Andee and Kathy do Clue Two: En Provence

 Got the tree up.  Even found a pretty tablerunner I made a few years ago to put under it!  I spent a good bit of the week (besides working) prepping for finals and digging all my ASL stuff that was in totes out of the garage.  I had no idea I had amassed so much stuff!  We cleaned the garage after I got so much of it out of there and we pulled all the Christmas stuff out.  Found the last (please let it be the last) tote of teaching materials in with the totes that had come in for Christmas. So I have one more to go through--later!

Friday night Kathy and I worked on En Provence.  She finished up her clue one while I cut all of my clue two and her neutrals.  I then started sewing..for once taking my time to do things right.  Had good music on and a glass of wine too.  Discovered I have never cut the notch out of this unit before and that my life is much easier if I follow Bonnie's directions! A few astute ladies on Quiltville's Open Studio commented on my lack of notches which made me realize I was misunderstanding the bit about the notches!  I made this same unit in Celtic Solstice and Smith Mountain Morning and always thought I was to eyeball a notch and leave it hanging out.  HAHA!  If you cut the notch out it lines right up on the other piece.  Right there in Bonnie's directions but apparently I speed read and try to follow the pictures.   So I went back and cut all the notches and started again...

More good music and lots of notches getting cut.  I am using a dusty peach in several different fabrics for Bonnie's constant magenta.  Should be interesting.

 Did lots of teaching related finals prep (including running to the school for copies), grocery shopping, cleaning, furniture moving and Christmas decorating today.  We watched Shrek the Halls and the Muppet Christmas to keep Kathy in the mood.

 We put the dog gate all around it and are hoping that keeps the dogs away.  By the time all that was done, dinner made and cleaned up (and a batch of sugar scrub for Christmas gifts) I did the last of the prep for finals and we crawled into the quilting studio.  We both lamented we were ready for bed..it was not even 8 PM.  We sewed for maybe thirty minutes and decided clue two can wait another day. 

 Kathy is using Patriots colors for her mystery quilt.  You can see her paint chips on her machine and all her clue one and more than half of clue two parts. 

I have less than 20 to go (and we always try to make a few extras) but here they are.  I am linking up with Bonnie so you can see all the progress!  In case you wanted to see EVERY Mystery quilt Bonnie has ever done here is my Parade of Quiltville Mystery Quilts!  How is your clue coming along?

Hold on to Your Hat, I Sewed Again!

 Last weekend I whipped up two pillowcases for Coleman.  He took his with him and when he returned a week ago (he left his wife--long story but for the best) he brought almost nothing back with him.  I had some twin sheets and we got him a new twin bed, but the pillowcases mysteriously disappeared so made him some fun ones. 

 I had kitted up a few cats a long time ago for Christmas gifts for my daughter and my son Mac's fiance.  Pattern is from Lori Holt.  So I finally worked on them last weekend and then finished them up today.

 Kathy finally finished up Grand Illusion which was Coleman's wedding quilt...it never was sent to Wisconsin since it was not done.  Kathy put the last of the binding on it right after Coleman got back here so now he has a new divorce quilt.

 Last weekend I spent a few hours tracing out and attaching the scalloped binding for Allietare.  I had to do quite a bit of easing since I neglected to do the binding out of the bias.  Oops.  It may be the last scalloped binding I attempt!  Today I tried to machine bind the top half but had to rip out the two short sections I tried.  I then decided to hand bind it though on the front.  I did one long side today and have made a goal of doing one side per week so this will be done long before the next mystery starts!

Bonnie announced the next leader/ender challenge--Hourglasses.  I was not sure that I really wanted to jump onboard with a new project because I have plenty of wips to work on, however I saw these cute placemats and thought I should at least make a set of four or six.  So I will be prepping for the leaders and enders soon!
Packers won today (and so did the Patriots) so we are happy here.