Empty Design Wall...

....Because I finished my Easy Street top.
I think I'm going to call it good with this border and get it ironed and ready to take to my quilting gals.  I do love the colors I chose for this mystery.

Linking to Judy's Design Wall.

I've got some house cleaning to get done today before I start on a couple of bindings.  Soooooo for now..... Have a great day. And stitch happy!

Back In Time....

Around December 10th, 2012 .... I finished sewing the blocks together for my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt called Easy Street.   I have no idea why I didn't go ahead and finish it then ..... but I set it aside along with all the scraps and bits and bolts of fabric.

These last couple of weeks I've slowly been trying to tackle my loose scraps and get them cut into usable pieces and when I came across this quilt I figured it's as good a time as any to get it finished.  

Apparently this pattern didn't have directions for the finishing borders (or I've just not saved them).  I do remember how I wanted to finish it though so I've been cutting and sewing 4-patches these last couple of days.  (pictures to follow later this week)

For now I'll link to Judy's Design Wall Monday   and get back to piecing the last two borders.  

So for now..... Have a great day. And stitch happy!

Design Wall Monday....

I finished my Easy Street top last week and now I'm working on a border that I want to put on mine.  I didn't want to just slap a piece of fabric on it and call it good so as I was sewing the blocks I started pondering what I could do.   It didn't take me long to decide so I'm hoping it won't take long to get it sewn together.   This top (so far) was so big that my design wall wouldn't hold it so I had to lay it out on my dining room floor.  Once I get the borders added I don't know where I'll be able to take a picture.  Oh well I'll figure that out when I get there.

I'm linking over to Judy's Patchwork Times on her Design Wall Monday.  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Design Wall Monday....

Happy Monday this Thanksgiving week.  I hope everyone will be having a safe, wonderfully blessed week.  Very little machine sewing for me this week but I will be enjoying my hexie's for sure.

These last few days I've been working on my Easy Street trying to get most of it completed before the next mystery comes along.
I have all the blocks finished and two 'rows' sewn together so far.   Maybe I can get a few more blocks sewn into rows this week before I stop to enjoy my family over Thanksgiving.

Linking over to Judy's Design Wall Monday.
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Something Old is New Again....

 Last year I was working on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery and for some reason I reached a stand-still.  I put it all away to do something else.
 
Soooo since it's about time for her to start this year's mystery (and because I have my stash all organized nicely) I figured it would be a good time to get it all back out and see how far along I can get it.

I have all the pieces cut and sections sewn together already.  All that is left to do is sew up the blocks.  I don't think that should take me too long to do.  hahaha

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Another Monday .....

and I can't believe the week has gone by so fast.   I do have a Christmas snuggle quilt started for my daughter..... but I know she reads my blog so I'm not going to show my progress (which really isn't much anyway) heehee.
Don't you just hate it when someone posts about something they're working on and then....... won't show you??    I know!!!  Me too!!!
But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!  ;o)

But I will show my very slow progress on Easy Street mystery.  I have all the setting triangles finished and one each of Block A & Block B.   This is just one corner on my wall so I can see how it's going to come together.  This first picture  shows a pretty good mix of all the fabrics I'm using.

And I've decided I do want a simple border to help balance the blocks.  I think this works just fine.   I'll be working on this off and on now in between my other projects that are on my very very long list.  

So this morning I'm grabbing my cuppa and heading to Judy's Design Wall Monday to link up.  Come join me.......
....and I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

If it's Monday....

It must be time to check my design wall.
I do have a few pieces of Easy Street up there.   But I'm only showing these three pieces. Actually I have all four corners finished and three of the setting triangles.

  I was going along at a pretty regular pace and then suddenly there was another cutting mistake in the pattern.   So at this point I had already had to cut more of the 5½" green squares and now I'm wondering if I'm going to have enough to cut these extra 3½" green.
 
So yesterday I decided to set Easy Street aside for a bit so I could get started on this years project.  I'm going to try to make each of my 'girls' a Christmas snuggle for this year's Christmas presents.   I can only show you those two strips (at the bottom of the picture) because I'm pretty sure the one I'm making this for reads my blog occasionally.   Or maybe not....but I don't want to take any chances.

So I'm heading over to Judy's to post on her Design Wall Monday and then I'll go to Bonnie's Quiltville's Quips to link to her site.  See you there.

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

If it's Monday.....

That means it's time to show what's on my design wall.  I'll be linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and also to Bonnie's Easy Street Link-up.

First.... I finished six small mug rugs that I had cut out of the blue panel.  This is what I started with...

And this is how I finished them. 

If I have time this week I may make some more larger ones but I'm not going to stress about it for sure.  

I've also been catching up on my clues in Easy Street.  Right now I have all of the sewing done on my pink (Bonnie's purple) flying geese but I still need to trim about half of them.  All of the Clue #3 geese are made but still need trimming.  Once I get those done I'll sew the pairs together.   That shouldn't take long and then I should be all caught up by the time the next clue is posted.    

 This week I'll be concentrating on baking the Christmas yummy's.  I don't know why I always make too many munchies because all the girls bring candies too.  

But it's Christmas after all!  And that's just what we do!

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Shaded 4-patch ..... My Way...

I've been catching up with Bonnie's Easy Street mystery these last couple of days.
Clue #2 flying geese: done!

I don't have the strips at the ready like Bonnie does so even though I pull lots of different fabrics to go scrappy.... I still have to cut from larger pieces of fabric to get the pieces I need.  So if I'm going to cut larger anyway....I figure I might as well make them easier too.
So after seeing a link posted on quiltvillechat showing how to make an alternate shaded 4-patch by Stitching Circle .... I just had to check it out.
This sounded like just what I was looking for.....except those bias edges on the cut triangles.
So I thought about it and came up with my addition to that tutorial.   I followed her measurements and sewing instructions from #1 through #5.

BUT.....I did not cut my 4-patch at this time.  Instead this is my version.....

#6.  My 4-patch measures 3½" x 4¼" so I cut rectangles out of my turquoise fabric to layer on top.

#7 In order to draw the angle that would be needed I had to turn the easy angle over and line up the bottom measurements.  Draw a line on the wrong side of the fabric as shown in 2nd picture.  

#8 Layer the rectangle on top of the 4-patch and pin to secure.  

#9.  Sew ¼" along each side of the drawn line.    

Then cut along that drawn line.

and press open......two blocks made and NO BIAS to work with!

Clue #3 Shaded 4-patch: done!

I know I'm late to post this for most people but I'll link it to *My Tutorial* page at the top of my blog.   Maybe it will come in handy in the future.  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

It's Monday and I'm ........

frustrated about how far behind I got.  This surgery knocked me back a couple of weeks and now I'm playing catch-up.   I don't like being this far behind but on the other hand I'm grateful that I am as well as I am now.  Both of my doctors tell me that I dodged a bullet for sure so I'll stop complaining and give thanks.  This will be a blessed Christmas this year.

I think in a couple of days I should be able to catch up on the last two blocks for Grandmother's Choice....
 and the setting blocks for Carol Doak's BOM......

Then I can concentrate on catching up in Bonnie's Easy Street mystery.  I do have quite a few of Clue #2 .... the flying geese finished.  I'm using the No Waste Flying Geese method to make mine.  These are so cute and little.
Actually I have many more made that are not shown in this picture.... but they still need to be trimmed and that will happen as soon as my order comes from Quilters Obsession.  Thanks to someone who posted the link on the Quiltville Chat group for the Wing Clipper.   I've been looking for a geese trimmer ruler for a long time and finally have one coming.   Of course I just happened to find a couple other trimmers that I just can't live without.   Merry Christmas to me!

Now I'm going to head over to Judy's Patchwork Times to link to her Design Wall and I'll also link to Bonnie's mystery Monday link-up.
Grab your cup and meet me there.      
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Block Base Sew-Along #5

I have managed to get a few hours in my sewing room this week.  I did do cutting and sewing for Clue #2 from Bonnie's Easy Street Mystery.  Haven't finished all of the flying geese but I've made a good dent.  More about that later....

I've just posted my latest Block Base Sew-Along block here.   These are my 4" blocks.
So cute!  And fun to get together.   Here is my block this time.  Looks kinda Christmasy doesn't it.  I really didn't do that on purpose.  But I guess my mind was in the season.  haha

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Clue #1 finished

I had quite a productive day yesterday.
I was able to finish all my 4-patches for Easy Street  mystery.   

They measure 3" finished.
Just love making these little blocks.   It's so easy to get those back seams to swirl when

the patches lead with the seam allowance heading toward the needle.   But more importantly those points turn out to be just perfect every time.

And I also got this weeks Grandmother's Choice block made.    This is block #13 and a pretty easy one at that,  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Monday morning.... On Easy Street

A few weeks ago I posted about Bonnie Hunter's new upcoming mystery here.   And posted a picture of my chosen fabrics.  But just for fun (and in case any of you missed it) I'll show them again.  ;-)

I've replaced her purple with my pinks and her gray will be replaced with my purple.  But not the purple that I have in this picture.
I found a very pretty red/violet and I've started cutting and sewing.
I do have ½ of the 4-patches finished.  Need a total of 192 for this clue.

Hopefully I can get the rest of these finished later today.
I do have my last shot in my knee today but once I get home I'll be sewing up these little 3½" jewels.
So for now I'm going to link over on Quiltville to check out some of the other quilters.
And of course since it's Monday I'm going to Judy's Design Wall to link up.
Hope to see you all there.
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Bonnie Hunter's new mystery....

Last year I made Bonnie's Orca Bay mystery and renamed mine CherryLime Mash.  I loved making it and loved even more the way it turned out.  Especially since it won so many awards at our local Fair.  lol   Click here if you haven't seen it yet.

So here we are one year later and it 's almost time for Bonnie's next mystery.  She's calling this one Easy Street  ... she said because it will be much easier than last years.  I can sure handle that.  haha

She has shown us the colors that she's picked out for her quilt on this post.   I love her choices for sure..... mostly.... but ..... I have to substitute a bit to be able to pull from my stash and satisfy my control streak.  haha
These are the fabrics that I've chosen.   I have absolutely no purples left in my stash because I've pulled them to use in my Grandmother's Choice blocks.  So I'm going to be using pinks instead.  And ..... about her gray.... well that just won't be happening for me so I'm going to be picking up a couple of yards of a medium purple to use as my constant fabric.
And my last substitution is with the white.  She'll use black on white prints .... but I just don't care for all that busyness so I'll use a few white on white as my background.

So now I can get back to my sewing on my Bows & Boughs.  I'm still trying to get the rows and sashing's sewn together so I can decide on the borders.

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda