Easy Street, Step 3

Easy Street is Bonnie K. Hunter's mystery quilt this year.  I have been keeping up, so far.  Here is my photo of a sampling of the first 3 clues.  I changed the colors up from the model: I'm using red instead of purple, my backgrounds are all white or very light ivory, I'm using various mostly light grays instead of one constant gray, and the aquas are a little lighter in an attempt to have an overall fresh, "modern" feel.  I think it will work, and be quite different from the model.  The only color not yet used is the lime green.  I eliminated some of my aquas that I felt were too dark or muddy during this step, but it's still going to be scrappy with a range of fabric values and prints.  I don't think I can do non-scrappy quilts anymore.  Yes, those are skull-and-crossbones over on the left!

I'm happy to report that I'm more than 2/3 finished quilting Jack's Chain.  Earlier this year I finished the top and posted a tutorial about it.  I'm excited about this little whirling feather snowflake design I'm using in the white hexagons: freeform feathers are actually fun to do now, and not as intimidating as I once thought!  I conquered my fear of them in the feathered star I recently quilted.  It also helped that I bought replacement tracks for my Megaquilter frame so the "ride" is  much smoother than it was last summer.  I'm using a point-to-point arc in the triangles and nine-patches, and a vintage sheet for backing.  Hoping to get this bound in time to be a Christmas gift for Tertia.  Then the purple quilt can be for Quarta.  If I get it quilted and bound before Christmas.  I don't suppose I'll be able to knit socks for any of the guys before Christmas?  Probably not.

Saturday was a little too random for me to do a Randomday blog post.  But here's a sampling of the random to start your Monday off: I had to drive 7th graders from school to the church where our Christmas program was to be on Thursday: it just so happened I had a car full of 7th grade boys.  These are all wonderful kids, mind you.  But I'm glad I don't have to do that every day.  It was educational though.  I got them talking about interesting emergency room visits they had had and that distracted them from playing contact sports in the backseat.

Saturday we watched a double-feature: Hugo followed by The Artist.  Both an homage to the art of film.  I'd seen The Artist before, but Hugo was very good.  Ben Kingsley is an amazing actor - he just is absorbed totally into every role he plays.  I wonder if I'd even notice him if I passed him on the street... and I think that's a compliment.  Hugo was one of those films where I kept pestering Steve to check out IMDB on his smart phone.  The actress who played the kindly "Mama Jeanne" was familiar somehow... turns out she also played the much less amiable Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.

I finished my 12th shawl of 2012 but still need to weave in the ends.  Tomorrow is an inservice day and I must start a pair of socks so I don't die of idle-handed boredom during it.

I just found a flea.  I'm having a hard time chasing down Muffball to give her her treatment.

I'm lobbying Steve just to chop down the ugly shrub by the grape vines and NOT to use it for a Christmas tree this year.  For those who don't know, we've been harvesting our Christmas trees in our own yard for the last 4 or 5 years, and getting some overgrown shrubbery out of the way at the same time.  But the kids are really tired of non-perfect Christmas trees.

Stash Report:

Fabric used this week: 7 yards (purple arrowhead quilt)
Fabric used year to date: 89 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 28 yards
Net used for 2012: 61 yards

Yarn used this week: 285 yards (Targhee homespun for wingspan)
Yarn used year to date: 7786 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 3503 yards (all handspun, not purchased)
Net used for 2012: 4283 yards