My Bonnie Hunter On Ringo Lake is Done!

Last year I fell in love with the colors Bonnie Hunter was using for On Ringo Lake - aqua, coral, brown, and cream.  I'm not usually a brown person, but I do love chocolate brown.  Okay, and chocolate too!

I kept up for most of the quilt along until it was time to make blocks.  Then I got behind.  After the reveal, I decided to change the sashing up a little.  I added an extra strip.  I love how it turned out.  It's the first bed sized quilt I've made in a long time.  And now it's binding is finally on and it's on my bed!

My mother did the quilting for me on her longarm because I did not want to try to pull a queen size quilt through my machine.  She did some AMAZING feathers that really make the quilt pop.  She didn't touch the coral and I love how that makes it stand out.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

On Ringo Lake Top COMPLETE!

This is my first mystery quilt and my first finish!  I added some extra cream sashing and a few extra triangles in the setting triangles.  It's a bit bigger than I'd planned at 84 by 84 inches, but I am so happy with how it turned out.  Now to decide batting and backing and turn it over to my amazing mother to quilt.  That is once we get over our mutual colds.  Gotta love winter.  SIGH.  I had 5 students out of 22 out sick today and I'm down for the count tomorrow.  I need to get rid of these chills.

Here's a picture from when I was first assembling the top.

And here's a sneak peek at Friday's post....you'll have to come back to find out more!

I hope you get to quilt today!  (And I get to sleep away all the germs...)
Suzy

There is a Light at the End of the Tunnel...On Ringo Lake

I am getting soooooo close.  I can feel it.  My goal is to finish putting the top together this weekend!  All the blocks are finished and the pieces for my modified sashing and setting triangles are made.  Now it's assembly time.  I've got this....I hope!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

On Ringo Lake - Clue #8 - Blocks

I am slowly pinning, slowly pinning yes I am...words rephrased from the Song that Never Ends...

I am an over-pinner.  Always have been, trying to reform, but it's a challenge and a process I suppose.

These are 1/3 of the blocks sewn...

And I had to lay one out.  So pretty!  Back to it hopefully soon.  The car died.  I have spent the last two days car shopping, but I'm almost ready to make a purchase!  I will be glad when it's done.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

On Ringo Lake Clue #6 Complete

What to do when the weather outside is below zero?  Invite a friend over and sew!  We were all working on our Ringo Lake clues.  Here's my Clue #6 all done.  I can't wait to see what this turns out to be.  The colors are so yummy.

And here's all the little triangles I had to trim off.  Thanks to Ann for the tip about using scissors.  That was so much faster than a rotary cutter.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

On Ringo Lake Clue #5

More flying geese.  Sigh.  I like flying geese, but now I really remember why I don't like to make them.  Mom and I decided to use a different technique than last time (cut perfect on Accuquilt) and use the four at a time method.  We found the exact dimensions to cut, but don't have Accuquilt strip cutters for that exact size.  So I cut some pieces of the sizes we did have and tried it out.  It worked well and we had to trim about an 1/8 of an inch from the sides.  So we went for it.

We talked and marked our squares.  I then came home and pinned.

Mom has an amazing 1.5 x 3 Blocloc trimmer for geese.  It worked great!

Two done....many to go.

Mom had some sticky stuff on the back of the ruler.  It's like the stuff that holds gift cards on to the cardboard they come attached to.  It got unsticky after awhile and I was trying to figure out a solution as it made the trimming much easier.

I bought these dots at Office Max.  I wanted temporary, but they only had permanent.  They were too sticky so I put some of the oil from my hands (okay, okay, and my hair) on the dots to get them less sticky.  Then they worked great and lasted for 80 pieces or so before they had to be replaced.  

All done!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

On Ringo Lake Clue #3 Done!

31 Day Blogging Challenge Day 10!

Here are all of my pieces pinned and ready to sew.  I had Quilter's Night Out last night and wanted to be all ready to sew.  It's so much fun to get together with girlfriends and chat and sew.  These are all my pieces for Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery, On Ringo Lake.  The pattern is available for free on her blog.

I picked up my piles of fabrics and don't they look like a salmon steak?  Sushi anyone?  

All sewn up and completed!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

An Adventure in Acquiring an Accuquilt 2" Cutting Die

31 Day Blogging Challenge Day 9!

I accomplished cutting my pieces!  After arriving home from work (it was a very frustrating day in third grade), we realized we had no 2" die for the GO BIG! cutter.  Sigh...what to do?  I certainly didn't want to cut ALL those 2" squares by hand...

So we called our local quilt shop that is an Accuquilt dealer, Sew With Me.  They had one and were open another hour.  Could we make it through traffic?  Google maps said traffic was light, so my mom and I went for it.  We got there with 25 minutes to spare only to find out we'd called their sister location in Stillwater, not Woodbury, and the Woodbury store didn't have that die.  So they called Stillwater and asked if they'd stay open a few minutes late to wait for us.

Oh, did I mention the main freeway between the two stores is closed?  A little problem with a burst water pipe and a sinkhole!?  Fortunately, the lady at Woodbury gave me AMAZING directions and we made it to the new store about 10 minutes after closing and acquired the needed die....and a few more tans for the mystery too!  

Then on the way home we ran into a snow squall and the gas light came on.  The driving reminded me of the scene where the Millennium Falcon of Star Wars flies into hyperspace and it looks like a snow storm! A stop was made to refill the car and we continued on our way home where mom and I were finally successful in getting our pieces cut.

Now to mark all those lines...

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Quiltville On Ringo Lake Mystery - Clue #2

31 Day Blogging Challenge Day 5!

I'm currently working on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery.  We're on clue 2.  I must admit that I applique more than I piece and it's fun to do something different.

Here are all my geese pinned and ready to go.  There are a lot.

Here are some of them pressed.  I love the orange and coral combination!

And all stacked up ready to be put away.

The first two clues.  I adore these colors.  They're what finally made me participate after years of watching!  Ready for clue 3 on Friday.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Quiltville Mystery - On Ringo Lake Clue 1 (and a GO! cutter tip)

I've watched the Quiltville Mystery for the last two years, but haven't joined in. However, Bonnie Hunter had me with her colors this year.  I love coral and aqua together!

I had a bunch of random cream scraps I was able to cut into squares using mom's AMAZING GO BIG! Cutter from Accuquilt.  What an amazing gadget!  I am looking forward to using it again soon.  I've thought about buying my own....but she's three blocks, so what's the point?  I can share.

This time I learned a new trick from mom.  To cut one strip form each fabric, I lined them up.  Then overlapped it on the cutter to get one strip.  Then I rolled up the part that stuck off.

I then put it through the cutter....

(Here's the proof)

And got my strips without a lot of waste!  Who knew?  Mom's are amazing.

Then I cut my squares.

And then mom showed me how to do it using folding instead of scissors....(I'm using batiks, she's using prints).

Ta da!  Lots of lovely blocks.

I can't wait until Friday for the next clue.  I know what I'm doing this weekend.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy