Nipping at My Heels - A Lovely Year of Finishes

I awoke this morning knowing the end of the month was nipping at my heels and the one goal I most wanted to accomplish -- putting the border on my Easy Street -- was not finished.   So I got my energy going and added the border today.  I know it's a small finish but it was a goal I set and accomplished!  (Please forgive the dull photo.  I didn't finish stitching until about 8:30 tonight so I didn't have natural light - though I wouldn't have had anyway because it's been cloudy and snowy all day.)

The quilt measures about 48" x 70" which is a good lap quilt size.  Because the blocks are sewn on the bias the quilt is a little stretchy.  I thought about trying my hand at machine quilting but I don't think this is a candidate for my first try in that area.  In fact, because the quilt is so stretchy, I wonder if I should quilt it from the edges toward the middle....

I'm linking this to A Lovely Year of Finishes for January at Fiber of All Sorts.  A Lovely Year of Finishes is a challenge encouraging us to choose one item to finish each month, then account for our success.  Thank you, Shanna, for hosting.


Happy stitching!
--Nancy.
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Lessons from Easy Street

I want Bonnie Hunter know how grateful I am to her for inviting us to participate in her Easy Street Mystery Quilt.  It's been an interesting and fun experience.  I love the blocks she created, appreciate her enthusiasm and energy, and am grateful for her generosity in sharing this quilt pattern with us.  Thank you, Bonnie!

Easy Street has been an opportunity for firsts for me. 

• first mystery quilt 
• first time have no idea the appearance of the finished quilt
• first time using so many (small) pieces in a quilt
• first time sewing flying geese
• first time choosing only 5 colors for a quilt
• first time choosing all the colors in advance

 
Trying something new is almost always a good thing.  It gives me a chance to learn, to see things from a different perspective, and is often an opportunity to decide I do or don't like something. So, I thought I would jot down some lessons I've learned on Easy Street, in no particular order.

• Now I know I like working toward a finished image, either mental or visual, rather than not knowing the end result.
• The more pieces of fabric in a quilt, the more chances everything won't line up in the end, even with very careful cutting and sewing.
• Having all seams pressed to one side can be difficult.  At times there were 6 layers of fabric to stitch through.
• Sometimes it's essential to pin if you want your seams to line up.  (And if the seams don't line up, the quilt  is less likely to come out square in the end.)
• It's fun to stitch many elements and then play with them.  I intend to play with the leftovers from this quilt and can already imagine more than a few arrangements.  I may decide to make another small Easy Street quilt with the rest of the blocks or do something else with them.
• When doing a mystery it's really important to notice both color and value when choosing fabric.  I heard Bonnie say this quilt was about color, and it is, but it's also about value.  When she first gave her colors, each color was in a separate photograph so there was no way to look at them together.  When she started stitching the blocks together, I wasn't thinking about value and didn't notice.  I'll notice value from now on.

Any of you who have been reading about my Easy Street progress know I thought the teal was a little strong and wished for more red.  I had thought about a red border and several of you left comments suggesting the same.  Is the red border now too strong?  I considered no border but the quilt looks bare without a border.  What do you think?

Happy stitching!
--Nancy.
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Easy Path Instead of Easy Street

I would have loved this quilt if the colors had been placed differently.  The teal could have been the army green and the red could have been the teal and it would have been perfect.  There's no telling the color placement with a mystery quilt, though.  Since there's just too much teal/turquoise, I've decided to make a small version of the quilt and be done.  An Easy Path  instead of Easy Street!

(Uh oh!  I see a mistake!  Good thing the blocks aren't stitched together yet!)

This is a photo of the last side block laid out for sewing.  It's already stitched and is in place in the above layout.  Now I just have the corner triangles to do, stitch all the blocks together, then decide about borders.  I don't want to spend time on a quilt I don't love when I have other quilts in progress that I do love.

I'm linking this to Bonnie's Easy Street Link-Up of January 7 where others are showing their final quilt layouts.

--Nancy.
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Stewing about Colors or, My Unsettled Heart

I truly thought I'd come to peace with my color choices for Easy Street. (The teal/turquoise is a bluer in this photo than in person.)

So I started sewing the blocks together.  I have three and a half finished.

And then I browsed through the photos I had of alternate colors and caught my breath at the beauty and lightness of the golden blocks.

But no, no! I am going to use the teal/turquoise as I originally planned.  There's still a chance I will love it when it's finished.

I think I like knowing in advance better than I like a mystery when it comes to quilting.

--Nancy.
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Non-Conformists on Easy Street

I'm still trying to decide what to do about my possibly/probably too dark teals.  I've been browsing through the Easy Street Link-Ups looking for participants who chose colors other than Bonnie's lime/turquoise/purple route to see how their colors look and to see if others have similar-value colors.  Below are some of the quilts and colors I found.

I'm sorry there are no photos below.  I could have taken screen shots of the quilts but didn't want to infringe on the copyright of other bloggers.  You can click the links to see the images:  they will open in a new window which you can close when you're finished.

Pam at Hip to Be a Square Podcast used reds, greens, golds, browns, and creams.  Her greens look teal in this image of her finished block.

Vic at Park Hill Farm used red, greens, brown/golds, blue, and naturals in Civil War prints.  Her first finished block is beautiful!  Scroll down to the third photo to see it.

Cheryl of MO, Broker, My Creative Side posted a photo of several of her completed blocks.  She used red, gold, lavender/purple, and black.

Kim of QuiltMom used reds, brown, golden yellow (maybe cheddar?), white, and navy.  You can see photos of all the parts of her blocks, not yet stitched into the final blocks at Sitting Turkeys and Turkey Droppings?

Crystal of Quiltways is using pinks, roses, turquoise, grey, and white.  Click on December under 2012 in her sidebar and you'll be able to see the stitched parts of most of the clues.

You can see Curlyque Sue's colors at Easy Street Mystery.  She used yellows, orangy/peaches, browns, and blues.  

Kat of Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm chose navy/black, red/browns, oranges, tan, and cream for her colors.  She hasn't posted any finished blocks yet.

Green, light blue, medium blue, rose, lavender, off white are the colors and MADAKAMOM - Wife, Mom, Nana.  She shows several of her blocks together at Easy Street Steps 7 & 8 and a Partial Reveal.  Of all the quilts I've seen so far, hers is the one that makes me reconsider leaving my teals:  she also has low-contrast colors. 

Elaine at Emily's Cupboard chose brick reds, peachy reds, light blue, brown, and the palest peach/cream.  At Easy Street Mystery Clue 7 you can see a corner layout.

Maybe my teal won't be so bad.  I think I will do as one of my commenters, Nina, suggest:  lay out several blocks together and look at them for a few days before making a decision.  For me it comes down to whether I can live happily with so much teal (or give the quilt away to someone who can!).

Note added on January 7:  There are a LOT of non-conformist quilts which you can see at Bonnie's Easy Street Link-Up from this morning.

--Nancy.
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Second Thoughts on Easy Street

I love, love, love the patterns created by these blocks. Absolutely love them!  It's the colors that are causing me to have second thoughts.

Based on the yardage needed according to Bonnie's first Easy Street post, I thought I chose red as the dominant color.  But it turns out - as you can see - that teal became the dominant one.  I like the teal but it's just a little too strong and maybe a little too dark, too. 

Since only squares have been cut from the teal and it hasn't been sewn to any other colors yet I could easily switch it out.  What do you think?  What other colors would work to replace it?  Could I use a medium/dark gold?  Maybe a butterscotch-y gold?  Or how about a pale olive green?  Or how about a lighter variation of teal?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts or suggestions you'd care to share.  Thanks!

--Nancy.

P.S.  Of the two photos above, the first comes closer to the colors my eyes see when I look at the actual blocks, or maybe somewhere between the two photos.
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Now I Understand

Easy Street is my first mystery quilt.  As I looked at others' posts about their colors, progress, etc., I noticed that many of the quilters put their blocks in plastic bags and identified the step number on the bag.  I thought that was a good idea but perhaps just a little extra careful to protect the blocks.  I stored mine like this:

As I cut and stitched blocks for each step, I kept adding totals to a small piece of paper until I had enough blocks, stuck a pin in the paper and through the finished blocks, then put them in the box.

Today Bonnie Hunter posted the last instructions for the quilt.  Now I understand why others identified the step number for each block and put the finished blocks in plastic bags.  How much easier it would be to find the pieces by step number than by color and type (especially because I used different colors than Bonnie).

I've laid out all the clues I've finished (I couldn't keep up after Christmas because my family was here) and will add the step numbers to the papers.  I know it will make it easier to stitch the blocks together.

I still have some cutting and sewing to do before I can make any of the larger blocks.

I'm sorry my family has gone but sewing this quilt will, I hope, help me not to miss them so much.  My 6-month-old grandboy, Mali, is one of the people I will be missing.

Happy New Year, everyone.

--Nancy.
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Small Finishes

I sometimes claim finishes in increments, especially if a large project has many small steps that can be completed in a bunch/batch.  These 4-patches and 3 1/2" squares are for Easy Street.  Since I don't start projects on Fridays, these finishes were the perfect work for today.

I've been cutting and sewing the 4-patches for 5 weeks.  I sewed a bunch the first week but didn't get them finished so I've been using them as leaders/enders.  I finally finished the last of the 192 today.

I've been cutting the teal/turquoise squares now and then over the past few weeks.  I just finished cutting 145th square tonight.

Hooray for small finishes!

I hope you're having fun tonight, whether it's sewing, quilting, or spending time with family and/or friends.

--Nancy.


I'm linking this to
-Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF), hosted this week by Shanna at Sparrow in Flight.  Thanks for hosting, Shanna.
-Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Heidi of Handmade by Heidi.  Thanks, Heidi!

Little Red Houses with Green Roofs - and Snow

My Easy Street progress is slow but sure. I have to add half a roof to half of the "houses." I love those little red houses with their green roofs.    Of course it's possible the "houses" will not look like houses at all in the finished quilt.  I wasn't sure of my abilities in stitching a straight line without help so I drew the line.  I'll get better with practice. 

I'm still behind on the 4-patches from clue 1' the 2 1/2" x 3" rectangles from clue 2; and the 3 1/2" squares from clue 4.   I'll finish them, all in good time

We had snow last night and this morning. Before taking the freeway to a nearby store this afternoon, my daughter and I wondered if the freeway would be plowed. It wasn't! She drove carefully and we enjoyed the beauty of fresh fallen snow!

I hope you are all safe and warm, enjoying your family, stitching on your Easy Street blocks, or doing some other thing you love to do.

I'm linking this to Easy Street Link-Up, Part 5 and W.i.P. Wednesday at Tami's Amis and other Creations.  Thanks to both Bonnie and Tami for hosting.

--Nancy.

My Unruly Flocks

They are adorable geese but I can't seem to keep the flocks flying straight.  Some want to get out of line just a little and go their own way.  Others nudge their bills into the backs of the ones ahead.  Who knew geese could be such a challenge?!  I'll get them all straightened out before it's over.

I know other Easy Street participants questioned their colors when the last clue came out.  I think we have to trust our choices and just keep playing along.

Here are more of the red and army green geese waiting to be sewn with their green and cream fellow geese:

I've never made a quilt in quite this way, making components then sewing them together into larger components to become a quilt.  I have to say it is very fun to play with the small blocks, laying them out in various patterns.  I haven't had much time to play and less time to photograph but here's one photo I took:

I'm using teal in place of Bonnie's lime green.  She recommended we have about 3 yards of combined fabrics.  I hope I have enough!  I've been searching for more but haven't found any that are remotely similar to the fabrics I already have.  Will my quilt have to be smaller or will I find fabrics to add?  I hope the latter.  (Just to say, the knock-your-socks-off  teal in this photo is much brighter than in real life!)

I'm linking this post to W.i.P. Wednesday at Lee's Freshly Pieced and to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery Monday Link Up 12/17.  Thanks to both Lee and Bonnie.

Trying to Keep up on Easy Street - W.i.P. Wednesday

My mother always said, "Never start a project on Friday unless you can finish it on Friday."  I've found that adage to be true in my life:  I know that if I start a project on Friday it will not get finished.  (Of course just because I don't start a project on Friday doesn't mean I will finish it.)  Anyway, when Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street clues are published on Fridays, I read them, make a note of them, print them, then go back to whatever I was doing.  That puts me a little behind every week.

For example, below are my strips for 4-patches, waiting to be sewn, then cut.  Some are already cut and some are already sewn into 2-patches.  (Colors in the photos below are not accurate.)

I have 65 4-patches finished, which means I have about 1/3 of the total I need.  I'm having trouble enjoying sewing these blocks.  I find them so very boring to make....  I have also cut 40 of the 64 2" x 3 1/2" blocks.

BUT, all of my green and cream geese are cut and stitched!  I'll trim their little feet off sometime when I'm riding in the car (with my husband driving), watching a movie, or when I'm too tired to do anything else.

For this week's clue I have all the squares and small triangles cut and stitched.  I still need to cut large red triangles and stitch them to the other side to make squares.

Don't you love a mystery?  And don't you always try to guess "who done it" before the book or movie ends? I'm doing the same for this quilt.  I'm guessing Easy Street is a variation of one of the "Road to..." blocks.  Road to Oklahoma.  Road to Jericho.  As soon as I finish some more of clue 3 I'm going to lay out some possibilities.  Of course, doing that discounts the fact that we'll probably have at least 4 more clues, and 4 more parts to stitch.  Still, it's fun to play.

I'm linking this to W.i.P. Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Mystery Monday Link-Up Part 3.

--Nancy.

Goslings on Easy Street

Hey, my goslings can fly!  This is the first time I've made flying geese.  While stitching them I wasn't sure they'd fly but, sure enough, they do!

Don't you love their little "feet" sticking out on the sides at the bottom of each block?  I know I'll have to clip them off but I think they are just too cute.  With only 14 geese made so far, I have a long way to go.

Life has been a little challenging.  I'm still recovering from foot surgery and limping along, walking on my left heel and my right foot.  It puts one out of kilter, so to speak.  I wonder that my joints aren't getting out of alignment!  Not to mention that it makes one so tired.  Add to that the fact that I'm working 3 days a week at a little candy shop.   I'm pushing myself to work on these blocks for a little while each night so I won't be quite so far behind.  I can spend more time on them on Friday and Saturday.  I will begin to catch up then.

--Nancy.
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Taking Easy Street

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame has published another mystery quilt this year.  She's dubbed it Easy Street and began posting information about it a few weeks ago.  We were given two weeks to decide whether to participate and to choose fabrics. At the end of November she published the first set of instructions; last Friday, another set; and on subsequent Fridays will post more instructions or, essentially, blocks to make.

I'm generally slow at making decisions.  I ponder the pros and cons before jumping in. There seemed to be more cons than pros with this decision.

• I've never work with only five fabrics.
• I've never chosen all the fabrics for a quilt in advance. 
• I like to see the finished quilt pattern before deciding to make it.  
• What if I don't like the finished quilt pattern?  

On the other hand, the pros were very enticing.

• I would be pushing myself to work in a way I hadn't before.
• I'd have a finished quilt when it was over.
• I enjoyed considering, then choosing, fabrics.

So, I'm joining the group going down Easy Street.  I don't have a whole lot of hope to keep up with the weekly blocks, considering that I'm already a week behind, I'm still temporarily limited physically, and I'm going to be starting seasonal work.  But hey, there's no deadline, right?

These are my fabrics.  I'll alter them if I decide they don't work.

I hope to post some finished blocks within the next couple of days.

If you'd like to see how others are playing along or you'd like to join in, go to Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 2 at Bonnie's blog, Quiltville.
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