Allietare Finish

Happy New Year!

We babysat my nephew on New Year's Eve.  I tucked him into bed and picked up my phone and saw that Bonnie Hunter had posted her finish for the mystery quilt as it was the New Year in Italy.  I read through the directions and decided I could tip toe upstairs and do some of the cutting, as Matthew was sleeping in the next room.

We needed to cut 4.5" squares of "gold" (in my case, med. blue) and red, and also some setting triangles in different sizes from the red.  I was able to get quite a bit cut before going back downstairs to ring in the New Year with my husband.  We always stay up to watch the ball drop!

Having my nephew overnight is usually no trouble.  He is the only baby/toddler I've known that likes to sleep in!  We were up and already eating breakfast when we heard that he was awake.  It was 8:25!  I went and got him so he could eat, too.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe how fast he is growing up!  He is a smart little boy, and "all boy," loving to climb and jump and play ball.  He is a real pistol and always fun to have over.

We took him home a bit later in the morning and then my husband wanted to shop at Harbor Freight, so we stopped there.  On the way home, I was tapping my foot because I was so anxious to get started sewing!

There were 30 Allietare Star blocks to make.

This is how my version looks.  I only had an hour to sew as we had tickets to go to Star Wars in IMAX and 3-D.  That theater is way on the other side of town, so all-in-all, it took another 3+ hours out of my sewing time.  Grrr.  (In all fairness, it was my idea to go and I had bought the tickets, but before the final instructions came out--poor planning.)  The movie was even better in IMAX and we stopped for supper on the way home so I didn't have to cook and I had a few more hours of sewing that evening.

Saturday morning we were meeting our daughter, her boyfriend, and his parents for brunch down in Indianapolis.  It was the first time we met the parents, and they are great people.  Driving to Indy takes two hours each way, so we didn't get home until suppertime.  That left me with another small amount of time to sew.  Does it ever seem to you all that whenever you are so excited to work on something, it always seems like life interferes?  I loved what was going on, but was also frustrated that I couldn't sew more.  The only problem was that I couldn't spend this sewing time working on the mystery quilt.  I was signed up to do a technique table for guild (coming up on Tuesday) and I hadn't started preparing and making samples.  I would be demonstrating the making of flying geese, and I didn't just want to make a bunch of random geese that I may never use, so I found a pattern, chose and cut fabric, and prepared all the steps.  I will write a blog post later about it.

Sunday was church and then errand running.  My parents were making a quick trip to town to drop off my niece who had been staying with them for some of the holiday break, so we met them at my sister's house.  When we got home, I knew that although I wanted to sew, I needed to take down the Christmas decorations.  Luckily my husband was willing to help so we got it all done by evening.  No sewing at all!  (Can you sense my frustration?)

Monday morning!  For once, my day was free, except for needing to do two loads of laundry.  It began with me watching Downton Abbey, as I recorded it the night before.  Once it was over, I headed to the sewing room.  By now I had just a few of the 30 Allietare Star blocks to finish.  I did those and then I contemplated the 20 alternate blocks.  They were supposed to have a red center square, which had already been cut, but I had started wondering if there wasn't a fabric somewhere in my stash that I could fussy-cut or something.  I came upon a fabric with some large red stars on a cream background.  I cut one to try it out.

This is how the alternate block looks with the instructed center red square.

This is how it looks with the fussy-cut squares.

To tell you the truth, I liked both and had a really difficult time making up my mind which I liked best.  I didn't want to make all the blocks and then change my mind and have to rip them apart.  I decided to make a few with the stars.  I put them on the design wall and took a picture.

Then I covered the star squares with the red squares and took another picture.

I agonized over the decision but then decided to go with the stars.  I really liked the lightness that the extra cream brought to the feel of the quilt, along with the red stars.  My example photos are from when I had all the alternate blocks done and on the design wall.  I wanted to double-check my decision while the blocks were still not sewn together.

Do you ever agonize over a decision and second-guess yourself?  It doesn't happen often to me, so it really frustrates me when it happens.  I found that taking photos really helps.  I can look at both options.  I really like both in this quilt, but I did stay with the stars, mostly because it would make my version just a little more unique that all the rest.

I took a break from sewing for lunch and to get dressed!  I started a load of laundry and went back to sewing.  I stopped to make and eat supper with my husband, but he had a meeting, so I was able to sew some more.  By the time the day ended, I had it all together with the inner border on and the outer border cut and waiting.

Yesterday, (Tuesday) I got up and put the final border on.

I went to my usual Tuesday bee, then came home and loaded up for my guild meeting, went and demonstrated and enjoyed the program and came home.  Finally I have what feels like "free" quilting time.  I'm going to start by tidying up my sewing room!

Have a great day!
JoAnne

PS.  In a fun coincidence, I wrote about my last Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt finish three years ago today!  It was Easy Street.  I've done three now, with the third being Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll.