On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 10 – Completed

I had a very productive public holiday in sunny South Africa.  I got up early, cooked food for the dogs, started the laundry, turned the venison leg in need of being marinated for 3 days, cooked pickled fish for Easter, prepared supper for this evening and cleaned my garden table outside the kitchen as I had every intention of spending the rest of the day just there, finishing the binding of this quilt.

Now I too can say, “been there done that.”  I impressed myself by actually finishing this and not having it end up in a bin as a UFO but I think the fact that I needed a completed top to be able to practise on my new long arm played a huge roll.

No perfect points, not many seams lining up neatly but I do love the colours and the quilt will serve its’ purpose.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 9

After the previous string piecing I was finally able to see what a completed block would look like.  Very impressed as I didn’t think I’d like the colours.

Then it was back to more string piecing, it just seemed to never end.

And all of this to only finish the sashings.

I have all my blocks up the design wall and now to start joining.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 8

We were treated to a lovely dinner by friend Karin and her dearest last night and I am really getting old now, one evening out and I’m bushed the next day

I finally got to the point to join all my pieces to form blocks.  It was good to see something realizing from all the cutting and piecing. Plenty of my blocks compete to see which could be the most crooked or have triangle tips cut off but so be it.  I am taming this beast, skew or not.

Then it was time for some more string piecing to get the sashings done.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 7

I am taking care of the feathered grand children while the youngsters took their dogs to experience the beach and the sea for the first time.  Here they can be seen starting their journey by car.

And then the pups met the water, initially a little apprehensive but then it was all systems go and they are apparently dead tired at night.

This clue was another fun one with no cutting and string piecing all the way.

Making slow progress but moving forward.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery – 5

Today is officially back to work for us, so I guess far less quilting will get done but I’ll sneak in my usual 15 minutes where-ever I can.

After completing clue 4, I decided it was time for something different and quilted and cut outers for 4 more Sew Together bags.

The urge to have a quick finish took over and I made my second Sew Together Bag.

With the Bargello quilt for my sister on the frame to work on intermittently I got cutting on clue 5.  I still find loading a quilt on a frame more tedious than spray and pin basting a quilt for the domestic machine.  Hopefully this will get easier.

Sharing myself between two quilt rooms I got clue 5 done and I think now is a good time to give my machine a good brush, oil and a new needle.  It can after all only take so much.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery -4

I am starting to tense up knowing we have to return to the office on Thursday…. At least the first week will be VERY short and we have our staff barbeque on Friday afternoon, so a sweet start to the year.

We expected the kids and grand-kids over one afternoon and I decided to at least get all my pieces cut and ready for stitching before they arrived and it worked out nicely as I had all my cuts done and stacked for easy sewing.

The kids had fun in the pool and we are still snacking way too much.

After the kids left, leaving granddaughter for a sleepover by us, she too fell asleep soon and I was able to start and get done with half of the piecing for this clue,

Well the last half had to stay over for another day but finally I have clue 4 done.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery -3

I love my time off work and all the things I get to do while being at home all day long.  I do very little cooking as we have so many left-overs from Christmas I told hubby we might just have these until Valentine’s day.

I finished clue 3 of this mystery and the bad part is that clue 9 and the reveal is already out, so I’m not just a little behind but being at the back properly!

Must admit I tore the printed clue up in hundreds of little pieces as I don’t want to see this soon again.

I also had some time to play on the frame and tried stitching through faux leather, turned out great and now this little head is working overtime with the possibilities of using these.

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery -2

After the grand-kids left Saturday morning, I got multi-tasking like crazy with my old trusted 15-minute-at-a-time routine.  Quilt, load laundry, quilt, do dishes, quilt, vacuum, quilt and before long I had every little hand- and finger mark off the furniture and a sparkling house and clean laundry.

Knowing that hubby had a golf game on Sunday I started cutting strips and units for the second clue so that I, apart from having to run a couple of errands, have nothing other than piecing to do.

The amount of cutting in the clue was monstrous and I wondered if it would ever end!

Being up early I got all the bedding done and even started piecing before a single shop opened. As much as I tried it was just one of those laid back lazy days and I couldn’t bring myself to quilt as much as I hoped and this is how far I got before calling it a day.

Finally got clue 2 done on Tuesday but first had to visit quilting friend Karin, who had a thumb operation and will be out of action for the next 6 weeks, poor soul!

On Ringo Lake, a Bonny Hunter mystery -1

Not so long ago I vowed not to do any mystery quilts as I have, in the past, not been too chuffed with these, however when I saw completed En Provence mystery quilts, also by Bonny Hunter. I regretted my decision.

Then for months on end now I’ve been complaining about my blue remnant drawer being filled to the brim.  I don’t even recall ever buying this much blue fabric but the scraps in the drawer shows the contradiction.

So when I read about On Ringo Lake, Bonny’s latest mystery, and it had teal/aqua in, I thought what the heck shades of blue will have to do.  So I got started with major sorting and cutting of my blue fabric.  If it so turned out that it had a little teal/aqua in it, good as well but I aimed for medium blues.

It took me a whole afternoon just to sort and cut a couple of blueish strips and I do believe that what I have won’t be remotely enough but at least my blue drawer was thinned out and neat again.

I only finished clue 1 on the day that clue 2 came out and just before the grand-kids came over to visit.  So I guess I’ll always be somewhat behind.

This mystery can be found HERE.