Goofin' Off With a Mystery...or Possibly Two

Do you like a good mystery?  I love a good mystery...however, I'm not so good at things where the end result is a mystery.  I have never participated in a mystery quilt before because I don't like working on something when I don't know what the final quilt will look like. I've had a couple of mystery quilt opportunities come up recently and am taking the plunge as they both really piqued my interest. Both mysteries are currently in the choosing fabrics stage. I'll be asking for your help on that a little further down.

As for progress pictures on Captain America, I've got the first set of borders attached now. Just the last set of borders after this, and the flimsy will be complete.

Captain America Quilt with First Set of Side Borders

Captain America Quilt Complete First Set of Borders Attached

I only got to do about 200 stitches in to my Pirate Mickey stitching project since my last update. But any progress is still progress...at least that's what I always tell myself.

Mickey and Pirate Friends as of 07/06/2017

As I mentioned earlier, I am going to be participating in at least one and possibly two mystery quilts this summer. The first mystery quilt is being offered on the QTMysteryQuilts Yahoo group. Fabric requirements came out on July 3rd along with cutting instructions.The finished quilt will make a great size for a Project Linus quilt.

Below are the fabric choices that I've pulled from my stash for this first mystery. I noticed afterwards that each of the fabric choices I pulled have a summer or travel theme to them. Apparently, I am getting the itch for some travel. 

Option 1:  The main focus fabric you may recognize as the Cars fabric I ordered a couple of weeks ago. The white will be the background with the black as the accent and the dark gray with silver circles the border fabric. Aside from the Cars fabric, the other fabrics are all left over from Captain America. 

Option 1 - Cars Theme

Option 2:  A sweets and baked goods theme.  The focus fabric has lots of tasty sweets on it and has me drooling just looking at it. The white will be the background with the brown as the accent and pink as the border.

Option 2 - Sweets Theme

Of course, this fabric reminds me of all the fun sweet treats you can find at Disney.  When we were there last March, I took a picture of some of the fun sweets we found at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Elephant Caramel Apple - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Monkey Caramel Apple - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Hippo Marshmallow Pops - Disney's Animal Kingdom

This is what Mr. Goofin' Off decided to get for his mid-morning snack. Everything else looked almost too sweet that early in the day.

Mr. Goofin' Off with His Spotted Leopard Mickey Cookie - Disney's Animal Kingdom

Sorry that I got sidetracked there for a moment. Sweets will do that to me.

Option 3:  The last option I have chosen is fabric I've had in my stash for years.  It's from a line of fabrics by Teresa Kogut. The focus fabric will be the bears all dressed up to enjoy their vacations. The white will be the background fabric. The blue (which is a bit darker than it appears in the picture) will be the accent fabric.  The vacation accessories fabric (cameras, swim shorts, etc.) will be the border fabric.

Option 3 - Vacationing Bears

From what I understand a larger print will be just fine and recommended for the focus fabric, so all of these options should be good options for the quilt.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Do you have a favorite fabric option you'd like to see come to life in the mystery?  I've got a few weeks to get the pieces cut out before the actual mystery begins.  

The second mystery I will keep a mystery a bit longer. I'll pull some options for it later in the month. 

As always, thanks for dropping by. Feel free to leave comments or send me a message.  Mr. Goofin' Off and I love to hear from you!

Linking up with:
Needle and Thread Thursday
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Goofin' Off With a Few Stash Enhancements

Time just seems to be flying by right now. I can't believe we've already had our longest day of the year. That means from here on out we lose daylight hours for the next six months...I say yuck to that. But to make today a little brighter, I received my package from Fat Quarter Shop from the sale they had last week. I am still feeling I got quite a steal on some of these fabrics. I'll give you a peek at them in a moment.

First I want to let you know I finally finished the big blocks for the Captain America quilt. Can I get a whoop, whoop? The blocks finished up at 24-1/2 inches by 24-1/2 inches.  They are quite large.

Captain America Finished Big Block

This quilt only has two blocks for each row. Because of the size of the blocks, it seems to be plenty big.

Captain America Rows

Finally, we've got the center finished.  The center finishes out at 48-1/2 inches by 48-1/2 inches. The next decision I've got to make is on the border fabrics. I have laid out the suggested fabric choice given by the pattern, but I am not quite sold on it yet. I will give myself a day or two to ponder on it before I start cutting.

Captain America Quilt Finished Center

As I look at the above picture, I realize that one of these days I'm going to ask Mr. Goofin' Off to make me a design wall. I have to pick out a design for my design wall before I have him do it, though. I do have an idea in mind.

I managed to get a little bit of cross stitching in over the past few days. I've got a small update on Mickey and Pirate friends.  So far we have seen Goofy's hat slowly begin to emerge, but now we have the left side of Goofy's head or ear (I can't tell which yet) peeking out.  I know Mr. Goofin' Off will love it when Goofy is recognizable. I don't think we're too far off.  My goal continues to be seeing Goofy's eye before the end of June. It will be close.

Mickey and Pirate Friends as of 06/22/17

Now for a little peek at my first stash enhancement. For this particular fabric, it was already on sale and the additional discount was added to the price.  This piece was definitely a great deal to me. The Fat Quarter Shop website said they only had to 1.625 yards left, so I nabbed it.  This is one I've had on my wish list for a while. They e-mailed me and told me that the yardage was in two pieces a 1-yard piece and a 0.625 yard piece.  Did I still want it?  Yep!  I'll take it.

Minnie Mouse and Flowers Fabric

My Minnie Mouse that watches over the living room approves of the new fabric 100 percent, as you can see.  Glad I got it before it was gone.  Don't you just love that little Minnie Mouse figurine?  It's a piece by Jim Shore.  I believe we have about six of them around the house at the moment.  I try not to be a collector of things (other than fabric and stash), but I have a difficult time staying away from these little pieces.

Next is the set of fabrics I have been admiring for the past few months. They are from the collection called Seasalt Batiks by Hoffman Fabrics.  I don't have a project in mind for them. I know there are a few mystery quilts in the near future that I might be participating in soon, so maybe it would be fun to use them there and see what comes out of them.  

Well, the weekend is quickly approaching. I am hoping this weekend will finally be the weekend I get to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I have a lunch planned with a friend I haven't seen in a while.  Mr. Goofin' Off and I may also go to a parade this weekend or take a short road trip to the city of Leavenworth on the other side of the mountains. We'll see where the wind takes the Goofin' Offs this weekend. 

As always, thanks for following along.  I love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment.

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop! and Finished or Not Friday and Sunday Stash

Goofin' Off With a Fun Family Weekend

This past weekend we had a lot of family come in town for a wedding.  We had a lot of fun spending time together and creating new memories.  I was able to sneak in a little stitching and quilting time even with all the fun activities going on and was able to get this done on the Captain America quilt.

Step IV - D

Step IV - E

Step IV - F

Step IV - G

These pictures show the progression of how the large blocks are slowly being assembled with the sub-units that I pieced earlier.  It's fun watching this all come together.  I am still really looking forward to having this quilt on our bed when it's finished.  I am shooting for an Independence Day finish so I can have a red, white, and blue quilt on the bed.

I also did a little bit of cross stitching...much more than I had anticipated.  Here you can see I finished another small section.

Mickey and Pirate Friends Cross Stitch - 06/11/2017

On Friday night, my niece got married.  It was a simple and beautiful wedding.  She did so much of the work herself.  She is quite the talented and independent woman.  It was a fairly small wedding with family and close friends.  Personally, I love intimate weddings.

My niece and her husband have a one-year-old daughter who joined them right after the final "I do's" were said.  Here is the family being introduced.

The Awesome Family Being Introduced to the Guests

And should you be worrying that there is no Disney slant to this story, please worry no more.  My niece's husband once worked for Disney at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park in Orlando, Florida. How is it that there is always a Disney connection for me?  Just lucky that way, I guess.

On Saturday, since there was so much family in town, the extended family got together for a gathering at my parents' beach cabin.  The weather was cool but at least not raining.  The kids played for hours on the beach digging holes and catching baby Dungeness crabs while the adults chatted away and got caught up on what was going on in everyone's lives.

Then this moment happened...

A Boy and His Great-Grandpa Walking on the Beach

This cutie of a boy grabbed his great-grandpa's hand and they went for a walk together.  I can't begin to tell you how much this picture means to me.  My Dad (Great-Grandpa in the picture) has had a lot of health issues this past year.  The fact that he is able to walk on the beach is a small miracle in and of itself.  I snagged a picture quickly because it reminded me of this...

Partners Statue - Mickey Mouse and Walt

This statue can be seen as you come down Main Street in Disneyland in California or the Magic Kingdom in Florida.  Blaine Gibson, the sculptor, said he was trying to reflect Walt's goal of making a destination where families could play together and make happy memories. When my parents bought their cabin on the beach, they were trying to create happy memories where families could play together...just as Walt did.  My parents have now created four generations of happy memories at their cabin on the beach.

It was a magical weekend!  What more can I say?

Linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts.