En Provence - Clue 5 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

SURPRISE!!!   Bonnie released the clue a day early BUT since Allison and I are doing these together, I am waiting to start on it until after she arrives tomorrow.  See ya then.

Good morning!  I am up bright and early and straight to the shower in an attempt to get the eyeballs working today.  Now to set up the room, start water for tea, get the chicken going for the chowder we are having for lunch, and make some muffins.  I manage the first three before Allison arrives and then throw up my hands on the muffins -- opting out today.  We settle in for tea and a visit while I get to treat her to a Christmas present.  I have gone away from quilting for her gift and can't wait to see what she thinks.  Merry Merry.  She gifted me with my the quilting on my Razzle Dazzle quilt last month and what a sweet gift that was.  For her?  Tea stuff.  Lots and lots of tea stuff.  (I can't believe I didn't take a picture.  Ugh.)  I also receive another foot for my machine to use while paper piecing.  Okay, okay -- I know this is not why you are here -- onto the clue.




I was in shock yesterday when I read that we are only making a small amount of half-square triangles AND that they are purple/neutral.  It's crazy to me that we are still not into the green or yellow.  Ah well, it is certainly making for a great mystery.  Allison and I pool our meager dark purple supplies and are able to come up with about 15-16 different fabrics.  I told you it was getting slim.

Now to cut.  First the strips and then the triangles.  We pair up the purple/neutral when we cut the triangles and use short strips to mix them up a bit more.  Full disclosure here - I am using my Easy Angle Ruler to cut these today.  I need to get the proper color combo of mat and ruler to use the new Essential Triangle Tool of Bonnie's.  It'll happen but until it does, I've been taught by her how to use this one and have become quite adept at it.

With only a few to do - I finish up quick and am off to the kitchen to work on lunch.  Allison is making two quilts so it takes her a bit longer to get all her parts cut.  After that, she does the living room transformation ritual and by the time lunch is ready, the sewing stations have been all set up and are ready and waiting for us.  LOVE teamwork.

Soon, my Asparagus Chicken Chowder is ready and we are both starved since I didn't do any real breakfast.  It smells divine and we are thoroughly loving our relaxing day.

Mister is working from home today and comes out to visit for a bit while we are eating and then takes his lunch back to his office and we resume our activity for the day.  A look at the clock tells us that it is only just noon now.  Yep, apparently I WAS hungry.  I didn't even realize we were eating so early.  Oh well --- a quick clean up and we are ready to sit down at the machines.

My but we are stretching out this clue today.  Everything is being done at a VERY leisurely pace.   As we are sewing along, I notice that she is almost finished with her HST's and I have a way to go.  Since she is doing twice as many, I think that means I've REALLY been lollygagging.  My kids have been texting and I think my focus has been there more than at the machine.  Kick it in gear girl.

 An hour later, all the HST's are sewn and ready for the iron.  What else am I going to work on today?

I peek over at the ironing board to see what Allison is doing.  She presses each one and then stacks them in little swirling circles.  As I ask why, she demonstrates that she just holds the entire stack at once and takes her scissors around in a circle, snipping dog ears most rapidly right over her little Elvis pop-up.  Efficiency at it's best.

Well, dang if we don't learn something new all the time.  (Haha-- check out her lap table.  You just THOUGHT rulers only had one purpose.)

I tell myself I am going to give her method a try and then POOF -- out of my brain it goes and as I press, I leave out the crucial part of swirling the squares.  Dang it anyway.  I'll just have to clip the way I always do and leave the trial run for another day.

By 1:30 we are both finished with the clue and ready to move on.

 My cookie pan is absolutely full or gorgeous color.  The dog ear baggie is filling and I have an ornament at the ready for it.

Allison has put her units in a lovely, shiny box, making them look very festive at this time of year.

Well, I guess that's it for the clue.  Allison binds a small project and then moves onto the new hand project I bought her for Christmas along with her tea.  We all need to step out of our box now and then.  I can't wait to see how it turns out --- and, well, I have one too, of course.  While she does that, I pull out the 1995 Christmas UFO again and manage to get another 8 blocks finished before we call it a day and clean up.  It's early today as it is Allison's sweetheart's birthday and he has shared her quite a bit already.  Thanks for stopping in again.  See you next week.  If you arrived here via Bonnie's link-up, please click HERE FOR YOUR RETURN LINK.