Monday, November 27, 2017

Yeah!  We have started the "On Ringo Lake" mystery quilt!  I love the colors and yes, I am repeating myself.  I love turquoise and browns; they are my favorite colors.
Come and sew with me by visiting Quiltville and join in on the fun.

I cut my strips and sewed about 1 dozen on my Singer 401a.
I love them!  More irons in the fire, but I don't mind.  Christmas break is coming up fairly soon and I can devote more time to piecing and quilting.

I have more to go...see my strips at the top.  So join in on the fun and use up your scraps!
                                            On Ringo Lake quilt mystery at Quiltville.


I stepped away from working on last year's mystery quilt, the En Provence'.  I am happy to say that I have just the last 'neutral' outer rows to stitch.  I like how the quilt is finished with the star points on a neutral background.  I think I will bind this with magenta.




Tuesday, November 21, 2017

I have been piecing all day and am trying to finish last year's mystery quilt, En Provence.  This is a pretty quilt with yellow, purple, lilac, magenta, and green.  I love it.  I am sewing on the last two rows to finish this quilt.  I'm not sure if I will have someone else quilt it or take the time to quilt it myself.  I watched my Craftsy class with Leah Day to get some inspiration. 
Like many quilters, I have many tops to finish and pieces to quilt.  For example, I have the bag for Leah's class pieced, but not pinned to quilt it.  I also have yet to finish Leah's first block of the month, too.  I have all 12 blocks pieced and 7 quilted.  With school and lesson planning, it has been hard to set aside time for myself to piece and quilt. 
That aside, here's a picture of my almost finished En Provence' flimsy.  I need to iron the seams and add the last rows.
This will be finished before the start of this year's mystery quilt.  Between baking, I will get this done.

Monday, November 20, 2017

At the start of the school year, I bought several chef coats for class and thought to get them embroidered with my name.  I opened my embroidery files for both the Viking and also the Bernina...neither of the programs would open!  Okay, so what is this?  Well, the embroidery files cannot be opened using the new Windows 2016 app.  I had to locate extensions to try to get the computer to recognize my files.  Well, after getting in contact with the techie personnel, I found that I will need to upgrade and purchase the most recent embroidery software for both of my machines.  Ugh! 

After reading how others were in the same boat, someone suggested purchasing another embroidery compatible software package, Embrilliance.  This was way cheaper and it works with my Viking.  The Bernina, on the other hand, still needs its specific embroidery files to create and download the ART embroidery.  I don't have the extra $$$ to purchase, so essentially, my Bernina embroidery capability is gone.  I did download and used their demo version, but that will go away after the trial period is over.  I wasn't considering purchasing another top machine; what I have works and sews just fine.  I know technology is forever changing, but I am not willing to buy yet another package or another machine. 

I am seriously considering getting the old cpu out of storage and hook it up, just so I can use my embroidery files.  It has not been upgraded with the 2012 or 2016 Windows programs.   Ahh...the woes of technology.
My, does time fly!  Here we are again at the start of Thanksgiving week and Bonnie Hunter is ready to post this year's mystery quilt.  I am so excited.  If you're interested, visit Quiltville blogspot and get the latest information and link to get started.

I love her color selection.  I have most of the colors, but I do need to add more to the coral and turquoise piles.  I have plenty of brown, but I have to dig a bit deeper to get to them.  (We moved to our new house this past July and I am just about finished with organizing my sewing studio and the brown stacks are in the back on the shelving unit.)

my fabric stash

Here's last year's mystery quilt, En Provence' in parts.  I have to finish putting the last two rows together.  I have been working on it when I can.  This school year has been busy and when I get home, I am bushed!  I have just enough energy to cook our evening meal.

This is going to be a very colorful and pretty quilt when I finally piece it together.

Indigo Way quilt mystery

It's the last day of 2023.  This was a rough year for my family.  We lost four close family members starting in January, May, July, and ...