Leaders, Enders, and a Little Progress

I have been a little quiet this past week..part of it has been some health issues, but most it has been Bonnie Hunter's fault!  I say that part in jest as she has been truly wonderful to us all in sharing her free patterns and developing a mystery quilt, also for free for her followers.  I have finally completed Clue #1 and it only makes my excited for the next clue.  I have to admit, last year I struggled a lot with jealousy over how quickly everyone seem to be handling the steps for the Easy Street Mystery; their fabric and their points were perfect.  It was silly to feel insecure about my own work, but I didn't really know anyone (but Mary) who was making the quilt.

This is a close-up of the border fabric that I bought for the mystery, which is inspiring my color choices

This year I am approaching the mystery quilt differently.  I joined up with 3 different groups, the facebook group has been by far the most encouraging group of people I have ever been grouped with.  For once I was finding that instead of feeling like a failure or being jealous, I was rejoicing that a nice guy and his mom got their blocks done first (It was really sweet, he went over to his mom's to help her cut out her block parts).  I was enjoying the sharing of pictures, colors, questions, and conversation about random stuff.  One of the really sweet people who I have met through other places on the Interweb, organized a spot for people who were in need to provide their addresses so those who have more fabric than they know what to do with, could share and they could then take part in the mystery as well.  Through this process thus far, I met a new fiend who not only lives in my area, but she frequents my LQS, and we are making plans to get together for lunch one day soon.  There is something about quilting in a community that changes the whole dynamics of everything!

There are about 115 block of each; I miscounted but I thought ti would be good to have extras!

Leaders & Enders

It has been asked what we are working on in between our clues for this mystery.  I am working on a baby quilt from the Modern Patchwork, Spring 2013 issue.  It has mini-skinny-pluses in alternating background and print blocks.  This is actually a very fun project, although I have to admit that I changed the size of the pieces I am working with from the ones requested to be cut.  There happen to be perfectly square blocks already cut out for The Dancing Stars quilt (Amy Ellis) that were extra, so my blocks will be quite smaller.  I think this works out better because I can showcase many different fabrics that might fit in the colorway I have selected.  The fabrics come from 2 different Kate Spain lines, and some prints from Connecting Threads as well.  My thoughts at this point is to make one pair of blocks per fabrics, but not assemble the quite until next year, this will allow me to add more fabrics as I add to my stash or have left-overs from other projects!

Adapted from Happy Baby Quilt, from Modern Patchwork Spring 2013 Issue

Thank you all for stopping by today!

I am linking up to:
Celtic Solstice Link-up #1 with Bonnie Hunter@ Quiltville
Design Wall Monday with Judy@ Patchwork Times
BOM's Away with Lyn @ What a Hoot Quilts
Fabric Tuesday With Heather & Megan @Quilt Story

*\o/* Cheers
Shanna