12.15.2012

Easy Street - Part IV

It's been a quiet day here at my house in Rhode Island. My husband and youngest DS are off skiing and I stayed home to work on some projects and finish decorating for Christmas. We had such sad news yesterday about the shooting of 20 first graders and their teachers that I just needed time to quietly sew while listening to public radio. It's inconceivable that someone could kill that many innocents like that. Thursday night I attended a choral presentation by our lower school chorus where 2nd through 5th graders sang holiday music. They are beautiful children, full of enthusiasm, energy and excitement. I keep picturing those happy children while thinking of those who will never have the same chance to sing for their parents. With sadness, but relieved to have something to do, I finished part IV of Easy Street, Bonnie Hunter's mystery.

Thank you Bonnie, for helping to calm my mind.

Rosemary shortbread

Rosemary shortbread smells divine after coming out of the oven.
Hope the recipients love them.

12.09.2012

Easy Street, Part III

 All done with my 64 pieces in the latest installment of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery: Easy Street. Each clue is so much fun to complete, and not as time consuming as the string piecing in Orca Bay or Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll. Thank you, Bonnie, for keeping it easy this year.

I had all these grand plans to use fat quarters, but found as the clues keep coming my strip drawers can provide much of the needed colors. 



A possible arrangement? 

 This block I've blown up too much so it's pixelated, but can you see the teal millenium fabric? Tina from Seaside Stitches gave out half yards of this at our last Habitat for Humanity quilt-making workshop in November. Yes, it will date the quilt (literally), but this is what scrap quilts are all about.

Hope we get to play with the greens next week!

12.04.2012

Easy Street, Part 2 (and 1)

It's been a while since I posted - life just gets in the way sometimes!

My oldest came home from college for 10 days.

Here the boys are along with our Irish Setter. This photo was taken just before Thanksgiving.
Lately though I've been in the Quilt Cave, as my youngest DS calls it. In my attic, I have a room all to myself, and I can't hear anything happening in the rest of the house. I put on NPR, and sew away happily. Several projects are on the go, including Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Easy Street. You've probably seen lots of blog posts about how quilters are keeping up.

Part one of Easy Street. I went with some off-whites with black as well as pure black and white. It's all about using up stash! In this photo, the twosies still need to be paired up to make a 4-patch.

Then came the  128 flying geese.  I love how they came out and almost every one is perfect using Bonnie's technique with the EZ Angle rulers. Still need to snip the dog ears.



Last night I had trouble sleeping, and part of the problem was the division problems I was doing in my head. I kept thinking of common multiples for the pieces already done on Easy Street. Can you tell I'm a math teacher? Perhaps our blocks will be similar to this? 

Next step is published on Friday, and I've got all this from the stash waiting to be used. I stuck with the recommended colors and dug deep in my bins.

See you next week!