Mystery Link-up

Bonnie Hunter's 2016 Mystery has begun!  The first clue was posted on Friday.  You can find it here.  We are using neutrals this week.  To see everyone's progress so far, check out the Monday Link-up.
In the past, I have used shirtings (Celtic Solstice), black on white (Orca Bay and Easy Street), mostly whites and creams (Grand Illusion) and a conglomeration (Allietare) last year.

Allietare, just back from the quilter, Betty Lewis, Louisville, MS

I'm in the process of hand stitching the binding.

For En Provence, I'm using these...

 And so far I've completed 93 Four-patches...

Last week two of my granddaughters spent a few days with me to work on their quilts.  Megan, 15 (soon to be 16) started a new top.  She used an Eleanor Burns pattern from her book Quilts Thru the Seasons.

Country Lanes

Megan finished the top and it's sandwiched, ready to quilt when she's on Christmas break in about 3 weeks.  Emily, 14, sewed her top last summer.  We sandwiched her top last week and she quilted it on my Juki.

Rail Fence

  She has the binding sewn on and took it home with her to hand stitch.  Both girls are planning to enter their quilts in Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge in March.  Good Luck!

I recently finished The Mystery Row Quilt published in American Patchwork and Quilting this year starting in January.  It was designed by Pat Sloan.  I used all Batiks and it was quilted by Betty Barrentine, Ackerman, MS.

I've got more to share.  Stay tuned until next time!

How Time Flies!!

WOW!  I can't believe it's been nearly two years since I've blogged.  Since the last post, Grand Illusion has been completely finished and even entered into Mountain Quiltfest in 2015.  I have now completed Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery, Allietare!  I'm getting it from the quilter this week, will add the binding and photographed for the next post.

I have made a baby quilt for a friend who has a new grandson.  I machine quilted it myself and wanted to share the technique I used to mark the quilting lines.  I'm sure this is not new but it was new-to-me and just in case it might help someone else, I'm going to share.  (The pattern I used is Gimme 5 and Supersize by Tricia Cribbs, the Turning 20 Author.)

First, I only do straight line with walking foot quilting.  I've tried free motion and hopefully one day I will be able to master that, but for now it just isn't going to happen.  Here is a photo of the finished quilt.

I straight line quilted "in the ditch" on all the seams, going vertical and horizontal.  That left some of the spaces between seams too large to leave unquilted.  I drew what I wanted to quilt on freezer paper and cut out the shapes I needed to stitch around.  I have photos of what I used on the 8" square piece.  I hope you can see in the photo above the other two places I also had to use my "stencils".

I know I could have drawn a line diagonally but I didn't want to mark on the quilt this time.  I was looking for another way.

The other diagonal

Next, I wanted to stitch a square in the square design.

(I could have ironed the freezer paper to the quilt top, but didn't want to move the quilt back and forth between the ironing board and sewing machine.  Therefore I pinned.)

Finished Quilting Motif for this block.

I plan to only use this technique when quilting baby quilts or smaller.  I can't imagine wrestling with a larger quilt.  That is just not for me.

Until next time.....

Sewing Time

Eva Marie came to visit last weekend.  Together we spent Friday evening, nearly all day Saturday and Sunday working on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt.  I had hubby take a few pictures of our set-up in my overly crowded sewing room.

View #1

View #2

Messy, messy room.  But functional.  One day maybe I'll get things cleaned up.  I was able to complete all the steps to the GI Mystery.  And I am planning to change my block up a bit...

I'm making pinwheels from the bonus triangles from step two, double diamonds.  These will replace the 3 1/2" turquoise blocks.  I saw this on the Quiltville Open Studio Facebook page.  Someone also posted their quilt with the sashing added so I tried a block to see how I liked it.  What do you think?

Eva Marie has a whole row put together.  

She's moving right along.

So now it's time to get the move on the Magnolia Challenge.  I've got it pin basted and ready to quilt.

Not the best picture..  The flowers will be added when the quilting is finished.

More next time.  Until then,

Happy Quilting!

More Catching Up

I  made a few other chicken pin cushions.  These were made from 6" blocks.

I made a couple more but failed to get pictures before they went to their new homes.  I've got to stop doing that!!  (forgetting to photograph important events!)

You know Hexies are the latest and greatest new thing to do.  So I decided to make this past year's Christmas ornaments for the grands out of hexies.  Here's a close-up of a finished "top".

I used my 3/4" hexagon stamp from Cindy Blackburg.  These were all hand pieced.  Then I used a 5" square for the back, added a ribbon hanger, stitched around the outside edge, turned and voila', Christmas ornaments.  Here are all the ones I made by color groups.

Green Ones...

Blue Ones...

Gold ones plus one brown...

And red ones.

I do have a hexie project in mind for my hand sewing take-a-long this next year.  When I get started on it, I'll have to show you what I'm up to.  In the meantime, I'm still working on my Magnolia challenge.  Hopefully, I'll be far enough along in a few more days to show a picture.  So until then,

Happy Quilting!!

Happy New Year!

I forgot to take any photos of my guests for New Year's lunch, but we had a good time and enjoyed a great feast!  Ham, turnip greens, cooked cabbage, black-eyed peas, corn casserole, green beans, cole slaw, mandarin orange salad, coconut cake, chocolate pie and scotcheroos.  Two of our daughters and their families were here along with my Dad and sister, Eva Marie.

I made a chicken pin cushion from 4 1/2" blocks.  The pattern was from the Missouri Star Quilt Co Idea Book called BLOCK, late summer vol 1 issue 4.

Happy Chicks Pincushion

I gifted it to my sister, Eva Marie, who is a relatively new quilter.  She started out hand quilting a top I had made for her a couple years ago.  Then another top I finished we decided to give to our Dad.  Then in April (the 16th, day after tax deadline...she's a CPA tax accountant...) I took my 2 1/2" strip scrap box to her house and got her started piecing strips together.  And the quilting bug bit and the rest is history.

Eva Marie with her new pin cushion.

She's also working on the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery.  We were watching the "Rockin' New Year's Eve program on TV Wednesday night.  Then at 11:00 decided to check Quiltville's blog to see if possibly Bonnie had posted the "reveal".  And YES...she had.  Here's one block pinned to my design wall.  I haven't had time to actually sew the pieces together yet.  Trying to get all the steps completed first but I just had to put one up on the wall to see what it was going to look like.

Grand Illusion Block

All of steps 4 and 5 are complete.  Still working on 1-3 but I'll get there eventually.  I've been working on my Possum Town Quilter's Ultimate Guild Challenge which is due February 14.  When I make a little more progress (where you can actually tell what I'm trying to do) I'll share a post about it.  Until then, Happy Quilting!

Grand Illusion Progress

As you could see from my previous post, I am hooked on Bonnie Hunter Mysteries.  (Actually I like mystery quilts, period.)  I haven't had a lot of time to work on each step yet, but I have made some units each week so when the reveal comes, I'll be able to lay out what I have to see how it's going to look.  Here's a look at my journey so far...

My fabric choices

Of course, I've added several since this picture was taken.  Plus the gold.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

This last step is the only one complete.  Looking forward to Friday and the next clue.

While still on the subject of Bonnie Hunter quilts, I participated in the leaders/enders project a couple years ago when she was doing the 3 1/2" spool blocks.  I kitted up the units from scraps I had left over from all the quilts I had made since I began quilting in 2005.  I made 480 spool blocks over an 18 month to 2 year period.  Then put the blocks together in my Scrappy Spools quilt.  I had to use the cheddar as my sashing and border in true Bonnie style.

Isn't it great?!?!?  It was quilted by Betty Lewis, Louisville, MS.

Scrappy Spools

(Picture by Terry Turnage)

Bonnie Hunter Groupie!!

Those of you who know me know I'm a huge Bonnie Hunter Fan(atic).  The first Mystery I participated in was Roll Roll Cotton Boll.  The pattern is now available in her book, String Fling.  This was her 2010 Mystery.  I made it to give to my daughter for my 60th birthday.  See blog post here.

Roll Roll, Cotton Boll

Then in March 2011, Bonnie taught classes in Pigeon Forge at Mountain Quiltfest.  I took her class on Cathedral Stars.  That pattern is on her blog, Quiltville, as a free pattern.

I named mine "Bejeweled Stars" because of the jewel tone fabrics.

The 2011 Mystery was Orca Bay.  It is also found in her book, String Fling.

I used different colors from Bonnie's suggested one.  Her's was made with red and blue fabrics.  I used purple for her red and green for her blue.  I'm very please with how it turned out.  I call mine "My Orca Bay".

The 2012 Mystery was Easy Street.  This one is in her More Adventures with Leaders and Enders Book.  

Easy Street

In 2013, Quiltmaker Magazine offered a four part mystery by Bonnie Hunter entitled 'Lazy Sunday".  This began with the March/April issue.  I could not refuse, so...

Lazy Sunday

Bonnie's 2013 Mystery was entitled Celtic Solstice.  The pattern is not available now but will be one of these days.  She keeps the mystery patterns on her blog until June 1 of the following year.  They are then removed to be part of a new book later on.  Right now I don't think she has a release date for this yet.

I call mine, Irish Jubilee!!

2014 brought Bonnie back to Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN.  I took another class, this one Jamestown Landing.  Also in her String Fling book.  I haven't made much progress on this one yet, but before you know it I'll have it finished too.

I don't quilt my big quilts myself.  So the above quilts were quilted by Colleen Eskridge, currently in Boone, NC (but she lived in Starkville, MS when she quilted Roll Roll Cotton Boll), Watana Cantrell, Vernon, AL (a sister "possum"), Betty Lewis of Louisville, Ms (Easy Street and Lazy Sunday) and Debbie Chanell of Sew Delightful in Tuscaloosa (Celtic Solstice).  

I am currently working on the latest Mystery, Grand Illusion...but that will be covered in my next post.  Good Day!!