Anyone got some they can spare?  No?  I should have known.

I had such high hopes.  Keeping up with the Inklingo Case of the Secret Garden Mystery.  Ha! Who am I kidding.

I had planned to show you all the steps along the way.  Starting with the fabric choices that you saw when it first started 7 short (long?) weeks ago.

Such nice fabrics.  Such promise of keeping up.

And then I wrote in this post, where #4 in my list showed my progress.  And also pointed out that I’d be ready for Clue #4 at about Christmas.  I think my prediction there is going to turn out to be accurate.

And that I needed a bigger box.

Well, I did get a really nice bigger box along the way!  Thanks to my dear friend, Cathi, at Quilt Obsession.  Or maybe I should say thanks to Mr. Q.O.  He’s the King of Cool Box Finding at Dollar Stores.  And I adore my box.  I love it.  It’s the best box ever.

And it might be holding my bits of mystery quilt until Christmas.  But it is up to the task.  Don’t the little bits look cute all stacked inside?

And look!  I even got an arc put together.  Actually I have two blocks completed.  Too bad that at the end of Clue #7 (the point where we are right now) you are supposed to have 56 blocks finished.  See?  Christmas.  2015.  I don’t want to push myself too hard or anything.

And the really annoying part?  There are actually people who are totally caught up and waiting on the next clue.  I think they are stitching 58 hours a day.  Totally by machine.  And they have maids to clean their houses and do their laundry.  And a personal chef to do all their cooking. And they need to give me a few of their extra hours.

I really have been stitching.  Some days I felt like I was stitching my fingers off!

Like this day when Cookie and I worked on our blocks together.  There are more great pics of that day on Cookie’s Blog.  I should have resorted to doing all the straight seams by machine instead of hand stitching.  But I love the hand stitching so much!  There just aren’t enough hours in my day.

It’s also quite possible that I spent too much time eating those lovely cookies that Suz made that day.  And the cinnamon rolls.  And the great wraps we had for lunch.  But I did do some hand stitching.  Honest, I did.

Yesterday, however, I did some stitching by machine.

I made these two lovely pillows.  For Mom.  To go in her newly painted purple bedroom.  And to match the pillowcases I also made.  And one other little throw pillow.  Wanna see Mom’s new bedroom?

Isn’t it pretty?  She’s having such fun showing it off.  Dear Sis came over and painted the whole room.  And the bathroom too.  Mom even only wants to wear purple now all the time.  To match her new room.   And she’d love for all of you to visit and see it.  Just drop by any time.

But as for me?  I’ll be stitching my little fingers off.  Because Clue #8 hits the Inklingo blog later this morning.  I’m writing this at 1:30 a.m.  So my time is limited on getting those 56 blocks done.  Even if I fire up my machine.  And it’s my understanding that this clue is the last one.

At least that means I won’t fall too much farther behind, eh?

Stitching my little fingers off,
Barb