It Is Finished... Easy Street Complete!

 

And so, it is complete.

The longarm quilter did a nice job with a pantograph flower. I asked her to do whatever she wanted, but to make it blend. She chose well!

I did a purple binding (also from my stash--yay). The backing was 108" I bought at the quilt shop when I dropped it off for quilting. The measurements worked out perfectly--I didn't have to cut or piece a dang thing for the back.

Looking back through time from its humble beginnings as a stack of fabric...

No, I'm not a whole lot more thrilled with it now than I was before. However, my husband really likes it and it fits the bed in our son's bedroom (now mostly a guest room). And it's soft and cuddly now that it's been washed--nice and wrinkly like I like them. I'm not sure it'll ever grow on me, but that's okay. I don't feel the need to absolutely love everything I do. If I don't love it, or love the process, I at least have to have learned something, and that I did. So it's all good. 

So much fun to be had in one box!

As you may know, I just returned from a business trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

I went from this...

back to this....

Hence, my purchase of this....

It came while I was gone so I had my first "session" with it over my morning coffee. I do feel more vibrant today, normal trip exhaustion aside, but at this stage that has a lot more to do with hangover effect from Phoenix sun than one day with a light therapy box. However, by the time the Phoenix sun wears off the light therapy box "sun" should be kicking in. So hopefully February won't be as much a miserable-mood month for me as it usually is. (I am pleased, however, that it's a nicely sunny day out today so that helps, but it's clouding up fast.)

Adding to my joy today, however, is that I also came home to my "12 Pound Scrap Box" from Fat Quarter Shop waiting for me. Look for it on their website. If you're an adventuresome sort, it's a box full o' fun! It's also a very inexpensive way to pick up a wide variety of stuff to play with.

A whole lot of fabric scraps are stuffed in that box! I sorted as I pulled them out of the box: large scale florals, geometrics, solids, traditional/Civil War, one fabric with gold layering, novelties, pinks, modern prints (which probably could've been included in geometrics), and a small stack in the back of flannel and batik scraps.

This stack (traditional/Civil War) has colors and styles I don't normally work in at this stage. However, I've been wanting to make more wheelchair quilts, especially those that are more suitable for elder men, and it's very hard to find charm packs that have mostly masculine colors. So my plan is to chop these up into pieces of a size to make Disappearing 9-Patches for that purpose. I might even tackle the cutting today--that's something that doesn't require a lot of mental acuity. Sun vibrancy aside, I'm still Travel Stupid at this point so that's just the kind of job for me!

I made this stack of everything that was mostly pink or flowers and hearts because I'd just been saying to my daughter recently, "I should really make a table runner for Valentine's Day or something. We have no Valentine's decorations in this house!" I don't trend towards pink or hearts when buying fabric so it's very useful to have this stack of scraps now!

These two were a nice surprise after this weekend. We have an auction every summer at our conferences and proceeds benefit our girls' ministry. The leadership team of our girls' ministry (which includes teen girls on it) was the team I was with this weekend. They choose a theme for the auction--and this year, they chose "Oh, The Places You'll Go," based on Dr. Seuss' book of that title--my all-time favorite Dr. Seuss book, by the way. So I said, "That means I should make a baby quilt out of Dr. Seuss fabric for the auction!" Of course, these scraps aren't enough for a baby quilt but it was fun to see them in there, anyway. Sort of confirmation, if you will.

And this one was my complete, total, absolute favorite in the entire box. It just makes me grin. I have no idea why a bird is wearing a crown, and why is he standing next to a deer (reindeer?) with a scarf on. But they're adorable. I'd never seen this line and now I want to know more. The selvedge just tells me it's from Andover Fabrics, so if anyone can tell me what line this is, I'd be grateful!

 My next job for today--after I clean this all off my cutting table and figure out how to store it--is to choose fabrics for ... yes ... another mystery quilt. While I was gone and, might I add, quite vulnerable, some tweeps talked me into doing the

Kimberly Einmo Mystery Quilt available through Craftsy

. I was willing to give the whole mystery quilt thing another shot before I determine once and for all if it's for me, and this one has some real benefits to it: She gives you information for a variety of sizes, as well as a ton of information on how to choose fabrics that will work. After watching her fabric selection session I feel very confident that I'll be able to find fabrics that I'll enjoy working with and like the finished product at the end. So...off to shop in my stash!

A Near Finish: Easy Street Top Complete

Phew!

 (Not a great picture--the only place big enough for me to use as a design wall on this was my bedroom floor and the lighting in there isn't exactly made for photography.)

I'm planning on (weather permitting) dropping it off with a longarmer tomorrow. I'm not going with borders because I ended up with the same fabric running all along the outside edge of the quilt and I like the idea of it just ending there. May bind with that same fabric since I believe I still have enough of it, or I may pick up the red or purple from the quilt.

If you want my full review of my experience doing this, including my feelings about the end product, listen to the episode I just posted tonight. Suffice it to say that my feelings have NOTHING to do with Bonnie Hunter. She does a bang-up job with a mystery quilt, descriptions of steps, and so forth. And I love her designs. In terms of my end result, however...well...you'll just need to listen to the episode!

Succumbing to Peer Pressure on Easy Street

So a few Twitter folks talked me into it. They talked me into walking down Easy Street with Bonnie Hunter and the crew.

Today I simply dug out my probable fabrics. May still swap some out. I still have a couple of weeks to live with them until it starts.

Care to join along?

Katie of Katie's Quilting Corner, Pam of Hip to Be a Square, and I have a Flickr group for anyone who wants to walk on Easy Street with us.

I've also set up a group in Threadbias (because you can post pics to Flickr and then simply import them into your Threadbias account--easy peasy to post them in two places at once).

Tomorrow is my sew day with my guild peeps. I've made pumpkin bisque with smoked gouda for our potluck lunch. I really have to remember to post that recipe someday. I guess I should start doing Food Fridays again, eh?