Part 4 - En Provence, Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt 2016

Part 4 - En Provence, Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt 2016

As Bonnie promised, quite an easy week this week for the En Provence 2016 Mystery Quilt.  Something we have done before, just a slightly different colour way.  I have made about 42 sets of these, which is just ove half, so I expect to be making a few more maybe.  I used my Accuquilt cutter and this made light work of the cutting.

So this is what we have after four weeks of the En Provence Mystery Quilt - four sets of 3.5" blocks.  I can't believe we have done a month already and to think that in four weeks time there will be some completed ones! There are still two more colours to use and  hopefully a bit more variety in the blocks this week.

Easy Street Mystery Quilt , modelled by Suzi the cat

Suzi doesn't seem quite as enthused by the current Mystery quilt as she has been in previous years.  We switched the quilt on the bed for my Easy Street 2012 Mystery quilt and this is where you will find Suzi the cat.

Linking up with the Monday group.

Allietare Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt 2015 - Introduction



Easy Street Mystery Quilt 2012

Welcome to the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt journey for 2015!  This will be my third Mystery quilt.  The first one I did was Easy Street in 2012.  I managed to keep up and get the top done by January 2013.  Quilting has been another matter, but I am pleased to say that it is now quilted and in use.


Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt 2013

In 2013 I joined in the Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt.  This time my sister joined me and we had great fun getting the tops complete.  This one is not quilted yet, but is pencilled in for Spring 2016.  This time last year I was all set to join in with the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt, but life took over as it often does. 

Allietare! - Bonnie Hunter Fabric selection


Bonnie has really chosen a pretty selection of colours this year - rich reds, warm golds, a grey to throw forward the colour, black and her usual neutrals.  There are a lot of neutral fabrics required for this quilt and there are rumours going about that there will be lots of strip piecing, similar to her beautiful Orca Bay quilt which you can find in her books.   Her colour inspiration comes from her trip to Italy and you can see the detail of her colour inspiration on her blog.



Allietare! - Fabadashery Fabric selection

To keep up with tradition I will not be using the same colour scheme.  My colour inspiration is not as exotic as an Italian holiday, but the curtains in our bedroom.  I know that the dark green fabric at the top will be my constant, the neutral  will be my neutral, but still deciding on the mix of the other colours.  I have plenty of grey and pink, but I am struggling finding the right shade of pale green.  It is always a risk mixing up the colours, but as long as I keep neutral neutral I am ready for the ride! With the decision made the first job is to restore order to my workroom, the fabric selection process has been traumatic to say the least.

9 days to go!

Part 6 - Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt 2013, the BIG REVEAL

Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt 2013 (Bonnie Hunter)

Firstly, a BIG THANK YOU to Bonnie at Quiltville for the 2013 Celtic Solstice Mystery quilt.  Another lovely quilt pattern, an exciting journey shared with quilters all around the world and an excuse to sew over the holidays. What a beautiful result!


Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt 2013 Quiltville

Here is my version.  I wanted a 'summer' quilt, and I think I have achieved that.  I am also really pleased that Bonnie gave us two sizes to choose from.  I went for the smaller size, which is plenty big enough for my needs.

Celtic Solstice Quilt - Electric Quilt software

As I usually buy fat quarters, I didn't have enough matching fabric to do a wide border, and in the end decided to experiment with a few ideas using my EQ5 software to work out what was feasible. There was a long auditioning process...

Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt - Borders

In the end I have got a 1.5" neutral inner border, the pieced border laid out in a dog tooth border pattern, then another 1.5" neutral border, and finally a green patterned binding.  The binding is a Kaffe Fassett "Lime Paperweight" print which I have included in the quilt.  At the moment I don't have enough for the whole binding, so I need to source some before I can go any further.

Marbleous Jacquard - Robert Kaufman fabrics #6595

The neutral I am using for the borders is a Marbleous Jacquard fabric by Robert Kaufman.  There is a different weave within the fabric which adds a slight texture to the print.  You don't see them very often, so when I do I snap them up.  Because of the different weave, they do tend to fray a bit, so until I am ready to quilt the Celtic Solstice quilt, I am going to pin the fabric to the quilt top and add it when that moment arrives.  No promises when that will be ...


Bad Example - Missing points!

As you know I am usually hand piecing my Nearly Insane quilt.  With the English paper piecing method it is really easy to make sure all your points match, and to man handle pieces to fit it together.   

Good Example - matching points

With the machine, making the points match ALL the time seemed to be impossible.  I think the split square triangles were the cause of most of the problems.  Some of them seemed to have had lost their seam allowance, so it made it impossible to match up. Bonnie says this is OK.  I had to lie down for a bit.  I enjoy joining in the Mystery quilt to use my machine, but it does remind me how much more control I have when I hand stitch.


Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt 2013

For now, this is it on the Celtic Solstice Mystery quilt.  I was going to piece the back, but am going to wait until I decide how I am going to quilt it first.  
 

Nearly Insane Quilt - Edge Block 86

Edge Block 86 - Nearly Insane Quilt

Edge Block 86 for the Nearly Insane Quilt has only got 14 pieces.  I needed to do it, as I felt the need to get some progress on the quilt.  Work on the notorious 'Block 18' is taking its time.   I knew this edge block would be done quite quickly, and as a result I also have something to show you.  I enjoyed doing it, mainly because it came together easily, and the bigger pieces have given me the chance to showcase Red Hoops, a bigger print in the Moda Mama Said Sew Collection.

Progress so far - Block 18 Nearly Insane Quilt

Just so you know that I am not just wimping out of Block 18, here is the progress so far.  Block 18 is not difficult, but it does need your full concentration and therefore it is time consuming. To break it up, I am doing nine HST unit blocks.  Just one of these blocks has 18 pieces in it, which is more that the edge block above. As you can see, I am over half way with this one, with 146 of the 229 pieces together (that 63%!)  I hope to put some time to it this weekend to get it done.


Sparky on 'Easy Street Parking Lot' Cat Mat Quilt

Other quilty stuff going on here at Fabadashery - Sparky is making good use of his 'Easy Street Parking Lot' cat mat.  Good enough reason to join up with Feline Friday over at Sarah Did It, where you can also join in the 60's Batik Blog Hop. 

NUMBER OF PIECES: 14
DIFFICULTY: 1/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle 3/4" (18mm) x 1/2" (77mm) x 1/2 (77mm) 
LARGEST PIECE: Rectangle 3.5"(89mm) x 1 1/4" (32mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
"Red Hoops" (5493-31) Mama Said Sew Collection, Sweetwater for Moda
"Christmas Past" (14547) by Polly Minick and Lauri Simpson for Moda
"Songbird" (C2863) by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake Designs

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 42

Block 42, Nearly Insane Quilt

Gradually the number of pieces in each draw seem to be increasing.  Last time, the most pieces in these 6" blocks was 110, Block 42 has 120 pieces.  It was easier to do that its neighbour, Block 43, which had 100 pieces and got 9/10 for difficulty. It took time to do, but the finished result is worth it.  I like the colour combinations, with the dark, medium and light fabrics, and the complex pattern which makes the block look more interesting. I hope you appreciate all my matching points - I spend a lot of time coaxing the little bits together.

Suzi the Cat - My Nearly Insane Helper

Fortunately, I had Suzi the Cat helping with the cutting - she helped me cut out the 56 little cream triangles for this block.


120 pieces in a 6 inch block - Nearly Insane Quilt

In fact, there were lots of components in this block: 32 different flying geese units, Ohio Stars, 4-patch's, and I used 5 different fabrics, so there was quite a lot to check as I went along.   The components reminded me of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt which I did last Christmas, which then got me thinking, maybe  I could make a miniature Easy Street Quilt using English Paper piecing ..... insane.

Block 42 Reverse - Nearly Insane Quilt

Moving on, here you can see the reverse of the block as I was giving it a good press with the steam iron. I am not too concerned that it will distort because of the paper, and this block, in particular, has a lovely malleable feel to it with all the paper pieces still in it.

Another great addition to the overall Nearly Insane Quilt.

NUMBER OF PIECES: 120
DIFFICULTY: 5/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Square, 1/2" (32m) x 1/2" (32mm)
LARGEST PIECE: Square 1/2" (13mm) x 1/2" (13mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS: 
Designer Beads (Red) Freespirit for Westminster Fibers
Quilters Basics, Stof
Polka Party III by Holly Holderman, Lakehouse Drygoods #03035
Apple Line Red Swirl by Alice Kennedy for Timeless Treasures  #C5710
Cherry Sketch Basic Collection by Timeless Treasures #C8224

Joining Up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts
 

String Quilt Cat Mat - Easy Street Parking Lot!

Way back in January, I mentioned that I had plans to do a project with the scraps from my Easy Street Quilt, the online 2012 Mystery Quilt over at Quiltville.  However,  I woke up planning to do a machining project, and instead ended up with ALL my patchwork and quilting fabric out of my cupboard.  I had decided to reorganised my fabric stash. Several months down the line, I have revisited my original plans, and this week have produced a lovely new Cat Mat, which I am calling “The Easy Street - the Parking Lot”. 


String Quilt, Easy Street - The Parking Lot

In Bonnie K Hunter's book 'String Fling', she introduces her scrap user system, and a technique of using pages from an old telephone book as the foundation for stitching small scrap fabrics.  This was the technique I wanted to try out, but as my paper alternative, I had put aside the Christmas edition of the Radio Times, which by removing the centre staples has given me a double width of paper to stitch.  It has also highlighted to me how much of the Christmas period I spent on the Easy Street Quilt – I don’t  think I watched any TV!

2012 Christmas Edition Radio Times - String Foundation Piecing

I did do a rough design in my Electric Quilt software, but I haven’t followed it slavishly, and instead have used my usual technique of muddling through trying to get everything the right size.  My colour scheme for Easy Street Quilt was Purple, Red and Green, with a Tan background, and most of my leftover scraps are pretty small, so my paper strips are only 3” wide. 

Easy Street Quilt Scraps

Sewing the strips was easy on the machine, and I managed to get a production line going. I found it was better to remove the paper before tidying up the edges, as once cut, the stitching seam was not as strong to resist the ripping of the paper. 

String Foundation Piecing

As regular Followers will know, most of my work lately has focussed on hand stitching my Nearly Insane Quilt, so it seems like an age since I sat down at the machine (Note To Self: I really do need to set up a Leaders and Enders project, especially if Bonnie rolls out another Mystery Quilt at the end of the year!)  For the quarter square triangles, I tried to use the clever technique I used on my Broken Dishes Cat Mat, but my scrap pieces were too small and I had to cobble most of them together in a more ‘traditional’ method. 
Eventually, the quilt top came together, and was ready for quilting.  I had some scrap polyester wadding to use, and I still had plenty of the Kansas Troubles 'Bound to the Prairie' fabric which I used for the backing on my Irish Chain Quilt, which I have used for the backing. Up close it is a lovely little print, but from a distance it looks like a murky porridge – however, murky porridge is good for hiding any less refined stitching when machine quilting…

Quilt Sandwich being Machine Quilted

My actual Easy Street Quilt has yet to be quilted, and part of this project was to gain some strength experience of machine quilting to tackle this large project.  I was recently inspired by a little quilting video tutorial on the Green Fairy Quilts blog, by Judi Madsen, which although aimed at long arm quilting, highlighted to me the importance of marking your quilt, and planning the design head.  Also, I decided to abandon the worry of getting the tension right for free machine quilting, and stuck with using my straight stitch with the feed dogs up.   I went for a simple channels of stitching in the squares, rotating it by 90 degrees on each quarter. 

Quilt Detail

I think for this little quilt, the quilting has worked well, and enhances the pattern nicely – just as it should be.   This cat mat is only about 20 inches square, but manoeuvring it on my domestic machine was not as easy as you would want it to be, which makes me think – how realistic is it going to be to get the full size Easy Street Quilt under it?  I think I need to sit down and work out a design, and be realistic about how long it is going to take.  One assumes that using a machine means it will be quick, but I think on this occasion, I need to put that assumption to one side.

To finish it off, I pieced together some binding from the scraps, machine stitching it on the back, and hand sewing it on the front. 

Suzi the Cat on the new Cat Mat

I am really pleased with how it has turned out, but think I have enough projects in this colour combination for now.  It did reduce the scraps, but there are still plenty more.

The good news is, the Quality Control Department has already signed it off.

Featuring Feline Friday and Crazy Mom Quilts!

Nearly Insane Quilt - Block 33 and Spring Quilt Festival, Duxford

I had an urge to go to a Quilt Show at the weekend, as I will not be making my usual pilgrimage to Quilts UK in Malvern in May.  A quick search on the internet revealed that it was the 2013 Spring Quilt Festival in Duxford near Cambridge at the weekend.  Luckily it was based at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, so I was able to pursuade our weekend visitors to come along too, so they could look at aeroplanes whilst the rest of us looked at quilts.  A double bonus.  I got six hours in the car stitching, and I also got to replenish my red and cream stash for my Nearly Insane Quilt.
The show was a moderate size with exhibits from a few renowned quilters in the UK including some lovely whole cloth quilts by Sandie Lush, and some lovely colourful quilt by Gwenfai Rees Griffiths, including this 'Shades of the Sargasso Sea', based on the Storm at Sea quilt block pattern.


Gwenfai Rees Griffiths 'Shades of the Sargasso Sea'

One of the cutest quilts there was this 'Forget-Me-Not' by Judith Scott.

'Forget-Me-Not' Quilt by Judith Scott

In terms of vendors, there was a good selection, including Creative Grids which allowed me to purchase the large 15.5" square Ruler I have been 'needing' for a while - well since I realised I needed such a large ruler to square up blocks as large as those in the Easy Street Quilt.  Luckily, I checked their website before the show, and there was a discount coupon to download for use at the show - it would have been churlish not to use it. 

Creative Grids - Non slip 15½ Inch x 15½ Inch Square

I also got to spend my £10 voucher I had won from The Quilt Room in their Name a Quilt competition  - they also had a discount voucher on their website.  Red and cream fabrics were purchased and it fulfilled the spontaneous 'quilting fix' I felt I needed.
As for stitching, I managed to complete Block 33 of the Nearly Insane Quilt, and some other bits and pieces, during the journey, which means that all the blocks from the second draw are now complete.  

Block 33 Nearly Insane Quilt

This was another simple block, perhaps not my favourite pattern, but I do like the colours I have chosen.  When making the blocks you need to remember that they will be placed on point, and this influences how you use directional prints and other fabric choices.
Joining WIP Wednesday

NUMBER OF PIECES: 28
DIFFICULTY: 2/10
SMALLEST PIECE: Triangle, 1.5" (42mm) x 1.5" (42mm) x 2 5/16" (59m)
LARGEST PIECE: Square, 1 1/2" (37.5mm) x 1 1/2" (37.5mm)
TECHNIQUE: English Paper Piecing (EPP)
FABRICS:
Rural Jardin by French General (Leaf Trail Rouge) for ModaFa La La by French General (Floral L'Arbre De Noel Red 13587-11) for Moda
Tiny Flower Print (Unidentified)
 

Fabadashery Blog - 3 Month Anniversary Milestones

Have you seen my post "Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt - Part 8 (nearly)"?  Reviewing my Blogger Stats recently, I noticed that it has had 2000 hits since it was posted in January.  This past week has been the 3 month anniversary since I started this patchwork and quilting blog, and along with the increase in traffic, a lot of things have happened.

The first event marking this weeks 3 Month celebrations was the arrival of a little parcel from the United States.  It was the Giveaway Prize that Suzi the Cat had won on Feline Friday at Sarah Did It!  Isn't she a clever cat - winning fabric for her owner!  This is the first Giveaway Prize we have won on the internet. These two pieces are from the 'Ivory Cats' Collection by Lesley Anne for Quilting Treasures, and look ideal for a future cat mat project. 


'Ivory Cats' by Lesley Anne, for Quilting Treasures, 2011

There is was also a bar of chocolate in the packet.  Yum Yum.  I was not the only winner though.  Enclosed in the parcel was a special homemade patchwork Cat Nip toy in a Zip Lock bag.  When I opened it I was over the moon for Suzi, not only was there the toy, but also the bag - she loves to chew on plastic.... 

Cat Nip Toy with yummy Zip Lock Bag

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3 - FRENZY!

Needless to say - Suzi is CRAZY for it, and loves having it rubbed all over her face. She says thanks especially to Pepper, Midge and Squeaky, the Stars of Feline Friday.  Also thanks to their Mum, Sarah for prompting me to sort out my 'No Reply Blogger' status - I hope everyone finds it easier now. 
The celebrations continued when I popped over to the Quilt Room blog.  Pam and Nicky Lintott have made their name through designing and publishing books on Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, Layer Cakes and other pre-cut fabric bundles, and are in the process of pulling a new book together.  A few weeks ago they had a competition to name one of their quilts for their forthcoming book.   The name I submitted was 'Jet Stream Jewel', and the quilt name was chosen for a Runner's Up Prize!   Not only do I have a £10 voucher to spend on fabric, but they also hope to use the name for one of the other quilts featuring in their forthcoming book.  I can't wait to see it.

So a great Anniversry so far. The concept of blogging is not new to me, but it was Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt over at Quiltville, which was one of the main motivators for getting me started on publishing a regular sewing blog. That whole experience of piecing a large quilt by machine, sharing the experience with people all over the world, and being part of the 'Mystery Quilt' phenomenom has been an exciting journey, and has allowed me to plug into the sewing world in a whole new way.

Up until now, most of my patchwork and quilting projects have been by hand, and so their progress is slow, which makes newsworthy moments few and far between - not ideal for an active blog. I am sure the hand stitchers and hand quilters out there can empathise with this.  Knowing that I need to put up a post regularly is a real motivator for keeping my sewing projects on track and making me focus on completing projects.  And most of all I enjoy it.

What have been the highlights of your blogging? I would love to hear about your adventures in the blogging world. 

Addressing Fabric Stash Storage

Yesterday I had great plans to tidy up the Fabadashery workroom, knowing that I had come to the end of piecing the back and the front of my Easy Street Quilt.  I had a plan for a smaller project made up from the scraps of my scrappy Easy Street Quilt, but I needed to clear the decks properly. There were yards of fabric that had been dragged out and piled up, which had auditioned for the mystery quilt back in November.

I didn't know where to start, as my current system of storing my fabric in large plastic boxes was just not working for me.  By the end of the day all of my fabric was out of my cupboard.  It was time for a re-think on my fabric stash storage. There was not going to be any sewing today. If I am honest, I had planned to put aside the holidays to address the storage of my fabric stash, along with a load of other catch-up jobs, but the Easy Street quilt took over.  Since moving into the house in 2010, it has only been recently that I have finally had time to address my workspace. 

BEFORE - Fabric Stash Storage

A lot of stuff had ended up in here, piled up on these Billy bookcases from IKEA.  I have a workroom with a storage room attached to it. I wanted a dark room to store my fabric, so that it didn't fade. This works well as it is dark, and the light comes on and off automatically with a PIR, as I go in and out, so no risk of leaving the light on.

 

I split the fabric into Solids, Prints, Batiks, and Liberty Lovelies.  Then I sorted them into colour families.

AFTER - Fabric Stash Storage

The majority of the solid fabrics I have adopted, and didn't really have a grip on what I actually had.  I tend to avoid solids, as I find they can deaden a quilt in one easy move. However, looking at the selection, it is not bad, and there is enough to justify  a 'solid' project.  In fact, I have been even more tempted after seeing this 'solid' fabric project by Rhoda.

Halfway through sorting my fabrics I decided to pull all the batiks prints from the fabric colour collections.  Batiks are great for blending and carrying colour, and sometimes if I am looking for a particular colour, it is often only the batik fabrics that seem to do the job.  However, they do not always belong to every quilt, and I find that a whole quilt in batiks, often doesn't demand enough of me with regard to fabric colour choice, as the fabric seems to do a lot of the work for you.  I thought by keeping them separate, I would look at them in a new light.

With the little Liberty fabrics, because of their lighter lawn cotton, and multi-coloured prints (which were hard to classify within the new system!), I let them have a little pile of their own.  The same could be said for the Rowan / Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Yes, they are lovely, but I have found it hard to mix them up successfully with the rest of my stash, so I rarely buy them.
It was a great exercise in familiarising myself with my fabric again. You will also see that I have taken the opportuity to tidy up my library of quilting and embroidery books.  It is starting to look as if I mean business! 

Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt - Part 8 Backing

Redundant of having to add borders to my Easy Street Quilt, I moved my attention to the backing.  It's a big quilt, and big quilts need a lot of fabric on the back, as well as the front.  There were no decent sized pieces of fabric left after Easy Street that would do the job, and I was reluctant to buy more fabric, when the project had specifically been a 'scrappy stash buster'.


Easy Street Quilt Backing

By the way, 244 quilters Linked Up with their Easy Street Mystery Quilt progress - I bet there were loads more out there working away on their masterpieces. With all the coloured fabric scraps of my Easy Street Quilt still draped around my workroom, it made sense to piece the back together from these pieces. 



Is now a good time to teach me
how to use the Rotary Cutter?

Working out the sizes for the new sized blocks took a bit of time.  The squares and rectangles were easy enough to size up, but the Flying Geese blocks and Shaded 4 patches were more of a challenge. It really made me appreciate Bonnie's straightforward instructions. I used this opportunity to use the alternate Flying Geese method, using the two different sized squares, instead of cutting strips from triangles.  In addition to this, I decided to swap the red and purple, as I thought I might have preferred on the top.  I also extended the original Block A  outwards by a set of the smaller blocks, making a larger block which can be abstracted from the original Easy Street quilt pattern.  By making the block larger by a row it meant I could use smaller pieces.  I really was at the end of my fabric scraps, and by making the block pieces smaller, it meant I had a more scrappy background.  Going  'large' for the first time has convinced me that a large square cutting ruler from Creative Grids is now a necessity.

I admit I was in two minds about using the left over scraps. Part of me wanted to hold onto them, to use in future projects, then the other part of me felt it was time to move on - the fabrics would be better used in a quilt, than lingering in my stash, going out of fashion. By using them up it would be a good excuse to buy some more.  How do you feel about using up your fabric?

There are a few downsides to this pieced backing approach. With the additional seams, hand quilting is going to be a struggle to say the least, so I guess I have now committed myself to machine quilting the Easy Street quilt . Also, with a mix of lights and darks on the back, choosing a quilting thread colour is likely to involve a lot of deliberation.  I have not even thought about what sort of wadding I will use.

So this is what I have been doing with my time. When we woke up on Saturday, Suzi the cat and I had no idea I we would be piecing another quilt.  It has taken time, but I am pleased with the result. Joining up with Design Wall Monday.

Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt - Part 8 (Borders and Binding)

I think it is fair to say that Part 8 of the Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt involved quite a lot of work, so this is the second instalment of my progress so far.  The top is pieced together, and this weekend I put some time aside to choose the borders and the backing.


Easy Street Mystery Quilt

After letting the cogs in my brain do their bit, I have decided not to add further borders.  With the quilt being quite large already, I felt it was large enough, and probably heavy enough, so to finish off the edge of the quilt I have decided to add a very thin, red inset into the binding.  The red adds some intensity to the purple and although only very thin, gives a nice outline.  I have pieced up the red inset from red scraps from 20cm to 70 cm long, and it is ready to go. 


Plans for Easy Street Quilt Border and Binding

For the binding, I looked to see what I had left over in my stash, and one of the largest pieces remaining was the Sandy Gervais Moda print  'Friendly Folk'.  This looked better than the 'neutral', as the red berries and the green foliage on the print added something, and tied in the red inset strip.  I have enough of this to go around the entire quilt.  Again, it is all pieced together in a strip nearly 9 metres long.


Easy Street Quilt Binding

These decisions usually take me a very long time, but in the long run it is rarely time wasted.  It also allows the luxury of playing with your fabric stash, as you audition the colours.  With the decision not to add borders to the quilt, it slightly altered my plans for the day, as these will be added once Easy Street has been quilted - no plans for that yet.

Meanwhile, I have been able to enjoy the first of the snow for the winter.  On Friday it snowed all day, with almost 6" settling, with advice to stay off the roads and many schools and offices closed. With the temperature not rising above 0 degrees, the snow is still about, but slowly thawing.


Snow, January 2013

Taking the Lead with Easy Street

Leaders and Enders from Easy Street

As a result of all my efforts on Easy Street I have created this little pair of scraps - my leaders and enders.  They are just a drop in the ocean of curtain lining scraps which I have acquired  making all the curtains for the windows of our new house. You can see that I have even tried to add a bit of creative embroidery by adding the purple dog ears from the Easy Street Quilt ...

As I have only just entered the world of machine pieced quilts, the leader and ender notion was a new one to me, so these are two of the few that have entered my life so far. Anyway, I soon discovered that there was a creative solution to this.



Book - Adventures with Leaders and Enders
by Bonnie K Hunter

Enter stage right -
"Adventures with Leaders and Enders - Make More Quilts in Less TIme!" by Bonnie K Hunter. 
Yes, another Christmas gift from Santa.  I can really see the value of this exercise - I just have to decide which Leader / Ender quilt I am going to work on.

I have spent the weekend putting all of my Easy Street Mystery Quilt blocks together. No border decisions yet, and probably not until next weekend, when I am at home during the daylight.  I am thinking it will need to be pieced, but with no lead from Bonnie, I am adrift, and will have to work out a plan when I have a little quiet time to myself.

 

It was a beautiful bright, sunny, fresh day here in the UK today. They are promising some snow tonight .. the first of the winter. 



Easy Street Quilt