Good Fortune, the Beginning!

Welcome to my little corner of the quilting world! I’ve been absent for about a week because it’s been crazy (by design) around here with Thanksgiving, family, and our alternate celebration FIESTA. That’s where we get together (those who celebrated elsewhere at Thanksgiving) and have Mexican food. Yeah - by the end of next week we’re sick of turkey AND Mexican food. LOL.

Even though I haven’t finished up On Ringo Lake - the mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter generously provided for us last year (although the pieces are all sewn and the quilt top is currently under assembly) -  I am venturing into this year’s mystery, Good Fortune.

Here are my units for Clue #1.  Lots of sweet four-patches. I switched from red to hot pink because I have so much more pink in my stash (read: granddaughters) and I’m trying to use scraps. Also, some of my red stash is earmarked for other things, so pink it is.

This year, I’m taking Bonnie’s suggestion and only doing a fraction of the specified number of units for each clue. I want to participate and sew some of each the units, but I’m not going to kill myself trying to get it all done and assembled during the Holidays. However, I am linking up to Bonnie’s Clue #1 linky party HERE. If you are interested, you can read about this year’s mystery quilt, Good Fortune, at her Quiltville blog. Click on the Good Fortune Mystery tab (here). She has all the information there.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Right now I’ve got two other quilting projects that have high priority for the next couple weeks.

The first of my priorities is All You Need is Love, which will be a Christmas present for my daughter and needs to be mailed within the next 10 days or so.

Here it is after I added the aqua round a couple weeks ago. I swore it wasn’t wonky, but just looking odd because the top was pinned to the design board and the bottom half was just hanging. But it really, really bugged me. Today I took it down from the design wall, laid it flat on my work tables, pressed it with Best Press and measured it.

Um, yeah, it’s wonky. An inch off from top to bottom. Surprise, surprise.

The aqua border has been removed. I measured around the hearts border and they were only a quarter inch off, so I figured out where to cinch that up. Now I’ll re-add the aqua strip after pressing and trimming it to the exact size before sewing it on. That’s what I get for just sewing it on willy-nilly to begin with.

Then I can add the final blocks, strips and corner medallions, which are all sewn and ready to go. I’ll have a picture of the entire top this weekend.

My second priority is quilting a large quilt for Cousin Kim. We basted it together last week. The quilt is a Hunter’s Star that will be a present for her son (I can say that because he doesn’t read my blog). I’ll show a picture of that, too, when it’s all quilted. I told her that it would be done between the 5th-10th of December, which should give her plenty time to bind it before the big day. As I’ll be wrestling quilting it on my domestic Bernina with a relatively small harp space, I’m not looking forward to quilting it. Luckily, she has decided on a simple loop design, so it will be easy enough to just pace myself and get through it over the next week or so. I’ll share a picture when that’s done.

Finally, I’ll do a November recap post on Thursday or Friday to show all my December finishes, including the Christmas Tree Skirt that is now in the wild, under the tree!  :-)  Have a great week!!