Happy Boxing Day and Mini Mystery Bits

Happy Boxing Day!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas Day. DH and I had a low key day, filled with yummy food. Breakfast started with these - Michigan blueberries that I froze myself back in July

Thawed and drowned in batter 

and served with thick cut hickory smoked bacon.

Breakfast was a tad on the late side since we did presents first (I'll share those with you all in another post), and rather filling, so lunch was a bit of cheese and crackers with a spinach artichoke dip.  Light on purpose so as not to spoil our appetites for dinner.  The timing of dinner's parts precluded any picture taking, especially since it was rudely interrupted by me dropping/breaking a cereal bowl on the floor.  The DH cleaned up that mess while I keep the cooking going.  We enjoyed Bison ribeye steaks, grilled on the cast iron grill/griddle pan that was a Christmas gift from last year, rainbow trout, and a few side. YUM!

Today, it's about laundry and getting a bit of sewing underway.  I took some time on Christmas afternoon to convert the Mystery Quilts Clue #4 and Clue #5 measurements and do some cutting.

These are my Clue #4 And Clue #5 units underway. 

Check out Bonnie Hunter's  Mystery Link Up to see how everyone else's Mystery Quilt is coming on.

My units probably won't get finished until Thursday, at the earliest, as there are some family things to attend to. My aunt passed away, with the wake being held today and the funeral  tomorrow.  It was a blessing that she went peacefully after having a severe stoke a few weeks ago. 

By Thursday, I will relish some simple, repetitive sewing to calm the soul.  We are having some truly frigid temps, with brutal wind chills and some snow forecasted for the end of the week - ICK!!  The thought of spending quiet time, in a toasty warm studio, is divine. Oh, and I've been saving the new Season of 'The Crown' on Netflix to watch while sewing.

Happy Belated Sosltice and Merry Christmas

A few days late

And half a day early

Racing Stripes and Diamonds in Rectangles

I'm sporting some new racing stripes... on my left arm !

In addition to the cortisone shot in my elbow, I am having physical therapy twice a week. My therapist decided some Kinesiology Tape would be beneficial so I choose bright blue.  Too early to tell if it's helping, as there are some serious issue lurking in that arm.  It will be fine, just going to take a while to be totally back to normal, whatever that is. In the meantime, I'm wearing my wrist brace and doing my exercises.

I'll be honest - it's impeding my cutting and sewing a bit, and makes me grateful I am making a mini version of the Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  Last Friday, Clue # 3 released and has us making some Diamond in a Rectangle units.  I got mine done late this afternoon but still need to press the heck out of them!

Check out the Mystery Monday Link Up  to see what everyone else has been up to!  There a quite a few quilters using their own colorways which I ALWAYS find interesting. 

Mystery Quilt Mini Kickoff

Sewing Happened!!!!

My studio reached a level of tidiness that permitted me to sit & sew.  I been clearing out some things that I no longer want or need and reorganizing things in general. While digging into the stash, I decided the fabrics I pulled for my mini version of the Bonnie Hunter On Ringo Lake mystery quilt  needed some tweaking.  My blue was too close to the aqua family in value, when something darker was clearly needed.  The fabric palette went from this:

to this:

Better level of contrast achieved and the cutting commenced! 

For my miniature version of the Mystery Quilt, I am reducing the scale of the units, as well as making few units overall.  This requires a bit of Quilt Math and really good notes!  Besides saving a pdf version of each clue, I plot out directions on graph paper, with a small pencil drawing of the unit for that clue. I note the conversion from the original size instructions to the mini size side by side, so I can refer back & double check my math, then triple check it. No way am I going to try to keep all the measurements in my head. 

It was very relaxing to finally sit down in front of a featherweight and stitch! By Sunday morning, I had completed all of Clue 1 units and a third of Clue 2 units. Check out this week's link up and everyone's progress on their mystery quilts right here .

I will be knocking out the rest of the flying geese units and moving on to some other back burnered projects this week.