Thanksgiving Blessing/Proclamation

Thanksgiving Proclamation from our very First President, George Washington:

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

~Deb

Unknown Sacrifices

 Tribute to our Veteran's

Thank YOU.

~Deb

Happy 4th, Everyone!

Happy Birthday, America!

Stay SAFE, Everyone,

~Deb

Patriotic Quilting - Including Live FREE II

 The second 'Live Free II' patriotic quilt gets quilted:

Live Free II - coming off quilt frame

One of our last thread cones of Superior's Lava Diamond Head, (has since been replaced w/Fantastico variegated), was used to quilt the 'West Wind At Night E2E' - one of our very favs for texture and movement!

Close-up of some of this wonderful quilting design:

Quilting close-up of West Wind At Night E2E

Next in our recent quilting line-up in the process of being quilted is one of 'Our Doris's' latest - a Patriotic Signature/Rail Fence quilt that will soon be awarded in an upcoming Quilt of Honor event.

This quilt is being quilted in Silver machine quilting thread front and back, w/Fireworks quilting design from Deb Geissler:

Fireworks quilting

Corner quilting

Quilting back

Digital Quilting Design - Deb Geissler's FIREWORKS

Last pass quilting!

Time to finish up quilting and get busy binding ;-)

Later,

~Deb

March Already? ...Good Grief!

Well...almost - skating under the wire on the last day of February!

Just yesterday it was late December and yours truly was catching up on the annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery - Rhodendron Trail!  (I did finish it...btw - just put my personal 'spin' on it ;-)

Speaking of - meet Hello Sunshine!

Hello Sunshine!

A few pics from the clues leading 'up to' the finish:

Clue #6 - love how these pinks play so well w/Sunshine Yellow!

Yep - changed things up a bit in 'my version' - including going scrappy w/pinks, changed out the skinny turquoise border sashing for a Big fat 2 1/2" one, changed out those corner stones to different Sunshine yellows and went totally scrappy w/turquoise fabric sashing!  It's ALL mine and I Totally Love it!  

Kudos to Bonnie for coming up w/gorgeous color palette to play with that I would typically NEVER touch w/quilting 10' pole BUT...so glad I did!

Chaining Hour Glass units ...LOTS of them!

Assembling into blocks

Butterfly Blocks - aren't these amazing!

Oh yeah - almost forgot...chose to forego the 'on point' setting so we could enjoy ALL those gorgeous butterfly blocks...still dream about sewing them ;-)

Sashed out - ready for some flying geese,
which will ALL fly the same direction on 'my quilt' ;-)

And finally - added a gorgeous batik border straight from my stash...LOVE!

Bordered out - ready for quilting!

Been hosting a Sweet Freedom Mystery or two myself...Stop by and see what we're up to when you get a chance - look forward to seeing You!  https://sweetfreedommystery.blogspot.com/

Later,

~Deb

Rhododendron Trail Mystery Catch-up!

 Hope you ALL had a very Merry Christmas and are eagerly anticipating our Brand NEW Year of 2022!

While waiting for our New Year to arrive, decided to get busy catching up on a few projects, including our annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery - this year's mystery has been named Rhododendron Trail by the creator herself ;-)

During Christmas and all the accompanying festivities, w/prep work and cooking/baking, as usual, fell behind on last week's clue, which btw, was a doozy!  Got it ALL cut out Sunday eve and started sewing prior to Clue #5 being released Monday morning - nothing like a little pressure to get those motivating juices flowing!

Time to start sewing!

Chain piecing the hour glass units of Clue #4

And then there was the pressing of the 'first half' - took almost 2 hours just to press...Oh my.

First 'half' of the hour glass units getting pressed

Finished pressing!

First half of the hour glass units pressed and ready for final assembly

Hour Glass units assembled/pressed...Yes!

 

Honestly, IF I don't see another Hour Glass unit in the near future, I'll be good w/that ;-)

Managed to get Clue #5 cut and assembled w/fabrics I had BUT, ran out and had to order another Pink fat quarter set to be able to finish.  Should arrive by Friday when Clue #6 is released!  NO worries - we've got the weekend...right?

I rummaged through my stash to see if I couldn't find some pinks to finish up with, that could also 'blend' with what I had already used.  And I did find one pink batik that is a nice addition and got used BUT, it wasn't enough.  Used up most of my pink stash last year creating face masks, and Pink is just NOT a fabric color I tend to purchase and/or keep on hand in my stash.  Time to order more of some of my 'original' fabrics - thank goodness The Fat Quarter Lady still had some left...Lucky me!

Sewing the final piece of Clue #5 AND getting a bonus triangle unit for good measure

Most of Clue #5 assembled/pressed and ready to be zip-locked:

3/4 of Clue #5 assembled/pressed and ready for storage

Here's Wishing You and Yours a Happy New Year!

Later, 

~Deb

MORE Bow Ties & Mystery FUN!

 

After a rather looooong sabbatical from the 'Bow Tie' project, decided to get back to it after stumbling across the ice cream bucket FULL of Bow Ties, while conducting the annual Christmas CLEAN.  

Christmas RED seemed appropriate for the re-boot...aren't these too cute!

Christmas RED Bow Ties w/cheddar

Here's the ice cream bucket = 380!  I think I might need 'another' ice cream bucket...;-)

380 Bow Tie blocks so far

When I started this Bonnie Hunter Leaders/Enders Bow Tie project, I decided to use Reproduction jelly roll prints AND I changed up Bonnie's original pattern to be able to accommodate my jelly roll strips.  (ALL the math and other pertinent details are included at the previous blog posting - https://donebybettyboop.blogspot.com/2012/03/bow-ties-can-be-addictive.html)

Reproduction Jelly Roll Strips

 

Now that I've decided to FINISH this project soon - hopefully by the first of the New Year, time to crank things up a bit and get this Bow Tie Party started!

I need 750 total blocks for my finished quilt and I currently have 380, means I need an additional 370 to finish.  I can get five (5) blocks from each jelly roll strip, coupled w/cheddar background fabric, so four (4) strips per day will generate twenty (20) blocks per day...I'm on my way to the Bow Tie FINISH line.

I cut these out today:

Freshly cut/ready to assemble/two different fabric block units in each stack = 80 blocks!

 Time to start sewing:

Chain piecing these Bow Tie units is fairly quick

Five (5) of each fabric design = 10 more Bow Tie blocks!

 

Working on these Bow Ties in between the latest Bonnie Hunter annual Mystery.  First Clue #1 is Done!

Rhododendron Trail Mystery Clue #1

Time for some shut-eye!

Later,

~Deb