Bonnie Hunter Mystery Blocks

I've been working for the last month on Bonnie Hunter's new Mystery Quilt.  Last Friday she gave the clue that put the many pieces together into 2 blocks. One is a variation of the Prickley Pear block, and the other is a string block. I only had time to assemble 3 of each block - just enough to give me a good idea of how my quilt will look.  I love it! The contrast between blocks is very good.  When the quilt is finished, these blocks will be set on point with 1/2 string blocks being used for the side setting triangles. Bonnie still has another clue to release on Friday which will show the borders for the finished quilt.  We have pieces cut and sewn that will be used in this border. The picture below is Bonnie's quilt top.

We left home on Sunday for our winter destination - Fairhope, Alabama.  We will live here for the next couple of months in our RV, so I won't be able to finish this quilt until I return home in mid-March.  That's OK though, since I know how the quilt will look when it's finished.

Mystery Quilt

I am working diligently on the new Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  Bonnie has been putting up a new step every Friday for the past 4 weeks on her blog  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/ .  For my very first time, I'm not going to use her suggested colors. I've substituted blue for her green, gold for pink, and green/brown for brown.  My constant fabric is a rusty color with gold. I'm anxious to see where it fits into the mystery since it hasn't appeared in the first 4 steps.  Bonnie encourages the use of all kinds of scraps in her quilts.  I am using lots of pieces that were cut from recycled shirts.  You will see lots of plaids in my quilt.  Only time will tell what the quilt will look like when it is finished.

Step one (above) consists of blue and gold squares sewn into 3 piece rectangles with the blue in the middle.

 
Step two (above) is half square triangles in green/brown and gold.





Step 3 (above) is the most time-consuming step so far.  We made 60 8.5" string pieced squares.  Bonnie encourages everyone to step outside our comfort zone and throw in any fabric that has 50% neutral background regardless of what other colors might be in the fabric. So you'll see that some of my neutral fabric consists of plaids, paisleys, dogs, flowers, etc. and when it is sewn together it all blends in well and reads as neutral. Amazing!







Step 4 (above) was another quick and easy step which consists of blue and neutral twosies and 2" blue squares.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll Mystery

I've joined the current mystery, called Roll Roll Cotton Boll, hosted by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.  I've changed up the colors a bit from those that Bonnie is using (Pink is not my color).  I'm going to use Blue, yellow/gold, green/brown, neutrals, and a rust color for the constant.
Bonnie is well known for her complex scrap quilts which use many, many small pieces.  Her mysteries are lots of fun to do.  Bonnie will send out a clue about once a week.  The clue will tell which colors to use and how to cut them and sew them together.  Little by little the blocks come together and the mystery is solved.  I've always loved the quilts that I've made from Bonnie's mystery clues.  Stay tuned; I'll try to post pics of each of my steps as I work through the clues.

Woohoo! I'm a Winner

This morning I turned on my computer and found an email message from Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.
Bonnie is my all-time favorite scrap quilt designer.  If you look back through my blog, you'll find several of Bonnie's quilt designs that I have made.  Actually, the quilt that I use as the background to my blog's heading is made from one of Bonnie's patterns - Carolina Crossroads.

The email message from Bonnie told me that I had won a drawing that she had on her blog (Quiltville Quips and Snips) yesterday. The drawing was for a copy of the new Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 2.  Bonnie has designed one of the blocks in this magazine.  Her block is called Birthday Girl, which is a 12" block made up of 52 tiny pieces.  Tiny pieces are Bonnie's forte.  I'm looking forward to receiving my copy of the 100 blocks book.  Chances are pretty good that you'll be seeing a quilt on this site in the future made with Bonnie's Birthday Girl block.

Kindle case

I've been wanting to get a Kindle for a very long time, but the cost prevented me from doing so.  Last month when the price went down to $139, my husband bought me one for my birthday.  I had to wait nearly a month to get it because Amazon was inundated with orders and the Kindle was on back order. It finally arrived last week.

I am really enjoying it.  I downloaded World Without End by Ken Follett which is a 1000 page book.  Reading it on the Kindle is much better than holding the heavy tome in normal book format.  I spent an hour or so and made a quilted case from 2 fat eighths to protect it.

Mom's Mariner's Compass Quilt center

I finally finished making 50 Ohio Star blocks for the border around my sister's Mariner's Compass on the quilt that we are making together for our mother. I am very pleased with the outcome.  Sadly, this picture does not show the colors as well as I'd like. Now Mary needs to add a couple of large plain borders to get the finished top to the correct size for a double bed.  Oh, yes, and then she gets to quilt it on her longarm quilting machine.

Mom's Mariner's Compass Quilt

One day a few months ago, my mom was talking with my sister on the phone, and Mom said that she'd like to have a quilt made for her bed.  Mary immediately said, "Sure, I can do that."  Then later I mentioned that we could make one together - sort of a round robin between the two of us.

Last week Mary came down for a visit and brought her finished center for me to add on to.  It's a very beautiful Mariner's Compass surrounded by flying geese in a circle with appliqued vines around that. She finished this center with a plain border of 4 different shades of pinks and purples.

I've decided to add a border of 4" Ohio Stars around her center.  Each star will be a different combination of purples and pinks with light green centers.  In order to accommodate this star border, I need to add a very thin 3/4" border around the existing center panel.  I auditioned several different greens and have decided on using this shade of green as shown in the last picture.  Unfortunately, I don't think there is enough of this fabric to make the complete border.  I guess that means I'll have to visit a fabric shop while I'm in Northern Illinois next week visiting my son and his family ;-)