BINging

Welcome back!  The last time we visitied I was about half way through Allietare Clue One and I am happy to report that it is now complete!  I really love using the Easy Angle ruler for these.   In fact, I have the Accuquilt Studio and the HST die but honestly it was actually easier to pull out the strip bins and the Easy Angle. Are you a user of Bonnie's Scrap User System?  The Scrap User system has saved me a ton of time and really cuts down on the amount of fabric that ends up in the 'dog bedding' bin or, worse, the trash bin.

I hate wasting fabric and the Accuquilt requires a lot of detail time if you don't want a lot of waste... especially for things like HSTs.  If I didn't have the Scrap User system in place it might have taken less time to use the Accuquilt to cut those HSTs but since I already have a ton of neutral strips cut and ready to go, it made more sense to use the Accuquilt to cut the gray strips and then Easy Angle my way to completion.  I think they came out great and I like the amount of contrast I have between the gray and the neutrals which Bonnie has really emphasized as important for this mystery quilt.  Look at that perfect square...YES!

If you'll recall, Clue One was done on Minnie, my Minnesota Model H Treadle.  Clue Two is brought to us by Sophia, my 1950ish Necchi BU.  I recently bought her at an Antique store for $60 and after a few hours of cleaning her up and giving her plenty of fluids, she sews beautifully!  Lots of power with this vintage baby.  Just an absolute pleasure to use.  I often see and hear people asking about what new machine they should get and I always recommend a vintage machine. My little green machine here is at least 65 years old and going strong.  

I'll say it again....GO VINTAGE!

Once again, I'm using the recommended rulers, Easy Angle and Companion Angle, to make what Bonnie called the "Decapitated Geese".  (Bonnie cracks me up!)  Going back into the strip bin for the neutrals and cutting a few more gray strips was easy enough but when I looked for red strips, I had NONE!  Tons of pinks- but no true or brick reds!  You can see that I have a separate bin for colored fabrics.  

I find that the colors of the strips are dependent upon what they are placed next to so sorting becomes a problem.  Is it blue-green or green-blue?  Pink? Melon? Orange? Red?  The easiest thing to do is sort them as if they are in an 8-pack of crayons; you know the ones...  So, I have red, blue, green, yellow, brown, black, orange and purple.  You can see from my bin I am sorely lacking in greens, oranges and purples.  That's because I used green and orange in my Celtic Solstice and purples are set aside for Midnight Flight which I started in Iowa last August.  It's currently waiting for its turn to be completed.  Lots of pinks...  from baby pink to hot pink but no reds! 

Lucky for me I have a bit of a stash to pull from!

Pulled Red Stash

All the Clue Two Units.

Perfect Decapitated Geese

I can't wait to see what the next clue will bring!

In the meantime, I need to get some Christmas decorating and shopping done and I'll work on Bricks in the Barnyard.  Not the greatest picture but I'll take a good picture when its complete!

I'm down to the braid border on this one and hopefully will have another finish by the end of the week.  

Thanks everyone for stopping by and  I hope you all visit again!

If you're visiting from Quiltville and need a ride back, please click here.

Until Next Time, Piece and Joy!

Irene

Keep calm and Treadle On

Well, it's the Allietare Linky in Quiltville and I am so excited to participate!  Welcome to all the Bonniacs that are visiting here today.  I hope you'll enjoy my blog enough to come back every week.

Allietare! is well underway and it's time to show my progress which isn't much.  But before I talk about that I have to share about my weekend at Quilt Villa.  Bonnie and her 'hubster', Dave invited me and my hubby, also named Dave, for the Thanksgiving weekend and it was absolutely wonderful. We left Louisville a little later than planned and subsequently arrived in North Carolina well after dark. It didn't take long for us to realize that our not-so-trusty GPS took us the wrong way when we left the Blue Ridge Parkway for a dirt road straight out of Deliverance. Yikes!  Fortunately, Dave and Bonnie were out looking for us and once we hit a spot with cell phone coverage they were able to find us and lead the way to Quilt Villa.

Dave and Bonnie shared so much with us over the weekend.  They shared their wonderful cabin; a place to get-away from the stress and hassles of the everyday.  We had the pleasure of meeting their boys, Jason and Jeff and Bonnie's dad, Bill and had a great time playing Mexican Train Dominoes and Farkle.  We also enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast fit for a king, lovely hikes to see mountains, valleys, streams and waterfalls and a Thanksgiving leftovers picnic.

We also got to meet wonderful Sadie Jane who is just a love!

But my favorite part of each day were the evenings where we all sat in front of the TV watching our favorite holiday musical movies, binding our quilts and singing along.  You can't beat Karaoke Christmas movies, especially White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney!  It was really wonderful and a Thanksgiving I will always remember.  I accidentally left my crockpot behind so I guess I'll have to go back for another visit to pick it up!

Garden Party

So now I am back home with these lovely memories and the first clue of Allietare! waiting for me.  I pulled out the Easy Angle and my 2" strip bin and my gray constant and jumped right in.  I've decided to make this quilt on vintage machines which means each step will be made with one of many different vintage sewing machines that I own.  First up is Minnie... Minnie is a Minnesota Model H treadle sold by Sears back in the 1930s.  She's a beauty. I got Minnie last summer in Iowa while I was attending at retreat hosted by Jo Kramer of Jo's Country Junction with classes by the one and only Bonnie Hunter!  I love the way she stitches and I'm sorry I don't take the time to work on her more often.  


Minnie resides in the living room so I had to bring everything upstairs from the basement studio.

 And of course my kitty, Bobbins Hunter felt obligated to oversee the whole process.

 Not to be outdone, Riley decided to take over for Bobbins when he left his post.
















And of course nothing can be done until we get the seam allowance right.  This needs a little bit of adjustment. Can you see that it's a little short at the top left side?  Uh oh!  





















Using Bonnie's Seam Allowance guide, I can see that it is ever so slightly off.












Ahhh!!  Now that's better.  Remember, check the UNIT SIZE!  NOT THE SEAM ALLOWANCE MEASUREMENT.  When we go to put these pieces and parts together we'll want things to match up so it is really important that the UNIT SIZE is correct!













I'm about halfway done with these HSTs and the plan is to finish the rest in the next day or two.   Can't wait to see where Bonnie takes us with this one!  The next clue comes out in a couple of days.  Yes!

Piece and Joy!
Irene

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