Been Busy

Hello, everyone!
     I had a gift card and decided to buy some backing for my Grand Illusion quilt top.  Needless to say I had a bunch of options in my stash but they'd all have to be pieced so I decided if I was going to piece I might have well have it all match. I was desperate to do anything to calm this quilt down.  So here's what I decided on,

Ordered online as there was zero locally. It's from a collection called The Painted Garden by Dena Fishbein.  I seem to like her designs as I kept choosing her fabric wherever I surfed.  I'm pleased with it, and the price of $5.99/yard was another selling point.  The colors are perfect, at least to me, now to get it sewn together.  I'm still undecided as to whether I want to wrestle with this on my DSM or not.  I washed/dried it even though the top fabrics were not pre-washed.  I like to do that with the backing because of the large size and shrinkage with one piece versus small two-inch pieces.

I joined the Block Lotto site the end of last year and have been having fun participating in that.

I was one of the winners last month for a collection of Double 9-Patch blocks.  More on those when I receive them in the mail.

The maximum number of blocks to make varies each month.  The block for February is an arrow block.  I made them over the weekend.  I'd love a whole quilt  with them!

I was going to stop at two but kept going for a full set,

 Thanks for stopping by, what have you been busy with?

Hallelujah!

I finished, Clue 2 in the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt is finally done! Yahoo!

All 100, all clues done at this point!  I'll have to wait to see what Friday's clue brings,- I am leaving tomorrow to drive the Daughter back up to Birmingham. I am not looking forward to that, I've gotten rather used to having her here again.

I'd like to wish all my readers a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year, and also an abundance of sewing time!

Pesky Clue 2

Hello, everyone! I hope your holidays were nice.  My daughter surprised me by coming home!  Yay!
I haven't been sewing a lot, but did manage to get the Grand Illusion Clue 4 done, and am still working on Clue 2.

I feel like I have been sewing on these units f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  Ugh.  100 done,

100 to go.  Then I have to sew them together in pairs.

I drew diagonal lines on the first 30 or so before I remembered this handy this gadget.  I love this thing! I've resolved to use my speciality rulers and gadgets more in the new year as I have a tendency to forget (lazy, really) them.

And I got a new book for Christmas, too late for the row-along, but appreciated all the same.

Talk to you later!

Sweatshop

I really should have been doing a lot of other things but I felt driven today to make a dent in the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt especially clue#3. I mean it's 8-patches, how long could that take!  I started sewing at eight this morning and didn't stop until four.  Whew!  I was convinced I had overshot the goal but that turned out not to be the case.

I was hoping to get the whole lot made today but fatigue and hunger got the best of me.

Here's the finished unit.  I'm kind of regreting not going with some other colors but it is what it is at this point.  

Linking up with Lee at WIP Wednesday.  Thanks for visiting!

Fabric Pull

I've decided to sew along with Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery quilt that begins after Thanksgiving. I'm not a regular reader of her blog and therefore have never done one of her Mystery Quilts.  I decided to jump in this time!  What challenged me was the black fabric.  I must never use black in my quilts.  I have exactly two pieces in my stash.  I bought a few fat quarters of black and the yellow fabric that Bonnie is using.  Everything else comes from my stash.  Anyone else doing the Mystery Quilt also?

Thanks for stopping by~