I finally completed my Quiltville mystery for this year. Allietaire–not guaranteeing I spelled that correctly. I liked her colors, but changed the border, since I didn’t like black and didn’t have enough for it anyway. Although this quilt looks like a straight set, it is really set on point.
I have had more energy these last few weeks than I have had in a while. Perhaps it’s because I’m losing weight, perhaps it’s desperation that the end of the year is approaching, perhaps it’s to avoid doing things I shouldn’t. Whatever the reason, early in November I made myself a promise to finish 6 projects. Well, as of last Tuesday, I am done. The final one went out Tuesday night. Here is the final quilt I did.
After returning from Fedex (who apparently delivered the package to the wrong address, and I’m still looking for it…..), I started Bonnie Hunter’s Allietare Mystery and am doing my dutiful Monday morning link up.
And how about you? Are you doing anything productive?
Well, I did it. I completed my Grand Illusion mystery. I am fairly happy with the results. I saw the pattern getting a bit “mushy” due to the dark colors–the blank, red, and dark blue. So I decided to use a constant on all my cornerstones. I am glad I did. There is a lot of motion in the blocks, and by adding a constant cornerstone, there is a little less in the sashing. I think there would have been too much motion if the cornerstones were all different fabrics of blue.
When adding the inner border, I thought white wasn’t right. I went shopping in my stash and found a brown that had “splotches” on it that ranged from a perfect match to my beige blocks to a kind of olive-y color, which went well with my green. I considered black, and red, but finally went with the brown. And am I glad I did–look at the frame! It pops the red out of the border, and you can really see where the illusion ends, without looking abrupt–like the white would have.
And on top of it, after Christmas I quilted my Celtic Solstice top and took it with me to Indiana and back and worked on the binding in the car. Done! Except for the label. Which I suspect will be done sometime about quilt show time. Wonder why……Now I’m off to find something else quilty to do. How about you?
For more Grand Illusion mystery quilts, visit: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/01/grand-illusion-mystery-link-up.html
As I said, I now have a house full of visitors, but Clue 5 was a pretty small one, so I managed to do it quickly while everyone was sleeping in. So it didn’t take long for me to put together the few blocks that we needed for this clue. Then my daughter and I sat down and did some arranging with them. I’m not sure if this makes sense given the number of each units, but it does make some interesting blocks.
Still keeping up with the Grand Illusion mystery. Because 1) there were less blocks this week and 2) because we already made the HST in Clue 1 and 3) because I have a die for cutting strips in the correct size for the corner pieces, this clue went quickly. I just laid out some of my blocks, bu this doesn’t look right to me at all (especially when I mentally factor in the number of each block I have).
So all I have done in this pictures is give myself–and you a better impression of how the colors will look together. Still liking my choices. Happy to wait and see what it finishes out to be. Gives me something to think of at this time of year other than how much I miss the kids being at home. Tomorrow I have to get some more house cleaning and stuff done before the kids arrive.
See the Monday morning link ups here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-4.html
How about you? Getting any sewing done?
When I saw that Clue 3 in the Grand Illusion Mystery was just making a 2 x 4 patch with simple squares, no triangles, I thought it would be easy-peasy. However, it ended up taking a lot longer than I thought, for a couple of reasons. First, I have a die cutter which had been helpful in the previous clues and that saved me quite a bit of time on them. I did not have a die to cut the strips for this clue. And since these strips were smaller, I dug though my scrap box and came up with about 1/3 of the neutrals and blacks out of the scrap box. (No, it didn’t make a dent!)
So secondly, since I didn’t have a die and I had many scraps, I ended up sewing many, many single squares together. That might have seemed a bit over the top, but I didn’t have as much variety of my beiges as some of my other colors, so adding more variety to the neutrals and blacks seemed to be a good idea. But it increased both the cutting and sewing time dramatically. And I couldn’t even start on it ’til Saturday afternoon, since I had promised to quilt a quilt and I had to do that Saturday.
My color scheme is about as far off the reservation as I’ve seen. It is going to be a much calmer, but darker quilt. More earthy. Hope I like it!
For more Grand Illusion Mystery quilts, visit http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-3.html.
At this time of year, we all have commitments. So when I decided to participate in Bonnie’s Grand Illusion Mystery, I knew I had some things to work around. December is always a busy time at work, and then there’s other things–an HOA meeting, quilt guild board meeting, I took a quilting class, etc. With the quilting class yesterday, I didn’t think I’d have enough time to finish Clue 2. Yet here are Clue 1 and Clue 2 all done and stacked, semi-neatly in a project box.
Now back to other things!
To see how others are doing with their mystery, go to http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html
Had a good weekend, but I am a bit down, with the kids not being able to get home for Thanksgiving. I did manage to complete part 1 of Grand Illusion. I still need to press the HST, but the blocks and HST are done.
Big departure color-wise, and I finally settled on an olive green batik for the constant instead of yellow.
To see more of Clue 1, visit Bonnie’s link up page.
I have not been quilting much this year, but finally did mount my Row by row on my quilting frame. As of today, I am quilting on the last row. here is a peak at the Chain of Squares and Delectable Mountains rows. I surprised myself by doing some ruler work. And for the most part, I like how it looks. The final row is a bunch of paper pieced blocks –a barn, a wheelbarrow, a shovel and a pitchfork, which I am having a tougher time with. however, I am determined to get it quilted this month! Preferably this weekend!
How about you? Getting anything done?
On the first, Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville posted her “big reveal” for Celtic Solstice. I didn’t notice it til later that evening. I had spent the morning sewing up the last of my units. My daughter was still visiting until the 3rd, so then I wasn’t able to get back to it until Friday night.
And again, I decided to complicate my life by agreeing to foster another dog, who arrived yesterday. Actually, I had to drive a little over an hour (each way) to pick him up. So at this time, I finally got back upstairs to the sewing room to convert all those little 3 1/2 inch pieces into a top. And here it is! Whoo! I like my color choices, although I wish my pinks had been a hair darker. other than that, I like it overall. What do you think?
Now I need to finish up some of the things that I have NOT been getting done while working on this!
Life takes a turn 