Mystery Quilt Progress

 I've been busy working on Bonnie Hunter's Indigo Way mystery. I've got all the block A's done in both colorways I'm doing.

Here's my colorway.

And here is Bonnie's colorway, but using only men's shirts.

I'm working on the B blocks now, though I am taking time out of that to assemble both baby quilts I'm making. I had hoped to be quilting them by now, but those plans were derailed. Those need to be finished ASAP, so now those are my priority. I sewed the rows for both quilts into pairs this morning before I went out to lunch with my sister and a niece. After I finish this blog post I'll be sewing pairs together so maybe at least one will assembled by the day's end. Neither are getting borders.

The first blocks for the Greek Murder Mystery came out yesterday, and they were super quick, so I've already finished them.

The light green looks more accurate in this photo, but the darker green looks black.

This photo shows the darker green correctly, but the lighter green looks mustard yellow. Rest assured, actual colors are somewhere in between. I was really happy when I realized I won't get the February murder mystery blocks until after the family reunion we are hosting! I made January's blocks, then packed them up with the mystery fabrics and put them aside. Off my to do list until after the next big event!

DH and I are both busy working on projects we want finished before the reunion. DH is making me a giant wall mounted quilt rack for an empty wall in our living room. I'll mostly be displaying quilts I plan on donating, so I can enjoy them a bit before they make their way out the door. They usually go straight into the linen closet until I have several ready to donate, and I never get that sense of satisfaction for having finished them. I decided displaying them while I'm waiting for several will allow me to see my work before it's shipped off. 

I've got about four weeks before the reunion, and right now my priorities are baby quilts, because they need to be mailed out soon, and CLEANING up my fabric and sewing rooms!!! On the weekends, my priority is the cleaning part. Of course I'd rather sew, so unless I spend all morning cleaning and organizing, I'm not letting myself sew on weekends. So far, so good, on that front, I actually have my cutting table cleaned off, which is super important, because I baste everything up to a twin size on my cutting table. When I'm down to one week before the reunion it's going to be all about cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, vacuuming and dusting. Most of my house is fairly uncluttered, but my sewing and fabric rooms were a disaster, so I really need to put the time in those. I'd really like to get both Indigo Way quilt tops assembled before the reunion, which will get a bunch of stuff out of the way naturally. I'm not sure that's going to happen, so we'll see. In my fabric room, what's still looking bad is I have a couple quilts I cut backings and batting for, but never pieced the backings so I could baste them. That is an OK weekend project, because I have a spot for basted quilts in my quilt closet. Getting those off the countertops and basted will make my countertops look much better. I also have some cut scraps I never put in the scrap user system, so taking care of that will help too. I have quilt projects hanging around in both rooms, and that is more problematic. I will NOT shove a bunch of different projects in a box to make my rooms more presentable. I will organize and put away the things I can, and whatever is still out will be current projects, and if it's out, it's out. I sew almost every day, and if it looks like I was just sewing in there, so be it. I know there will be a few people who want to see my sewing room, but it's not like people will be hanging out in there. 

I did get everything off the floor in both rooms, and I'm working my way down to surfaces. I wasn't even sure I could put all my cutting dies away, but after straightening things up, I actually did have enough space to put them all away. My designated area for the long dies is at capacity though, so if I want any new ones, I'm going to have to make some hard decisions. I'm actually debating selling my Studio cutter and all my Studio dies, and switching to a Go electric cutter. I have a LOT of Go dies, so it definitely wouldn't be starting from scratch. The thing is, I love my Studio cutter, it cuts 10 layers of fabric at once! The Go dies only do 6. The cutting plastics for the Studio cutter also last longer than the Go cutting mats. The Studio cutter is MUCH easier to crank than the Go manual cutter was, so I can still use my Studio cutter, but looking down the road, it might be better to switch. I'm having a lot of pain in my right wrist, I'm sure it's arthritis, not carpal tunnel, but either way, it's not likely to improve with age. All the cutting I did for Indigo Way with dies, I cranked it with my left hand, which is a legitimate work around. I haven't decided for sure, and there is no reason to rush my decision. 

On the home front, our kitchen faucet broke this week, and we are hiring someone to replace it tomorrow. DH knows how to replace one, but his back has really been bothering him, and spending a couple hours replacing a faucet won't help.  I'm not interested in tackling a faucet replacement, though I have tiled rooms and I've got lots of experience hanging shelving and such. I can do lots of household stuff, but sometimes the wiser option is let someone who knows what they are doing do it. We were planning on this being a year of repair as DH is readying for retirement, we just weren't planning on THIS repair!