~ Take a Closer Look ~

Things have been moving along rather quickly in the studio.  At one point I'm pretty sure I saw smoke coming out of the back of the sewing machine.  But then again it could be the smudges on my glasses.  How does this happen?  I don't remember touching the lenses when I took them off.   

Maybe the dirty eyeglasses is what caused this big piecing blunder.  Not just one but 4 units just like the one circled below.  Geesh....I blame the glasses.  But how do they keep getting so dirty?  I took them off, laid them on the table, left the sewing room, came back 10 minutes later and they were filthy.  And that's when I found the piecing error....very suspicious!  It's a sewing gremlin!  Sneaking into my studio and playing little mischievous tricks.  Because you know...... I could never make 4 mistakes in one day.   HAHA!

The Good Fortune quilt is coming along and should be on the frame by this evening.  This is a picture taken yesterday evening before I started adding borders.  Looking at a picture of a quilt will sometimes make any piecing errors more visible.  My eyes say all is well.  Do you see any errors?  The chances of me fixing them at this point aren't good.  But it's always nice to know.  

Mr. Podunk and I decided yesterday evening this quilt is very busy and needs something to slow it down. The plan is to try to get the yellow to fade away a little.  Even Bonnie's quilt is a little LOUD.  Can you believe I'm having a problem with a bright color?  Mark that one on the calendar!  With the help of EQ I came up with some alternative borders.  I left Bonnie's borders because they have already been made.  Finding another project to use them in is just not an option.

I'm leaning towards this one.  But it would require more piecing of strings thus taking longer to complete.  BOOOOO!

This is my second choice.  I'm not sure either one of these slow down the middle much.  I tried several options for the border in all colors.  This is just a busy quilt no matter what.  Maybe I should just leave it as written in the pattern and call it done.  

The Facebook group for Bonnie Stalkers has loads of color inspiration.  If you would like to see what others are doing with this quilt you can find the group by clicking here.  I'm always amazed at the colors other people combine.  Such a talented group of quilters!

#goodfortunequilt #quiltvillemystery #bonniehunter #podunkpretties

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~ Full Steam Ahead! ~

 Good Day Sweet Quilting Friends!  Yes it is a good day indeed.  Bonnie finally gave us the big reveal for the Good Fortune Mystery.  I'll be the first to admit I was really getting tired of the trickle clues.  As far as Mysteries go this one is a quick one and its why I like participating.  But this is why I don't participate in very many.  I'm a get it done kind of quilter.   If it drags on for too long I lose interest.  And I'm a quilt designer also, so there's things I need to do.  There's a lot of fun things going on behind the scenes of Podunk and I can't wait to start sharing them.   But for now I'm full steam ahead on this quilt and the On Podunk Pond quilt.   As much as I hate to admit it the On Podunk Pond quilt may get pushed aside for awhile.  Maybe I could resolve to work on it a few minutes every day or two.  Lord knows I don't want another UFO laying around for too long.  After awhile they become stale projects.  The Good Fortune quilt will not be laid aside.  I'm putting all I have to give into finishing it ASAP.  The goal is to have it on the frame by sometime Monday.  It is turning out to be a great little quilt.  The chain block below is my favorite design element of the entire quilt.

  

They were a breeze to put together.  At first I was kinda leery about how it was going to look with (4) 4 patches in the center, but it turned out better than expected.

The other star block...Eh...not my favorite.  Bulky seams added with my darker color choices makes for a not so fun block.  I'm sure my attitude would be different if the colors were red and yellow.  All of Bonnie's quilt patterns have bulky seams due to her style of design.  It's just one of those things we learn to deal with as quilters.  They are a challenge to put together and a challenge to quilt.  Even though I've never broke a needle on a bulky seam I still cringe every time I hear the kerchunk as the needle hits the bulk.

About another hour or so and I should have them completed.

The borders for this quilt might a be a little tricky due to the very small HST's.  Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to tiny pieces.  I'm also considering adding another border if I have the time.  A bigger quilt would be nice but time is the biggest factor in whether or not another border will be added.  I really like the pieced border from the last Bonnie quilt I made called En Provence.  It is my inspiration for an extra border on the GF quilt.  You can see more of my En Provence quilt here.

Well, it's back to the sewing machine...Full Steam Ahead!  WOOWOO!

#goodfortunequilt #quiltvillemystery #enprovencequilt 

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~ Planning for the New Year ~

We did!  We made it through the holiday season...sigh...doesn't it feel good to be at the beginning of a new calendar?  A clean slate to fill with whatever our little ole hearts desires!  So what's on the calendar for this year?

First thing to do is finish up last year...Ha!  I can't tell you how much I want to finish up the Good Fortune Mystery quilt.  Yes I'm getting tired of waiting for clues, tired of not knowing what I'm making.  JUST SHOW ME THE QUILT!  Mystery quilts are not my thing.  It requires a bit of patience that I just do not have.  Throwing it in a box and starting something new sounds really good right now.  It's getting to the point where I will find anything to do besides work on this quilt.  Laundry, dusting, and washing the dishes all sound better than sewing.  What I really want to do is make my own quilts.   I've designed some really cute quilts for this year and I'm eager to get things in motion.   Sigh....just a few more days....a couple more weeks and I'm free to do as I please.  I can do this!  I think I can, I think I can, I think I'll go do something else.

So..... even though the new office isn't complete I decided to move in anyway.  It's usable but not pretty.  We still need to put the finishing touches on the trim, add some decor, a new chair.  All in due time.  We're over budget on the remodel, we are now doing what with can when we get the extra money.  We don't want to add anymore to the debt since we plan to retire someday.

Today's avoiding the mystery quilt project will be adding more patterns to the quick grab pattern boxes.  This is where I store patterns for shipping, so I can quickly grab the right pattern for orders from my Etsy Store.  

After refilling the patterns and shipping orders, I'm going to paint this ugly old stand for my printer.  It's not pretty but it's functional for now.

One my recent splurges was this cute rug.   A great little buy from the Christmas Tree Store thanks to dad and his cash Christmas gift.  With the remaining money I hope to find a good older chair that I can refinish.  Like I need another project!  Maybe Mr. Podunk can be coerced into a new refinishing project?

And then there's this mess of wires. The wires are the satellite internet and WIFI. This room was Mr. Podunk's den.  It worked when it was his room, the desk hid the wires.   Now all I can do is wait for the new fiber optic internet through our electric company.  They strung up the wires on the poles out by the road last month and promised we would able to connect to it sometime this month.  As soon as it's available we are switching our internet provider and ripping out the mess of wires.  Once again I sigh, there's just so much to do.  Well all I can do is tackle it one little project at a time.  Someday we'll look back and laugh about all the remodeling hiccups.  No matter how well you plan there's always hiccups.  And you know it's a blessing to have little projects to sidetrack me from that crazy mystery quilt!

Linking up this post with Miss Bonnies Blog

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

#quiltvillemystery #goodfortunequilt 

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~ The New Year ~

Happy New Year Happy Quilters!  Wishing you a blessed year loaded with fun and exciting adventures!  I've lots of things in the works for this year but before I can get them started I need to finish up with 2018.  I guess a year just isn't long enough to get everything completed.  

After a long day of working at the computer I decided I would bring in the new year sewing Clue 6 of the Good Fortune Mystery.  This would allow the blood to flow back to the lower part of my body while I cut the scrappy string blocks.  It also gave me a chance to try out the Chefs mats I purchased at The Christmas Tree Shop.  I love these mats! Well worth the $15.  And yes the tags are still on them.  Since I love them and plan to keep them I can remove the tags.

The mess above produced a few more string blocks.  14 more is needed to complete this clue.  As hard as I tried I couldn't stay awake until midnight.  Once again I rang in the new year snoring and drooling.

 Just a few more creamy strings left in my scraps.  Hopefully this will be enough and I will not need to cut from the yardage.  Bonnie warned against it yesterday.  This leads me to believe we might have some larger neutral units coming soon.

Only time will tell what Bonnie has in store for us.  There's an old wives tale that says whatever you are doing on New Years Day is what you will be doing all year.  I hope this mess isn't going to last all year!

How did you ring in the new year?  

#newyear2019 #goodfortunemystery

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