Plugging away

I'm slowly getting the blocks together on the mystery quilt. Only eight more to go before I can start on the borders.

Slow going on the hand quilting for this one too.

I've spent quite a bit of time this week rummaging through the stash. I put away some fabrics that I can't find now. They must be somewhere in the sewing room, but I haven't found them yet. Why is it that whenever you put something away in a special place you can never remember where that place is? At least I found some Prussian blue (or what I think is Prussian blue) for Barbara Brackman's "Stars in a Time Warp" QuiltAlong.

Sewing without knowing

For the last couple of weeks I've been madly cutting, sewing and pressing to complete the units for Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion mystery quilt before the final reveal. Almost made it.

Not sure why I decided to do this. I have enough ideas and UFOs to fill all my days and nights should I live a few lifetimes. Maybe it's the sewing without knowing what the end result will be that has a certain appeal. Sort of mindless. Well, as mindless as keeping the pieces in the right order can be. Or it could just be procrastination; I have two backings to make that I've been putting off for awhile.

I'm constructing my blocks with the sashing on two sides. Then I'll sew the blocks together in smaller sections so I have only one really long seam to contend with across the quilt at the end. Forget where I learned that trick, but I love not having to sew as many long seams as you would when sewing rows together.