Roll Roll Cotton Boll Step 1 (Spoiler Alert)

Late friday afternoon I kept checking Bonnie's blog  for the first clue which she promised would auto publish and there it was!

Much smaller and simpler than I thought and not too typical of Bonnie's usual clues I'm led to believe according to the comments on Quiltville Chat!

Here it is - 172 of these little units made up of 2" strips.

While slicing up the pink strips I kept thinking about all the other pinks I have but didn't use in this quilt.  Oh dear - I think I'm a bit obsessed with pink!  I do plan on using them for a monochromatic scrap quilt one day.  I have the very pattern in mind and everything.

I'm eager to see more of this mystery since step 1 doesn't give anything away!  If these were to be 9 patches, she would have had us do the blue/pink/blue strip as well...or would she?  But if the clues were so small we'd never finish a queen sized quilt in 6-7 clues which are Bonnie's usual style.

New Swap Partner for August

We have a new member joining the Quilt Block Swap and Sue has paired her up with me to do a second swap this month.

I'm really excited.  It's a great morale boost to get a "project" finished so quickly and have that feeling of satisfaction.  A single block takes about an hour only and that's with my extra slow cutting and piecing thanks to the Nemesis.

Linden is happy with any block style in bright purples and oranges.

I've gone stash diving and pulled out this lot:

Now I just have to wait for them to start talking to me.  I've heard the odd murmur but nothing intelligible just yet.

Some housekeeping

Well I was thinking last night as I drifted off to sleep (and that's usually a dangerous thing)   and thought I'd add an extra section in the left bar = UQOs (unquilted objects).  It's not really fair to classify them as a UFO because a completed quilt top is definitely better than chopped up bits of fabric, stray blocks or an unused stash.

Sometimes I make a quilt "just because" with no particular purpose so quilting it immediately doesn't make sense especially when I have UFOs with a "purpose" waiting to be done.

Having a pile of unquilted tops can be advantageous when a gift is needed in a hurry.

Given my wrist situation, I'm trying to avoid doing any unnecessary quilting so charity quilts will be finished to the top stage only.  I will have a few quilts which need to be fully completed (like the dino quilt) so they need priority.

I've also added a blinkie quilt on the right side bar and a calendar of quilty events at the bottom.

It's motivating me to get more stuff done.  I caught up with a RL friend yesterday who is also a quilter and she wants to join a group and start blogging to get her productivity going again.

We're going to each make a DaChintzy together.  Hopefully we can get together every fortnight and actually make it together...together.

Fabric Choices!

Well I now have fabric for the DaChintzy Mystery...only I bought ALL of it and it's totally different from what I was planning.  More boy than girl for a start! 

In my defense 3 out of 4 of the fabrics were reduced to $7.50 per metre!  The remaining one was $11/m so all in all very reasonable!

They actually look way nicer IRL!  I am still going to do a girl version.  I have rethought my fabric choices and I will only need one additional fabric so I'm hoping I can make 2 quilts simultaneously.  With 2 weeks between each clue, it should be OK.

I'm not 100% sure on the order of #2 and #3 yet.  Will seek the opinion of our Mystery Quilt Hostess!

I can't find pics online anywhere of my feature fabric for a girl but hopefully the camera will be working again soon

The DaChintzy Code Mystery Quilt

There is a Mystery Quilt happening on the About.com quilting forum!

I'm really excited and can't wait to participate.  I've done 2 mystery quilts in the past and have enjoyed them despite being a bit of a control freak so it's a little nerve-wracking not to know where everything will go.

I'm still playing with fabric combinations and haven't decided for sure which way I'll go.  I want to work from my stash as much as possible.

Given the dimensions, it will fit perfectly into the suggested sizes for Very Snuggly Quilts .  I have a few boy quilt tops underway for that but not much in the way of girl ones so maybe I'll make this Mystery Quilt into a girl quilt for VSQ.

In my quest for fabric I managed to unearth 3 more UFOs!  (the shame!!) I think I'm destined to become like Lorraine and Andrea who have one for every year of their lives! 

They will be duly added to the left bar.  On a more positive note I realised I have a few finished projects to add which I've forgotten about.

Thankfully the mystery wont start til September and I wont allow myself to start until my UFO challenge is complete!