It’s been a busy 6 weeks since my last post.  The Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival happened. I was responsible for delivering the Guilds quilt entries, I took 3 classes, took a shift at the guild booth and as a white glove volunteer, before collecting the quilts and seeing they got back to their owners.  There was a tiny bit of shopping at the vendor booths as well.

The following week, my storage unit was broken into.  Ugh!  I doubt I’ll ever know what if anything was taken.  On the other hand the break-in has been the catalyst to get me going through the junk in the unit and the garage.  I hope to clear the unit out — or at least down size significantly over the next few weeks.  I’ve even made some money selling stuff that was just taking up space!

Then the last weekend in June was my husband’s Celebration of Life/Memorial Concert.

Yesterday I ran a few errands that took me within shouting distance of Show-Me Quilting, in Raytown, Missouri. Naturally I stopped in. I knew I was running short on the lime greens and oranges for my Good Fortune quilt, and I will need more blues for my Narragansett Blues quilt that I’m making in November.

The oranges were used immediately in Clue #4. Shh! Don’t tell anyone, but I have Halloween fabric in this quilt. Can you spot it?  I did refrain from using the candy corn fabric.

With the completion of Clue #4,  I now have all the pieces for the blocks.  I suppose that is an advantage knowing what the finished quilt looks like.  There are two more piecing clues.  Those pieces are used in the border.  So, instead of going to clue #5, I started on clue # 7.

Clue 7 part 1.

Clue #7 part 2.

I knew I had corner bees in the block, and spotted the two pink fabrics next to each other when I pressed the block.  I did not know I had two of the “wire” pieces in the block. I’m still not ripping it out.

As for skipping Clues #5 & #6?  I need to decide how big I want to make the quilt.

I can’t remember how big En Provence, the 2016 Quiltville Mystery was originally, but I enlarged it to fit on my bed. I recently got a new bed and would like to skip the dust ruffle — it just picks up cat hair – and I like the wide wood planks on the side of the bed.  However the foot of the foundation is exposed which I do not like. When I changed the sheets a couple of days ago, I pulled out En Provence and it is large enough to leave the wood exposed and cover the the foundation.  En Provence was 108″ x 108″ before it was quilted and washed.  Anyway, I am going to make the blocks then circle back to the borders.

Good Fortune Clue # 4 is all about the Orange.  After running errands later this morning (and probably the rain), I’ll see if I can knock these out.

Clue 3 is done.  Now it’s time for some orange.

I drew two lines on the back of my neutral squares thinking I’d get better results than I have in the past. Now that I’ve made a bunch, I’m not sure I’ll draw the lines on the rest of the squares.  I found that moving my needle 2 clicks to the right and then letting the corner of the block follow the center line drawn on my machine bed is pretty accurate.  I know I won’t draw the second line for the bonus HST as I can line up the first line of stitching along the right edge of my pressure foot and get good results.

After I finished Clue # 2, I started Clue # 3 — Half-Chevrons and Bonus HST units.  I’m opting to draw lines on the back of the neutral squares. Not my first choice, but the units are turning out better than when I don’t. I’ll work on them again tonight.

I’m loving the pink, purple, and lime. There is one more color to be added — orange.  I think it’s in clue # 4.

Oh – and for those wondering, this is the 2018 Quiltville Mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter.  She offers a free mystery quilt pattern that runs from Friday after Thanksgiving to early January. The pattern is no longer available free, but it is available to purchase as a download HERE.

It rained most of the day Saturday and it was raining again this afternoon.  Storming is probably a better description.  There was enough lighting and thunder that I was surprised Gracie did not hide under the bed.  Of course it’s not as good a hiding place since I took off the dust ruffle. Anyway, she kept me company while I worked on Clue #2 of Good Fortune.

I’ve got about 80% of them done.  I also have Clue # 3 cut out.  So, the quilt top is coming along.

Last night I put in the final stitches on my Carolina Chain quilt top. Last summer I took this as a class with Bonnie Hunter at the Mississippi Quilt Association’s June Gathering.  Now to decide on a backing and to put it in the queue to get it quilted.

Since I finished Clue 1 of Good Fortune, I started using Clue #2 as my leader/ender. I still have tons of HST to cut. I think I have enough purple cut for the clue, but I suspect I’ll need to cut more neutrals.

I’ve been working on my Carolina Chain for the past little bit and have been stitching these 4-patches for Good Fortune as my leader/enders. I finished trimming the last 4-patch moments before midnight.

Saturday was a Sew Day for my quilting guild between May being super busy for everyone and the rain, there weren’t many people sewing, but I did have several quilters stop by and drop off their quilts for the Kansas City Quilt Festival.  My project was sewing the sleeve on my entry.

It’s a new year and the last 3 weeks or so have been the hardest of my life.

My husband, of 33 years, my love,  lost his battle with depression on December 7th and has left me a widow.  I’m now doing my best to pick up the pieces and survive.

There are so many things I won’t get to do with him, including growing old together.

Needless to say, I expect my blogging to be even more sporadic than it was this past year.