why waste all that fabric making the diamond units with the cut-away-the-corner-triangles method, I'm not sure. It is what it is :)
Most important of all, I picked my fabrics. It wasn't easy, as I'm working with my stash (trying not bo buy fabric if I really don't have to...). The greens were a real challenge. I still haven't decided if I should use all blacks, or black and whites for the blacks, but seeing people's units for the first part, I think I'll be safe mixing up both. We shall see :)
Other than this, no sewing done since the last post, except that I got the belt and bobbin winder I ordered for the Singer 27. I think by now Fiance is not against me keeping it, I just have no idea where I'll put the table. Right now it's in the garage, covered all the way in the back, serving as a snow tire rack :)
So for this year's mystery I selected the following fabrics:
The whites are nothing exciting, tone-on-tones:
The 2 hand dyes in this pile were hand dyed by me about 12 years ago using the shaving cream technique as seen on Simply Quilts :)
Jaye (@artquiltmaker) helped me to pick out my greens:
All together:
I had an accident... when cleaning the vintage treadle sewing machine :( while trying to disassemble the bobbin winder, part of it broke :(
A close-up shot here (with cat hair and all now that I'm looking at it):
Luckily I could get the exact part by ordering online, I haven't changed it yet. In the mean time I ordered a new belt, which also came. Now we "only" have to bring the table upstairs and install the belt to see how it works. Fingers crossed!
During Thanksgiving break I had my name day (which we used to celebrate when I lived in Hungary, not so much anymore). DF got me this beautiful bouquet of roses. As you can see Roxy kitty was trying to have a taste. Lucked out with the little white flowers. Guess they didn't taste too good, because after the first attempt she luckily gave up.
When I came back home, I was obviously missed by Smoky. :)
And this little fella is growing fast! He is even showing his little white spot on his belly which is a rare moment to capture.
I will be back hopefully soon after getting my Easy Angle ruler to show my progress.
Finally I just have to share this video which quickly became my very favorite song, and listen to it first thing every morning, several times. I am a huge Lord of The Rings and Hobbit fan, and love this song! Hope you like it, too!
'Til we blog again! :)