Loving Allietare

Damn I'm good!  Bonnie posted her "grand reveal" of her Allietare mystery quilt today and the blocks were very similar to the guesses I posted earlier this week.  Here are my first two REAL blocks:

Look closely at the gold block. I like the center fabric so much that I am using it for all 30 gold star blocks and scrappy reds for the alternate blocks.  I even have enough for the thin inner border, but may opt to use another gold for it.

So how have the blocks come together for you? The seams of the red block nested very nicely, but the gold seams wanted to fold the 'thick way'.  May need to re-press some of the 4-patches.

Now I need to find just the right backing fabric. Several quilters have posted special fabrics already. I really liked one with red cardinals scattered around. But I want to find something that reflects my taste.

Overall, I definitely like this year's mystery quilt.  Bonnie's colors worked well together. It will be fun to see the results of those quilters who ventured to choose their own palette.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Aftermath

Although we who live on the US east coast had a rainy Christmas rather than a white one, I enjoyed a quiet time at home opening gifts I truly wanted.  Among those received, check out the infamous Quilter pajamas:

and a t-shirt nod to my other favorite hobby:

Like many of you, we could not resist watching a 3D version of the latest Star Wars episode. Can you believe my teenager had never ever seen a Star Wars movie????  After Christmas, we began a Star Wars marathon, starting with Episode 1 (rather than film date order).

I also put in a few hours sewing on Allietare, the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt of 2015.  I am over halfway through both Clue 4 and Clue 5. HERE is the current linky page.

Naturally I indulged in a bit of guesswork on the block design.  Who knows?  Bonnie likes to keep us guessing!

Lumberjack Blues

This past weekend I spent hours with my neighbor splitting logs cut from felled trees on their property. We had rented a big ol' log splitter, then my husband nearly split his hand when a log slipped. So I became his substitute instead of doing some sewing as I had planned. Oh well, it was good exercise. Check out some of the piles we built.

And now I am hearing that log splitter in my dreams. I've got the Lumberjack Blues. Hey, I found a group with that very name. Their musical style seems to be classic southern blues, my favorite. Check it out:

I did find enough downtime to sew a bit on Clue 4 of Allietare (HERE is the link to Bonnie's Linky progress page). Only 27 more sets to sew....

Orange Blossoms in a Row

While working on Bonnie Hunter's Clue 3 of Allietare, I also sewed a few more blocks on my Orange Blossom quilt (aka Orange Crush pattern).  I really, really like this in a straight set so that the blossoms stay in one piece.

It will need 15 more blocks for a 7x9 grid. I found the rest of the blue print for the whirly block centers, so we are all set to go!

As for Allietare, I did the math and figured we will need the equivalent of 12 width-of-fabric strips in neutral plus 12 in gold to make the four patches. Some of my fabrics are fat quarters so will estimate lengths. All the strips are sewn and now just need to be subcut. Easy peasey. HERE is Bonnie's linky party with others who are sewing this quilt.

On a higher note, last night we went to the annual Christmas party at the airport. I was assigned to make appetizers again, so out came the penguin army with olive-stuffed cheese balls and sausage balls, plus veggie rollups.  Recipe/instructions for the penguins is HERE.

Then today I took advantage of the low winds to practice stalls and turns. It was SO nice to get up in the air again!

Christmas Spirit

I found this on quilting blog The Way I Sew It and wanted to share it with my blog readers. I play piano, too, although not to the skill level of this guy. Enjoy "Sleigh Ride" in 7/8 time.

My all-time favorite is "12 Days of Christmas" by Straight No Chaser.  Here is one of the many versions posted out there.

But here is a NEW song by Straight No Chaser with Kristen Bell. The video and fun lyrics will make you laugh!

Massey En Masse

As soon as I awoke on Friday, I looked up Bonnie's Clue 2 for Allietare mystery quilt. After a couple hours cutting fabrics for Allietare and continuing work on my Orange Blossom quilt (based on Bonnie's Orange Crush pattern), I was ready to sew.  I am happy to report that all 20 sets of "headless geese" are done along with the cutting of neutral, black and gray. All I need to do to finish up is to sew the neutral rectangles to those "headless geese".

It was great to work on both quilts at once, each acting as leader-ender projects for the other. I am trying to decide if I want to put the Orange Crush blocks on point as Bonnie designed or lay them out as a straight set.  The first makes a straight grid and the latter makes a diagonal grid (opposite what you would expect).  I prefer the the diagonal grid. The straight set requires more blocks while the diagonal set requires some half blocks to fill in the side triangles.  The limiting factor is the constant blue print used in center of the whirly block and there is only enough for 32.  So it will work out as a 8x8 square quilt. I can always add a print "bar" across the top and bottom to extend the quilt and echo the bar in the outside border. Or not. At least the name of this quilt made itself known - Orange Blossom - from the orangey "flower" blocks. Progress so far:  22 blossoms, 16 whirlys.

On Sunday, hubby and I flew to Massey Aerodrome for their annual Christmas party. The weather was great with low wind and a touch of haze. That means everyone in the area decided to fly in, too. There were over 200 airplanes on the field!  We were parked in rows near the hangers and on the crosswind runway and along the taxiway next to the active runway. There were RVs (the home-built aircraft, not campers), Sonex, a Kitfox, FIVE Cessna 170s including mine, 3 Cessna 195s, several 140s, several Bonanzas, several little bi-planes, three ultralights, a gyroplane, a V-tail Bonanza, an Eurcoupe, a Stationair, numerous Aeroncas, Cubs, Luscombe,s Citabrias, and a Stearman, Many of us stood atop the hill and watched as many as 12 airplanes in the pattern lined up to land. Then we walked the field to check out the various aircraft. They even had an antique car section next to the DC3.

The really interesting part of our trip was the clear deliminator line over the haze layer at 1200'. We flew above the haze and saw a sharp line between upper sky and the haze layer. Okay, I'm not describing it very well, but I had never seen anything quite like it. Very cool!

Later that day, my daughter dropped by for a visit (hmm, she should be studying for finals!) and free food.  It was nice to catch up with her. We see less and less of her as she stretches her wings, learning how to live independently of us.