Saturday Sampler - final blocks

We can see the finish line of another Saturday Sampler.  This one has been a mystery quilt.  Yesterday we got the final clues to finish our blocks and also got the layout options. There were 11 different layouts in this pattern!!  Since I'm working on 2 different color combinations I'll end up with 2 quilts and I'm thinking right now that I need to choose different layouts for each. 

My Halloween fabrics are so fun, and both the green and the black have a touch of orange, so I'm thinking orange sashing might be perfect for this. We'll see.  I have 5 blocks done, and the other 19 just need one last triangle sewn onto a corner.  Then I can start to play with the layouts before making a decision.

I have 4 blocks made with the pink, turquoise, and black version and I'm choosing to go with no sashing on that one. I'll show you those blocks another day. 

Mystery quilts

I really enjoy a good mystery quilt project.  We've done a couple of them as Saturday Sampler projects over the years and it's been so enjoyable to watch them come together without really knowing how the end result will look. And it's fun to guess how the parts will go together - which is totally outside of my usual comfort zone.

 

Bonnie Hunter (http://quiltville.blogspot.com/) does an annual mystery quilt on her blog. I watched them for a couple of years before joining in and making Allietare a couple of years ago. It was full of reds and golds and blacks. I did swap out one color.

 

This year's mystery is called On Ringo Lake and is aqua, coral, brown, and neutral.  The colors are gorgeous, and as usual her quilt design uses "units". She designs quilts with bazillions of little pieces which would be overwhelming to most quilters, but she divides the process into manageable units.  This morning I worked some more on Clue 1 (and yes I'm getting a slow start), which is a 9 patch.

 

I've finished 20 of them and have more strip sets sewn and strips cut for the final sets. I'll need 50 total 9 patch blocks measuring 3.5".  

 

And since I'm focusing on finishing some UFOs and since last year's mystery (En Provence) is a UFO still sitting in the box in units, I pulled out that project box and laid out a second block. Yup - I only had 1 block finished.  So when I got sick of seeing aqua this morning, I added in some purple/yellow/green to the mix.  This will be a "leaders and enders" task and sits on a design board that I can just pick up and move when needed.  Maybe this way I'll get a few more blocks of this made while I work on the current project.  I will admit that purple and yellow are not my favorite colors so maybe that is part of the reason I lost interest.

On Ringo Lake

 

The new mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter is called On Ringo Lake. The color scheme really is pretty with coral, aqua, dark brown, and neutrals. I've been digging in my stash and doing a little shopping to collect the fabrics even though I am not starting this mystery yet.  My stash had almost no corals, cut I did have a couple of aqua scraps, and lots of neutrals. I found some perfect ones at my local quilt shop and I picked up more on last week's Iowa road trip. I have a couple of dark browns to pull from my stash yet, but otherwise I think I have what I need.

 

So far I've only saved and printed the introduction and first 3 clues.  I had promised myself that I couldn't start this until I get one more Simple Whatnots mini quilt finished. And I'm still working on that. If you are interested in the mystery quilt, here is the link to Bonnie's blog page where she will post everything. Once the last clue has been released, then she takes down the access to the free pattern and puts it into her online store for a price. But for now, it's FREE!

 

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/on-ringo-lake-mystery.html

 

I had to put at least one block together from the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt . . . just to see.  And I'm not convinced that I like my choice of brighter yellows. I'm actually glad that I haven't cut any more of the yellow units yet because I need to live with this block for awhile before I decide how to proceed. So my pieces and parts are all pulled together and set aside where they can't get lost.

 

I've noticed on her Quiltville Open Studio Facebook group that some folks have replaced the yellow squares with yellow and neutral HSTs. And others have replaced them with purple and neutral HST. But most have been posting photos of gorgeous quilts with the yellow as is.  So I just need to let this one rest a bit while I play with some options.

Design Wall Monday - Allietare clue 4

All 720 little pieces are cut and organized for clue 4 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Allietare. 

No wonder it took me so long to cut these - 720 little individual pieces!  When I took this photo I had 3 of the sets of 4 blocks completed, 26 sets ready to sew, and 1 set of 4 under the needle. I did finish that set, so now I have 4 sets done and 26 left. I'm guessing these won't all be sewn together when the next clue comes out next week. But that's OK because I refuse to stress over keeping up with this one. There is no rush. 

Check out the other design walls at http://www.patchworktimes.com .

Just a little progress on clue 2

I'm trying to do the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt called Allietare. A new clue will be posted every Friday until we are done, but I'm realistic enough to know that I'll not be keeping up with every clue. But I'm going to do my best. Find her mystery quilt info here, including the fabric requirements and first 2 clues. http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/allietare-mystery.html

I did get clue 1 done last week (295 HST) and clue 2 has been started. This week we are making 20 sets of 4 little sections (4.5" square). I have 5 sets of 4 made. The pieces are all cut and ready to sew for the other 15 sets.  And I have the additional 2" squares cut for clue 2 out of black and the green. The only color we haven't touched yet is the gold.

I'm linking up to Freemotion By the River's Linky Tuesday. Go check out what other quilters are working on today.

Half square triangles are piling up

There are 295 half square triangles (2") in this mess. Only 70 of them were pressed and had the dog ears trimmed off when I took this photo yesterday. The other 225 of them were pressed, trimmed, counted, counted again - and again - and finally zipped into a baggie after supper last night. Clue #1 of the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt is done.  It's called Allietare.

I know I didn't need anything new to work on right now and I know that I may not be able to keep up with this mystery quilt as the clues come out each week. But I am going to give it a try.  Good thing we are having a 2 day winter storm right now - 10" so far. Otherwise I might not have had time to get these done. Clue #2 comes out on Friday.

Check out Bonnie Hunter's website with the 2015 mystery quilt info.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/10/quiltville-winter-mystery-2015-allietare.html

The quilting adds so much

It is always amazing to me when an average quilt is transformed by special quilting.  Can you see the word "autumn" showing up along with the leaves?  

I'm in the process of binding this mystery quilt from last fall, which was one of those quilts that I liked, but didn't LOVE.  But when I picked it up from The Pin Cushion after the gals quilted it, the stitching just blew me away!  It's transformed.

Design Wall Monday - Mystery Quilt

The mystery quilt that we've been doing for Saturday Sampler . . . it's a flimsy!  This photo is terrible, but we have a grey day with freezing rain and no sunshine. 

This mystery called for 6 fabrics of our choice and was done in 4 monthly "clues".  We had only cut into 4 of the 6 fabrics after 3 months so I was totally stumped about what this would look like. But on Saturday we got the final clue. On Sunday it took me less than an hour to add the big center square-in-a-square and then add those border pieces. Another hour to audition some outer border choices and add those.  This made a nice large lap quilt.

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday at

 http://www.patchworktimes.com 

One more color needed

I need one more color for my mystery quilt Saturday Sampler and I believe it needs to be a green.  What do you think?

I had that beautiful fall print in my stash - 2 yards of it.  Wonder what I originally had in mind for that fabric?

If I can't find a suitable green, I'm leaning toward a very dark brown like the background in the print.

Snow day - Sew day

My mystery quilt blocks are all done. And I cut the pieces for something Christmasy. And I did a lot of shoveling until my neighbor came and finished my driveway with his blade. 

Mystery quilt progress

There are now 4 of the 17 star blocks needed for the latest mystery quilt I'm working on. The pieces are all cut and ready to go for the other 13. The Eiffel Tower fabric will be my main border fabric and the design should really stand out then. It's a bit lost in these 7.5" stars.

One border left

These blocks are part of the pieced border on my Summer Mystery Quilt and they are the same as the center section of this quilt too.

I got some quality time on Tuesday night, and finished enough blocks for one of the side borders. So 3 of the 4 borders are on the quilt. Our guild has a sewing day on Saturday, so I plan to finish the last border there.

2 mystery quilts

After a couple of weeks with no time for sewing, I finally got a little time in my sewing room today. Oh so relaxing.

I made the strip sets for the new fall mystery quilt project I'm starting.  And I have the slices cut from those strip sets. Ready for step 2 in November.  I've chosen a black, a pink, and a grey for my 3 colors.  This month's steps only used the light (grey) and the medium (pink).  What we are doing with the dark (black) is still a mystery.

Then I made 4 more blocks for the pieced borders on the summer mystery quilt. I decided to add the borders after seeing the other finished quilts at the show 'n tell.  I just really loved that extra border, but it takes a lot of these blocks. So I'll just keep plugging away on them. 

25 more of these

I decided to add the outer border to my Summer Mystery Quilt. So I have 1 block done and 25 more to make. 

Summer Mystery Quilt top is done

My morning project is done - yay!!  I wanted to finish the mystery blocks and get the top assembled. This project went really fast .

The yellow and red in this little quilt have made me think that I want to use it as a wall hanging in my basement family room to brighten up the tan/beige color scheme going on down there.

OR - I can make the pieced border blocks and expand this into a nice sized quilt. Decisions, decisions . . .

Mystery quilt is coming together

The picture isn't very good, but I have part of the Summer Mystery Quilt put together. Pinwheels are one of the possibilities I was guessing.  Now I just need a little more time to work on this more.

Summer Mystery Quilt

I got all 48 of these little 4.5" units done. The final design is still a mystery. 

Summer Mystery Quilt

Instead of beginning a new block of the month at The Pin Cushion, they decided to do a 3 month mystery quilt for Saturday Sampler.  This is going to be a 2-fabric quilt, so we needed a light and a dark.  I was going to do red and white, but this red floral has touches of gold in it so this gold dot looks much better than white would have.  I have this month's pieces all cut (including borders) and stitched.  
Can't wait to get next month's installment. This is my first mystery quilt, and patience is not my best virtue.