Today's The Day

My bladder woke me a little earlier than usual this morning, so I took advantage of the earlier time to check for the Quiltville Mystery Quilt Intro. I think it's going to be a wait-and-see as to whether I'm going to do it, based on the color scheme. The one color that appears to maybe be predominant aside from the neutrals is orange. I use very little orange, so there's little in my stash - even if I included FQs and yardage; the total would be not much more than 1/3 of the requirement. I'm considering yellow, but am sure I would have to cut into some FQs and yardage to accommodate the requirement as well.

Sum total of my orange "scraps".

Following along, saving and printing the instructions and getting the paint chips are still on the agenda, so we'll see where it goes from there in the months ahead. I can't deny that I have plenty to do! All one has to do is review my UFO Parade and see how many projects need to be finished. There are a few that aren't even showing on there yet. Digging out of my 'black hole' has been challenging!

Mystery Season

The Quiltville, Bonnie Hunter mystery introduction for 2018 is almost here. Her followers and devotees know of what I speak. Her traditional date of release for colors and yardage is October 31st. That is just two days away, on Wednesday. There has been much expectant chatter on her Facebook group, and while I'm still unsure as to whether I will actually do it this year, I'm looking forward to seeing what she has going this year.

I first 'discovered' Bonnie Hunter in 2011, probably later than many, but have been hooked ever since, attended one of her quilt guild presentations meeting her in person and had my picture taken with her...she's a quilting world Rock Star, and while I wasn't a Beatles fan, I am a fan of Bonnie's, though I still won't scream my silly head off like a teenager.

The first mystery I became acquainted with was Orca Bay though I did not make it.  Some day I hope to. And as you can see by the labeled manila folders above, I have all of the patterns from 2011 through 2017, and if you look really closely, you'll see a folder for 2018 without a pattern name...I'm ready! And to be clear and respectful to Bonnie, I will not provide any part of these patterns to anyone so please do not ask. They are Bonnie's copyrighted property and available to purchase either on her website store, or printed in one of her books.

I'm still working on (well, I haven't really since last December when I last sewed anything) En Provence from 2016 and did not do last year's On Ringo Lake.

I'll briefly explain my organization: 

I trim a regular manila folder to fit an approximate 1/4" stack of 8.5" x 11" paper. That way it's pretty much like any other soft-cover book on my shelf. I crease at the fold closest to the actual fold of the folder and print the pattern name, Bonnie's name as the author, and the year of issue. It overlaps two years, but the year released is to me the actual year date.

Inside the folder, I glue a card envelope where I keep the paint chips. I suppose you could put any size envelope to your liking, in there, or even a zippered plastic bag, but this is my own preference.

I keep the pattern sheets in order - that only makes sense, right? Except if I'm actively working on it, then, while they're still in order, the finished portions are moved to the back of the stack. 

Anticipating this years colors! Will they include green, orange, pink, yellow, red, white neutrals, cream neutrals, black or green and in what shade and hue? From where will she have taken her inspiration? Someplace she's been this year or some other time in the past? Two more days, and we'll know.

Where's The Fire?

No fire, but some cute juvenile print firemen, fire hats, trucks and Dalmatians fabric strips.

firetrucks, firemen

These are from the scraps received from my aunt back in July. She has three grandsons, one of which likely received a quilt made from this fabric. I was looking to trim these but the thought that came to mind was, "Wow, they'd make a cute binding.", even if you couldn't see the entirety of the images.The three strips shown above are 2.25" - 2.5" strips, so would be perfect for binding. I'll probably just trim off loose threads for now.

Dalmations and hats

These though, at 1.25" for the hats, and less than 2" for dogs would do better as a border or in blocks.

one side if folded for binding

I folded one strip as if it were attached to a quilt, and above and below are the results. One side would show the tires, the other a section of the body of the truck. If some of the fabric is used in a quilt, it would make for a fun binding.

and the other side.

I may have to plan a quilt around just these "scraps of fabric". I think there's enough for binding a smaller quilt, or to mix-and-match if need be. 

Wednesday What's Up?

I'm still plugging along on trimming up the scraps my aunt passed along to me this past summer. It's quite tedious at times and slow going as there were so many scraps, and I have to break from it to fit in household chores and tend to other necessary duties.

I sure hope some of them fit the color scheme for this year's Quiltville mystery quilt, though like last year, I may only follow along.

The greens have been the focus over the last too many days, interrupted by a couple days of "sofa rest" as my back decided it was anything but happy - much better now though! Here's a shot of just a few of those greens or mostly greens. 

Funny, through the camera these are more blue than green - contrary to how my eyes view them here, and granted these could be in either group since there is teal, and blue. Maybe I'll switch them to the blue bin. I suppose it's a matter of personal choice. That lime green is definitely green though!

I'm cutting mostly into 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", and 3.5" strips or squares, and anything less is a string or a chunk. Some of the scraps were already triangles so I'm just trimming off all loose threads and storing each fabric with all it's pieces into individual zippered bags before putting them into their respective bins. My bins are nearly full, so I really need to get my quilting mojo back.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Marty's had a dress shirt hanging on the coat rack in the master bedroom for ages. I don't recall if he ever told me it was missing a button or not. I finally looked at it and realized that was what was needed so thought I'd tend to it. I really dislike mending and sewing on buttons.

There's an empty spot up there next to the pocket.

 I quickly discovered I didn't know where the missing button was. I did a quick glance on his desk and on his dresser and nightstand but didn't see it and suspected it was truly lost. Did you notice the button is rather a lavender-blue color? I looked for the spare button usually sewn inside the seam, uh, not one there, only the much smaller one used in the placket of the sleeve. I was thinking maybe I could steal one from the cuff thinking it wouldn't be noticed but I'm pretty sure he uses the outer button of the two on the cuff, so yes it would be noticeable. 

Then I checked my trays of spare buttons. Nothing in this color, not even close. I could have used a white one, but the position for this button is right on the chest so far too obvious. So I posted on my social media account that first picture up above with the comment that I'd rather buy him a new shirt than remove all the buttons and replace them so that they all matched.

Back side of the missing button.

 When he got home from work, he brought me the missing button! He still had it! I was amazed! It is shown in the above photo, though when I was taking pictures I didn't realize that was the back. When turned over, it does look like the others on the shirt, but my first thought was 'oh great, it had been replaced before' and no I wasn't going to use it. So turning it over made me realize it was the right button.

needles & old blue thread...hope the thread holds up ;)

 Next, I had to see if I had any lavender-blue thread because of course, all the buttons were not sewn on using white. The first spool I pulled out, and the only bluish one in my thread drawer, was too light and bright a blue. Then I remembered I'd brought back a bag of old threads from an aunt a few years ago [yeah, still not dealt with] and there was a duller blue which wasn't too far off, so I used it.

Nick had to thread the needle for me - darned eye was so very tiny and my eyes just weren't getting that thread into it.

DONE!

Do you notice that the thread is criss-crossed on that button? That is not how I learned to sew on buttons, and it annoys me. I conceded to do it that way because all the other buttons were done that way, again so that it all matched.  So the missing button is back where it belongs, and now the shirt is headed to the laundry before getting a ride back to Marty's closet.

There's also a pair of jeans in need of a patch on the front of the thigh area where Marty caught it on something sharp, probably barbed wire going through someone's fencing on one of his photographing outings. I used an iron-on patch some time ago, but it came off after just a couple washings, so will have to use needle and thread...eventually...or not.

Blog Ads

I know this is slightly off-topic for my quilt/needle-work-only blog, but I'm feeling a bit grumbly this morning so am going to explain what is causing me to grumble, and it has to do with other quilting blogs.

For many, many years I've followed a couple of bloggers, well-known ladies in the quilt world, and at some point, both added/allowed advertising on their blogs. They've given their explanations, and I don't begrudge them at all. Hey, they earn whatever income they can get from their blogs - they're consistent and always interesting and as all of us bloggers (full-time or occasional) know, it takes effort to compose a blog and post pictures.

The issue I have of late is with the ads themselves, or maybe it's how they function within the blog network that does it, I really don't know which. When looking at these blogs and scrolling, there is of course the banner ad that pops up at the top of the page which can be deleted by clicking on the "x", though I've noticed it comes back now after a certain amount of time. Also, the ads that pop up at the bottom of photos. I use to be able to locate a small grayed "x" and delete those too so that I could see the full picture. Not any more! I usually cannot find an "x" at all, or if there is one, I'm not able to click on it to get it to go away. Scrolling away from the image doesn't get rid of it either. I can close the page, return and briefly see the full image before the annoyance returns.

Am I the only one bothered by this? I love these two particular blogs, but sometimes this annoyance factor keeps me from tuning in. Both authors have in the past made posts/remarks about having the ads on their blogs to where I don't want to address it with them.  I wonder too if the revenue made from having ads is really sufficient if it means you start losing your readers whose ad-tolerance level has peaked.