Grand Illusion, Clue 2

The past week has been a wash for the most part. I had that nasty stomach bug, and now, although I am not sick anymore, I still don't feel 100%. I'm definitely not as productive as usual, so not much to show.

DD#2 and DSIL were down this weekend for a friend's wedding. Their first anniversary is today, and two of DD#2's bridesmaids have gotten married within the last year, with another one planning a wedding for next year. I've got the feeling in a couple years I'll be making lots of baby quilts.

This weekend I had the twins full-time, but I did manage to get the Christmas cookies baked. Well, four kinds of Christmas cookies anyway, triple batches of each. Some are in a box being sent to DS the Elder, some went home with DD#2, and a bunch went to work with DH today. I used to make about seven kinds of Christmas cookies, and I may make some more later, we'll see. I stuck all the ones left here in the freezer, to be taken out as needed. It's easier to resist them if they aren't out on the counter!

Even with company, and all the baking, I did manage to get clue two of the Grand Illusion Mystery quilt cut out! I am using method 3, which is the method I usually use for that unit. I'm making my bonus HST's 1.75" to work with another project I have going, so instead of my seam being a couple threads short, it's actually a couple threads larger. No worries, it will all be fine! I haven't finished drawing my lines, but this morning I did run down to sew a couple units so I could do the link-up.

Here are my two clue two units, with a couple clue one units. The only constant in my version is the neutral, which looks black, but is actually charcoal, not quite black.

I actually moved stuff off a third sewing sewing machine to do these units. I've been piecing on my Singer 201 (my current favorite vintage machine), and I have my 1/4" set perfectly on that machine. I didn't want to have to move my seam guide, and I'm sewing non-quilty Christmas gifts on the Bernina right now, so rather than have to rethread a machine or move a seam guide, I just got my Singer 99 out, it was far less buried than the Singer 301 that is also set up in the sewing room right now. My Singer 99 is in a cabinet, and it is my go-to machine when I'm making string blocks. I don't know why I enjoy making string blocks on that machine so much, but I do. Since it's typically set up for string piecing, it rarely has a seam guide set up on it, so I've sewn many a diagonal line on it too, when doing knocked off corners.

I'm anxious to have a nice pile of bonus HST's to add to my other project. I have some already from from a different project, and I have a chevron border for another quilt that will add to my pile yet again, and now these to add, so I'll end up with a nice stack of HST's for that bonus project.

To check out how others are doing on the mystery quilt, go here.