Success!

My Roll, Roll Cotton Boll quilt top is finished!

This is the largest quilt I've ever made and measures 93" x 84". It takes up the whole wall in my quilt studio! The photo isn't great because it was taken indoors at night, but you get the idea.

This was my fabric collection that I started with for this  2010 Bonnie Hunter mystery.
I loved it then and I think it made a terrific quilt, although it was kind of like a long and painful labour to birth this quilt baby! LOL


This quilt was quite an accomplishment for me since it was my first time making seminole borders and it was a challenge indeed. But I am happy with how it all turned out and pleased as punch to have a finished quilt top!
To see more finishes for November, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes link up. And to see more progress being made on the "Bonnie UFO Challenge", hop over to Jo's Country Junction.

From Quiltville

A big thank you to Bonnie Hunter for this pattern and for all the fun she has given us quilters over the years.
And now.... 
Bonnie's next mystery called Grand Illusion starts on Friday over at Quiltville. You can see my fabric choices here. Are you joining in the fun?  All the Hot Quilters are doing it! LOL

November UFO goal - RRCB

I really want to "clear the decks" before the new Bonnie Hunter mystery starts at the end of November. I am bound and determined to finish the Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll quilt top (aka "RRCB") which was the 2010 Quiltville mystery! My first job is completing the sewing of these seminole borders.

 I have sewn 4 long sections and a few smaller sections to fit together where needed. It's a fairly large quilt and I have not make this kind of border before. I think most of my hesitation about this border is that I'm afraid of the math and making them fit to the quilt top. But this month, "come hell or high water" this quilt top is getting done!
To see more finishing goals for this month, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes link up.

Design Wall Monday

You will never guess what is on my design wall today!
One of my classic UFO's is back out again...it's Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll.
I am bound and determined to finish this thing before Bonnie's next mystery starts in November. This is terrible how long it is taking me to finish this one ...it is the mystery quilt from Nov. 2010.  Sheesh, it's already 2013!

Well, I finally have the top together! I don't know why the photo loaded sideways, but just tilt your head to the left and you'll see how it looks on the design wall. It's an odd number of blocks with the layout I made, but I just didn't want to make 4 more blocks! 

Now I'm working on these seminole borders and can't wait to see how I figure out how to join them at the corners! I'm happy with how it's turning out, so maybe this month I will actually be able to finish this quilt.
To see more UFO goals, hop over to a Lovely Year of Finishes.
And to see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall of a "Beginning" Quilter

When I saw this on Quiltville, I laughed...it is ME!
I am a beginning quilter.
I do finish a few, but mostly I like starting new quilts.
And again this month I did not finish my "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" mystery that has been a failed UFO effort for two months now. Poor thing.

I did make some progress on piecing the borders, which are stitched in seminole style, and they are on my design wall today. So it's a little bit of progress, but still not a finish.
We (the quilt and I) had a chat, and I told her that she will be a beautiful quilt, but my life is just too busy right now. She is in a snit. She reminded me of all the new projects I have started this year instead of finishing her. I reminded her I am a beginning quilter!! HA HA! 
And then I placated her with vague promises of a 2013 finish deadline. Hope I can follow through! See the completed quilts for August over at A Lovely Year of Finishes. And to see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday - Getting back on the horse!

Photo by Tooni Dooni

I'm gettin' back on the horse!
The UFO horse that is!
We all know that if a horse/UFO throws you off, you need to get back at it, or it gets the better of you! 
This month I am trying again to tackle my version of Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll. 




I tried in April, but I couldn't manage it, so I'm trying again this month. So here it is - back on the design wall again! My goal is to get the quilt top sewn together, then baste, quilt and bind it.  Can it be done?!? It couldn't be done in April, but progress was definitely made. 
The first step in getting back on the UFO horse is to cautiously approach the horse and make friends again. I will speak softly and tell it how beautiful it is and how fun it would be to become a finished quilt. If it is mean to me and refuses to play nice, it's going right back in the closet! LOL 

Horse Whisperer

Did you ever read the book The Horse Whisperer? I enjoyed the book, but loved the movie ending (and Robert Redford of course) even more!
I will channel Robert Redford as I attempt to tame this huge UFO! 
Wish me luck!
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times and to see more UFO goals for August, hop over to a Lovely Year of Finishes.

UFO defeat

It was my goal to get my Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll blocks into a quilt top this month, but sadly I have to admit defeat. It's coming along well, and I am happy with how it is looking, but the sashings aren't even all attached yet. I am reminding myself that this is a big quilt, and there are 28 blocks with 20 HST points to try not to chop off, so it's really slow sewing.
Not to mention a complicated border that I haven't even thought of tackling yet.
Unfortunately, this thing is going back in the UFO closet as soon as I get the chance to stuff it in there! I need to work on something easier this month!
Hop over to Patchwork Times to see more design walls.

Bonus HST's!

Do you sew a second line on your HST's to make baby/bonus HST's???!? I am fanatical about this and always save these bits. 
When I was looking for some fabric to fill in the side setting triangles on the edges of my UFO's on pointe layout, I found a whole box FULL of little baggies of baby HST's. All sizes and colours...so much fun! 
What a great collection I have! I was remembering the projects (or trash bins) they originally came from and was so excited about what I could make with these, that I forgot what I was originally looking for!


Now what was I doing here in the closet? 

Oh yah...looking for UFO fabric! 
The fabric I had planned to use was just too pink, so I went in search of a green or brown.
So there went another evening of UFO progress/ sewing time wasted!  








Now I only have one more week to sew these blocks into a finished quilt top before the end of the month...yikes!

Design Wall Monday - Mid Month UFO Report

My UFO for the month of April (Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll) is on the design wall today. 

Some progress has been made.  The sashing strips are cut, and the blocks are being sewn into rows. I haven't made as much progress as I had hoped to by mid month, but that's okay since I met some other quilting goals in April. I finished my FUN quilt, made some mug rugs, and I machine quilted a memory quilt for a friend. 

Now it's time for some concentrated RRCB focus so I can get the blocks together and put the borders on next weekend in order to meet my goal of a finished quilt top by the end of the month.
Check out more design wall projects at Patchwork Times, and more UFO mid-month reports at A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Design Wall Monday #36

I have been working on my version of Bonnie Hunter's "Roll Roll Cotton Boll" mystery quilt from last year. Rumor has it that Bonnie may be offering another mystery this fall, and of course, I will want to start the new mystery...but I haven't finished the last one yet. So I must get back to it!
I finished step #7 in January, and made the 600 HST's as a never ending leader/ender project. I decided not to make the alternate block because I don't have enough light scraps and wanted to make the quilt from stash.
So here are my blocks finally finished and on the design wall.
Wow...that's a lot of pink!
This is the option #1 - straight layout of blocks (I have enough blocks for one more column but my design wall wasn't large enough to put them all up). I think I'll take that bright green block out (in the 3rd row)!

And this is option #2 showing part of the blocks with the on pointe layout. Using this layout would make a much larger quilt, which would be fine. When I looked at this layout on the computer screen, I wondered about a light colour sashing between the blocks (because it's just too much pink!) and pulled the blocks apart a bit more to see what it might look like with a sashing...






This is layout #3 - on pointe with a light sashing. And with the techniques I learned in the class with Martha on Saturday, I could totally see myself using a "quilting in sections" technique on this quilt!
Which layout do you prefer?
Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are working on today .

Scrappy Saturday- Pink

It's "Scrappy Saturday" of the Rainbow Challenge and the colour of the month is pink.

I decided to return to working on my Bonnie Hunter mystery (which I have heard will be removed from the website at the end of the month) and finish sewing the 600 pink HST's.
I need these HST's sewn in strips of 5 to border the blocks which I finished sewing in January. It's been a long haul...very monotonous, but made more enjoyable by listening to a book on tape/CD. I wanted to read "The Help", but the waiting list at the library was long for the book. The CD's were available, but I was unsure if I could sew and listen at the same time. Turns out that I can do both!
I have already listened to half of the book on my little pink apple computer while sewing all these pink HST's. They are done and I am ready for the next step of the mystery and the next chapter of the book!

Scrappy Saturday - Pink

It's Saturday... the day to review my efforts for the  Rainbow Challenge. My participation seems to have evolved into a predictable pattern. When the colour of the month is announced, I search through my UFO's to see if I could entice myself to work on something already started (blue UFO);  the next week I dig out some small scraps and sew up a few crumb blocks (green blocks);  next I sew a word or two for my virtues quilt (purple virtues) and if there is time left I work with the colour in any little project that suits my fancy (red hearts).
This month is PINK.   It's one of my favorite colours, but back in January I wrote a blogpost about being "pinked out" when I was working on the last mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter (click here to read that). So, to start the pink month, I searched for that mystery project in the UFO closet...hey, does anyone remember Fibber McGee or are y'all too young to know what that means about my closet??
I found the box with the billions of pink pieces and I plan to work on them until I finish that step! I need 120 of these strips of 5 HST's...I have made 50 so far, so that's only 70 more to go.
To see what other pink projects the challenge bloggers are working on, click here.

Design Wall Monday #4

I finally finished the first part of step #7 of Bonnie's mystery quilt.

I don't know why these 30 blocks took me so long to make! I just putzed along, happily sewing the blocks and listening to Pat Sloan's radio podcasts. 

I have also been working on the 600 HST's as a leader/ender project.

Although I really like pink, I must admit that I am feeling "pinked out". I feel the need to put this project away and play with some other colours for a while. So I put all the little bits and pieces into baggies and put it in the cupboard. I have 1 more week to finish up my January UFO, so I'm going to focus on that. I would also like to get more organized and locate all the UFO's that I put on my wish list for this year, so I will have a better chance of finishing them! 

To see other mystery quilt blogs (listed on the right hand side) - click here.

To take a peek at quilters design walls around the world - click here.

Birthday busyness

See this adorable little boy?!? Today is his 16th birthday!
This is one of my favorite old photos. I was doing a show of some of my mini quilts (for guild meeting or a library show?), so I had mounted them on a display board, and he just had to get in the photo.
He's grown into a wonderful young man and I love him to bits, but I sure do miss this little sweetie!
So, it has been a hectic week here with the birthday gift shopping,  and celebrations (a specially ordered roast beef dinner with the fixings, and a homemade birthday cake).
All of this has followed on the heals of the stomach flu sweeping through the entire family the first week of January,  which has resulted in.... not enough quilting time to keep me balanced!
And we all know what that means! LOL!  I NEED quilting time!
I did a little piecing on my mystery blocks, but look what happened!

There is nothing worse than needing some good quality quilting time and ending up UNsewing! Better put it away until I have some time and energy to focus, or it'll be 2 blocks forward, 1 block back!

Mystery Quilt Update - Step #6

The stomach flu has been travelling around my family for the last week and I sure do hope that we have finally rid the house of these pesky germs. It has been a welcome relief to have some easy sewing to do in between taking care of sick family members, and I have been making some progress on Bonnie's mystery quilt.
Step #6 is well under way. ..
Part 1 of this step is to sew the rows of 5 HST's together and I am pinning them in groups of 10. I need 120 of these and most of the HST's are finished.

Part 2 of this step was fun and quick to sew, and I have finished 172 of these.

I have to admit that I have peeked ahead to the last step and although I love the finished layout, I decided not to make the same layout. I skipped step #3 of making the light string blocks, so I'm going to try a layout using only the blocks I have the parts to make.

Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll Update

The weather so far this year has been mostly miserable, dark, rainy and warm (for us). Most of the pretty snow has melted, and everything is grey and dull, which is extremely unusual for this neck of the woods. What else can a person do but enjoy some relaxing sewing?!?
As you probably know,  Bonnie Hunter started a mystery quilt called Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll in November.  I must brag to you that I have been very disciplined and not looked at any of the steps ahead (applause for being disciplined for once!) however I have not had enough time to keep up with the steps as they were released.
This is where things are with my mystery quilt development:

*I managed to finish step 1 and  step 2 before Christmas.
*step 3 was ceremoniously by passed, since I don't have enough light strings/scraps and would have to cut most of them from yardage. I am waiting to see the final design before I decide that if I want to sew those blocks.

*step 4 using the green and light fabrics was finished today.

*step 5 is well underway, but it's a doozie...600 HST's! Here are about 340 blocks waiting to be sewn.
If you use the EZ angle ruler, there are dog ears on one corner that need to be trimmed, so my tiny bits are going into my collection jar...don't they look so pretty?!? (To see an old photo of my jar collection, click here.)

I should also brag that I have continued my 2011 self discipline streak and have so far (the day isn't over yet!) managed to resist starting the Planet Patchwork New Year's mystery! Instead of starting another new quilt, I am getting ready to work on an old quilt... #6 on my UFO list (on the right hand side of my blog) to be exact (the number drawn by Judy) which is going to be the disappearing 4 patch. I will be searching the UFO dungeon for this project and assessing what the problem was that resulted in that project morphing into a UFO if ever whenever I find it.  Perhaps I will even search out all 12 of the projects while I am in the dungeon and place them in an "easy to access location" should I decide to continue my streak of self discipline and actually follow through with finishing them! LOL

Step #2 Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery

While I am working on a plan for the IOP (being mathematically impaired, it takes a long time LOL) I whipped up these HST's for step #2 of Bonnie's mystery.
Quick and easy step...and how I love that Easy Angle ruler! No more trimming of my HST's with this ruler...perfect every time!
Of course, other things weren't so perfect...like my ability to remember to sew with "right sides together"!

Mystery Started - Roll Roll, Cotton Boll

I have been a fan of Bonnie Hunter since I started reading her blog many years ago (and if you have been reading my blog, you know I got to meet her this year - click here to read about that adventure!)
I have played along with 4 of her previous mysteries and really enjoyed both the process and the outcome. I love mystery quilts and I love sewing blocks with lots of small pieces, so this is heaven for me! These are the 4 previous Bonnie mysteries I made:
Carolina Crossroads - started Jan. 2008 and finished March 2010 (why did this one take so long to finish??!?!)
Orange Crush - April 2008 and finished March 2009 (on my son's bed)
Double Delight - January 2009 and finished October 2009 (on my daughter's bed)
Carolina Christmas - Nov. 2009 (still a UFO)
I missed out on Old Tobacco Road and Christmas Lights, but I'm not missing out on the new one "Roll Roll, Cotton Boll"!
Here are the fabrics I have found in my stash to use so far:

It is so fun to look at this collection and remember what these fabrics were originally for.  For example there is a small piece of pink that I used in the quilt I made about 12 years ago for one of my nieces, there are lots of small pieces left over from my Saturday Sampler blocks,  and the pink yardage was a souvenir that my Mom brought home for me from one of her trips! This photo does not include the random bits from the strip bin of various colours that will be included whenever possible.

The pinks are brighter in real life and I might use the 2 fabrics on the left for the "constant" fabric and/or borders. My favorite fabrics are the browns that I have collected over the last couple of years...it's hard to find nice browns.
Today I finished sewing step #1 which was quick, easy and fun. Here they are pinned in groups of 10 and 1 group of 5 (just in case of errors, I always make a few extra).
Don't they look cute on my new pink Fiskars cutting mat? The mat looks cute, but it really dulls my rotary cutting blade, so I'm going to ask Santa for a new Omnigrid mat for Christmas.