Loving Easy Street

Yes, indeed I am loving Easy Street!  Thanks so much to Bonnie Hunter and all her hard work to give us this Mystery.  And personally, a thank you for opening the door to the possibilities and giving me the gift of confidence that I "can do this".  For you see, if I had just seen a picture of Easy Street I would had said no way can I make that quilt and turned the page!  But I did do it.....and I am loving the results!

I fell behind on Easy Street at clue 5.........we had to travel to West Tennessee for the funeral of my DH's BIL........we spent a week there with family and friends for the celebration of Ken's life.....making it back to our son's house 2 days before Christmas.  I made the blocks for clue 5....took a look at them more closely and ended up unsewing them and doing them all over again!!  So on News Years Day I sewed all day long to finish up all the blocks and then got all the additional blocks cut out!

 

All the parts

Since I had only made half the "parts" I decided to make one of each block just to see what my colors would look life.  I really do like the "look".  So here are the 4 blocks I have completed,

Knowing that I would not make the quilt as large as Bonnie's I decided to kit up each block.  Here are my

blocks in their baggies.   

 I plan on first making the quilt 3X3 to see if it will be large enough with borders for our beds in the Airstream.  If this works I won't have to make any more parts.  The quilt may need to be 3X4.  If so I have made a list of  "part" I need to make..

I have enjoyed looking at everyone's Easy Street.....this is a wonderful quilt.  Thanks again to Bonnie for doing this mystery.....can't wait to next year!  If you would like to see more Easy Street Quilts go here.

What would you do?

Last night I finished quilting Eli's Quilt and so pleased as it left me a week to get the binding done.  But this morning when I laid it out on the bed I saw this..............

Do you see it?

What about now?

Now you see it....don't you?

I can not believe this 4 patch is turned the wrong way!  Its not like I havn't looked at this quilt top a 100 times.....with sewing it, ironing it, basting it, and quilting it!  It is almost dead center.....just can't believe it!

What would you do?

Well, I decided to just leave it.....Eli will be four next week and I really don't think he will notice it.  And I thought.....well you know how when we look at antique quilts and ask "I wander why the quilter did that".......maybe in 100 or so years someone will ask..."I wander why the quilter turned that block that way."  So I am leaving it just like it is.   What would you do?

My DH added that having a mistake in my needlework must be my signature.  He reminded me some 30 years ago I crossed stitched a "Kentucky Pistol" for our son.  The words were spelled out on the picture.......I crossed stiched "Kentucy Pistol"...  Funny thing is nobody noticed it for a couple of years..The picture still hangs in my son 's home.

Printed the clue number 4 for Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery and have my fabrics ready to cut in the morning.  I am excited to get started on this step.





Easy Street Part 3

Can not believe I am keeping up with the Easy Street Mystery.....It is keeping me on my toes!  Go here to see the progress that some 200+ quilters are making on Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt Easy Street.  Its amazing and lots of fun.  You still have time to get started.

I was so excited about Part 3 I was up at 3:30AM to read the new clue!  Hope I can at least wait until a more decent hour this week for Part 4.

I thought I had never done the shaded block before....but as I was looking at a UFO of a block of the month quilt from a few years ago (soon to be my oldest grandson's quilt) I discovered yes indeed I had made this block.

For this block I was able to use my Easy Angle Ruler.....and found it was easy to cut the triangles and as well the construction went very smoothly.....Matter of fact it took longer to cut all the pieces than it did to piece the blocks!  All 33 of my blocks ( I am making a twin quilt and may need to make more blocks) finished 3 1/2" square.  Had a few that were wonky but with a little restitching they were fine.  Had lots of fun doing these blocks.





I have had several folks ask where I keep my stash.  When you travel in an RV you have limited space and you also have to be aware of weight.  So I don't keep all my stash with me!  We still have a storage unit where "the stuff" we didn't get rid of is stored.  I have two storage cabinets and 6 or 7 totes with fabric in them.  When we sold the house I did have to sell some of my stash....no way  would I ever use it all....lol.

So when we are in town I make a decision on 4 or 5 projects I might like to work on while we are traveling and I gather everything I need for them.  On board now besides fabric for Easy Street.....I have a quilt I am hand quilting for grandson #2...Eli....for his 4th birthday December 22, the UFO blocks for grandson #1....Ethan's quilt, the fabric for granddaughter Sarah a quilt. scraps to work on Randy's Sow-A-Long blocks as well as a hand applique UFO and a quilt top that needs to be quilted. I also have q quilt that that I finished quilting that is grandson #3......Evan....needs a label put on it before Christmas! Will I finish all of these before we return to home base?  Not a chance......but it does give me variety.  I try to always have something to do on the machine and handwork in progress.

I have storage area in the Airstream for things like cutting boards, scissors, thread, rulers, etc.  The fabric is stored behind our sofa and easy to get to........I carry my sewing machine behind the front seat in the truck unless I am working on a project then it rides in the Airstream.  It took me awhile to figure out what to take with me and how to store it. Stuff can't be left out......it all has to be put away when I am not working on it!

Yes, I miss my studio I had in the stix and brix house....but I would not trade it for our lifestyle of living on the road.  We love it.......I have been to Bennington, VT museum where the Dear Jane Quilt resides...it wasn't on display when I was there, several visit to the quilt museum in Puducah, KY as well as a visit to the International Quilt Study Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.  I have basted a quilt on the folding table in a laudry room as well as an island in a rally kitchen at a campground and used a picnic table to trim a quilt for the binding.  There is always a place to get the job done and someone new to share adventures on the road with.  

So life is good Quilting on the Road in North Georgia Mountains and waiting on Part 4!
 

Easy Street-Part 2

Living in a small space means you have to be willing to share......a lot!  So Tuesday was my day to turn our home into a quilt studio for the day so I could work on part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Easy Street. You can find more information here.

So the stove top was first turned into a pressing station.

And then a cutting station.

I used the no waste method for doing my geese blocks....thanks to Anne Marie at "16 Muddy Feet".  When I was getting all my fabric and stuff out I discovered I only had the Easy Angle Ruler.  Anne Marie was kind enough to email me a link to the no waste method.....and then I discovered I had a ruler that made cutting the pieces for the block easy......had no problems at all with this method.

And then the dining room table was opened up and became my sewing center! 

After an hour or so of sewing away and a little bit of trim work I had all 64 of my flying geese done (I am making a twin size quilt so only do half the blocks for now) and 32 blocks cut and ready for another step.



By supper time everything was put up and the table set.

And Alba was ready for me to stop sewing and give him a little attention!

So life is good on the road in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains!

Still Learning

I wanted to thank all of you who have left comments.  I truly appreciated your messages.  I am still learning blogger.....I think....and would like to leave a reply.  I will be trying to do that soon!  In the mean while thank you!  Also,,,,,,,can't believe I also have two followers.

Several comments mentioned how much they would love to live the fulltime lifestyle.  We just began our fourth year of fulltiming and still love it.  We have seen and experienced so much that we would have never been able to do if we still had a house.  For those who would like to read about some of our travels I have a travel blog at www.mytripjournal.com/silvertrails.  I have not posted since July as life happened and our travels slowed down.....no one wants to read about just dalily life!  I plan to move this blog to blogger this winter.  Hopefully after Christmas we will be moving south for a few months and will be seeing some interesting things!

I was excited to read the second clue for Easy Street.  I have pulled all my fabrics and will begin cutting I hope tomorrow.  Below are pictures of my fabrics......

Close up of the my "grey".....green......



My other three colors

So for step two I will be using  yellow as my "purple".  I am excited to get started with this step.  However, I have one problem....I don't have the Companion Easy Angle Ruler....oops.....So I will be doing these geese the old fashion way....

In the meantime I am busy completing the hand quilting on a quilt for our grandkid number 3.....Eli who will be 4 on December 22.....nothing like a Christmas baby.  I hope to have it done for his birthday.....if not I will have a few extra days to get it done by Christmas morning!

Thanks for dropping by.....happy quilting!

First Post

This is my first blog on blogger!  My husband, Tom, and I tavel fulltime in our 31' vintage Airstream Travel Trailer.  Home is where we park it!  Presently we are enjoying the beautiful North Georgia Mountains.



I have been a part-time quilter since the early 1990's.  Since we began our fulltime travel journey 3 years ago I had pondered how I could once again quilt.  2012 was the year I started quilting on the road!.. Bonnie Hunter is to blame...lol!  Her blog, her humor, her not taking the quilt police seriously and many other attributes relite the quilting fire within me.  This year I have made 3 quilts from my little quilt studio....I will post pictures in an up coming blog.......I travel with 2 sewing machines....my 1976 Bernina 830 which I bought new in 1976...love this machine.....and thanks to Bonnie....my Featherweight....it is cleaned up, oiled and ready to sew.

Now I am ready to continue this journey by making Bonnie's mystery quilt...."Easy Street"!  When the fabric requirements were posted I knew the lime green, purple, aquas, and grey were not colors in my fabric collection.  So I selected colors in my stash.....blue, red, yellow, green (my constant) and white to light cream as backgrounds. One goal is to use up my stash and complete all my UFO's.

Bonnie posted the first clue last Friday.......I plan on making a twin sized quilt....so I made only half of the 182 four patches.......that is 97.....a few extras are always good.  I am looking forward to following this mystery to completion.....and thank you Bonnie for all you do!http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html