Sandra-P

Yay! Another mystery quilt. I really look forward to this every year. Last year my husband was in hospital for 33 days, I didnt get to do it so hopefully this year should be fun. I will start picking out my fabrics tomorrow and the local quilt store has a sale on Friday and Saturday so will pop in there to see about getting more fabric for this. Joesmom, so sorry about your fall. I seem to fall a lot but have never hurt myself. Good to see so many familiar names!

joe'smom

Thank you, Sandra-P! It's good to see you back for the mystery!

(I'm back to walking around the block (with DH) and was able to resume my back-strengthening exercises, so the worst is over. It's so convenient that ribs are able to fix themselves!)

Iceblossom

Oh boy! Welcome to the newest participants, looks like we will have a good group to sew with. Sandra-P great to see you back. Looks like we both missed last year.

I know my Seattle winters don't compare to South Dakota winters but I'm with you MacyBaby, it is nice to have this to do during the dark days. My grandparents were from the Dickinson area, Czech farmers to tame the empty prairies. We were able to go through there on our big trip before the move. They left just after my father was born during the great depression. Not quite sure how my father's older sister (who mostly raised him) ended up in Tacoma, WA but that's where they went. Finishing up the Rhododendron Trail top was my signal to stop sewing until after our move. As it turned out I probably could have participated in the Chilhowie last year but just as well to get as much stuff reduced and packed and all that sort of thing.

happylab

I’m deciding on what color for the red. I’m not sure if the red color selection is med-dark or dark like the indigo blue. When I do the pic of black and white it looks dark to me. What do you see? So far I selected colors for this project, just not entirely sold on all the colors. I was thinking…. Dark purple for the indigo, medium blue scrappy for the light to medium blue and tourques for the reds. Over the next 2 days I will go through more of my stash to make final decision. I took a pic of the fabric, but my border fabric doesn’t show up very well. It’s dull and looks bleached out. I’m leaning towards scraping this color way all together and thinking another color selection of fabric. Back to the stash selection.

joe'smom

happylab, when I grayscaled Bonnie's photo of the paint chips, the red looked like a medium to me. It's nowhere near as dark as the indigo, which I see as almost black. Also, I've seen it described as a bright red on Quiltville. Bonnie's photo of her red fabric is not a dark red; it struck me as fairly bright and not at all heavy.

happylab

Ty Joe’s Mother, thank you for the info. It helped me decided on my colors. The 1st photo is the colors I decided to use for this mystery. The second photo was a close 2nd, but I was unable to choose a red substitute fabric. The white at the bottom will be the final border I plan to add at the end of the mystery. Bonnie did mention a focus fabric and I was hoping to fussy cut the reindeer fabric. I guess we will see. Now to wash my fabrics.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope it’s fun and relaxing and especially fun for you all.

Stitches23

Happylab - I really love your dark reds. Nice selection of fabrics. I've enjoyed seeing the other selections others have posted as well. They are all great.

I'm still working on finishing up a quilt for a wedding gift. 3 more rows to connect and I think it will be done (that is, if I don't add another border.) I have fabric ideas in my head for the mystery but looks like I won't be pulling fabric until after Black Friday. Kids are starting to trickle in...a first priority. Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it.

Iceblossom

Nice fabrics HappyLab! I think you have a good assortment/color balance and it should be a gorgeous project.

I am done prewashing my dark blues that needed it. Still have to work a bit on the light blue set. Looking at my neutrals I was thinking that was a lot of blue but that I didn't have enough fabrics to go with all blue tones so picked up a piece of white with tiny red polka dots to add to the mix.

I tried setting up my Bernina, aka "Cranky Bernie" and he is unhappy again. Worked a year or so ago when I packed my sewing room but I think the bobbin sensor has gone out. Looks like I'll be using my little Sparrow 15 I bought as a take to class machine or my good old vintage Remington, aka "Remy". In the almost 30 years I've had Remy I think I've spent about $100-200 in parts and repairs -- wish I could say the same thing about Cranky Bernie. It's been around $1500 in 7 years and its been down about a full year getting/waiting for repairs or servicing (not including the moving period). This is the last repair I'm willing to make, has been a great machine when it works but a non-working machine is worthless to me. Grumbles!

Is just the two of us this year for Thanksgiving. We've already cooked and eaten two turkey since they've been going on sale ans are thinking about pizza for Thursday I still eat carbs and crust but hubby has a Keto version where the "crust" is basically just a base of sausage. Then you put on a tiny amount of pizza sauce of some sort and add extra meat and cheese on the top. His will be made his way, I'm thinking of picking up a Papa Murphy pizza today and cooking it tomorrow.

Lostoaks

This board is great! I’ve been struggling with the lighter blue. I guess I’m not good at value. But I read a post up thread suggesting putting the fabric near the red and go from there. I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that…. Sometimes it’s the simplest things! I’m excited to get things going!!

sewingpup

Iceblossom, I am enjoying my Bernina 475 for piecing. It has 5.5 feeddogs but also the big bobbin and some other nice features. I also am loving my Bernina 590 ...but it is fussier when piecing because of the wider 9 mm feed dogs. So if you do decide to replace Crankie Bernie, you may want to give these two a spin. I do like to do some embroidery so hence the 590 although it doesn't do those monster embroideries that the 700 series does. The 475 is now in my sewing cabinet for this mystery.