Allietare Clue 5

How can it be that we've finished up 5 clues already?  The next clue could be our last... or not.  That's part of the mystery, we don't even know how many clues are left.  What fun!  :)

Do you want to play along with the Mystery?  Go to Bonnie's blog to get all the clues.
Allietare Mystery

Check out all the progress being made by those who are participating!  There is some fantastic work being done.
Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 5

So, what have I managed to complete?  I worked slowly but surely on getting Clue 5 finished.  I was moving a bit slowly because I ended up growing a very nice sinus infection.  I went to Urgent Care on December 26th and have some good medicine, so I'm feeling much better now.

Here are all my units from Clue 5!

My units are not perfect, but they're close enough for me.  I'm sure they will work out just fine.  :)

I have also been working on making the sashing for the second Grand Illusion charity quilt.  This time I'm using blue in the sashing and the setting squares.  I am curious to see how this color change affects the overall look of the quilt.

Isn't that blue fabric fun?  Batik bubbles.  :)

I hope all of you had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year.  Can you believe that the new year is only a day away?  Wow, time flies!

Allietare Clue 4

Whew, just barely getting this post written in time.  Better late than never, right?  :)

For whatever reason, this clue seemed to take a long time.  Maybe that's because of all the units we had to make, maybe that's because we're also in the midst of Christmas obligations, maybe both.  I finished up late last night (Christmas Eve), so now I can share my progress.

Want to participate in this mystery too?  You can find all of Bonnie's clues on her blog:
Allietare Mystery

Want to see how everyone else is doing on their clues?  Check out the Monday Mystery Link-up!
Monday Mystery Link-Up, Part 4!

Here are my pieces all cut out and ready to go.  I'm loving my variety of neutrals!

Now it's time to assemble!  I laid my units out assembly line style, sewing all the pieces for each set together, leaving them chained together until it was time to press.  You can see the ones farthest to the right (next to Bonnie, my Featherweight) are waiting to have the first black triangle sewn on.  The next ones to the left are waiting to have the second black triangle sewn on.  Lastly I have the pairs ready to be sewn together into finished units.

Doing the sewing this way helped to keep boredom at bay.  I was able to switch up what I was doing every four sets.

And here we are, all my units finished!  Finally!  LOL.  I am now ready for Clue #5.

I also have progress to report on the Grand Illusion reboot.  All the blocks are finished, so I started putting them together into tops.  My goal was always to turn the blocks into smaller charity quilts, and I used a setting that I had seen someone share on Facebook.  I wish I knew who it was so I could give proper credit.  She had used yellow and white to create sashing and setting squares, and I liked how it calmed down the blocks so I did the same thing.  I like how it turned out!

This used up some of the blocks.  I want to make another one of these, using blue in place of the yellow.  After that I will have one lone block left over, perhaps I can make a medallion style quilt using the other units that I haven't touched yet.  I'll share photos when I get it done.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Quilting!

Allietare Clue 2

Sunday is my day to work on the mystery, so I headed off to the quilt shop to work on Clue #2.  Want to play along?  You can get all the information for this mystery at Bonnie's blog:

Allietare Mystery

Want to see all the wonderful variety of all the other people who are participating?  Be sure to check out this week's Link-Up on Bonnie's blog.

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 2

I got to the quilt shop, only to find that I was the only one of our quilt group who could make it.  One other stopped by while out doing other things, unfortunately she was feeling  under the weather.  I hope she feels better soon!

The quilt shop is open for 5 hours on Sundays, and I put that time to good use!  While sewing together the units for this week's clue, I also continued using the pieces from last year's mystery, Grand Illusion, as leaders and enders.

Here is some of my work in progress, with my Featherweight getting a good workout.

In the time I had at the quilt shop, I got all the units for this clue sewn and pressed, hooray!

I also managed to make excellent progress on assembling the Grand Illusion units.  Next week the block will be taking shape!

I also have ready the extra pieces that Bonnie said to cut.

I'm so thankful for the time at the quilt shop.  It was distraction free time, which allowed me to get these units finished so I can focus on other projects the rest of the week.

How are all of you doing?  Do you have Christmas gifts to finish up?  I have some commissions to finish and other quilt tops to get quilted, but I should be able to get them all done in time for their deadlines.  I just have to focus until Clue #3 is released LOL.

Allietore Clue 1 and Leaders & Enders

Allietore is in full swing!  Want to play along?  Go to Bonnie's blog for all the information.  Here's the link:

Allietare Mystery

I got together with some new quilting friends today at Sharon's Attic Quilt Shop to work on Clue #1 of the mystery.  It was nice to get out of my house and away from the usual distractions.  This is the only reason why I was able to finish sewing all the units for Clue #1 and get 2/3 of them pressed before I had to head for home.

Another interesting fact is that I'm using my 1947 Featherweight to sew this Mystery.  I don't use this machine nearly as often as I should, because I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  I'll have to promise myself to bring her out to play!

I am using Bonnie's colors this time around, so I don't feel the need to share a photo of all my fabrics.  Look at Bonnie's Intro and you'll know the colors of my fabrics LOL.

But look!  I finished pressing all the units when I got home tonight, and have all my units stored away, ready to be used at a later date.  :)

Here they are, all of my HST completed.  I love the grey that I found, it's technically a Christmas fabric but I love the print and the little touch of red.  I think that will work well with the rest of the fabrics, especially since one of Bonnie's other colors is red.

I am also working on assembling last year's mystery, Grand Illusion.  At that time, I worked on it clue by clue until I had all the units finished, but then life happened at the same time as the big reveal and I had to set it aside.

Here are all my units, patiently waiting in a bin.

Now I'm assembling the blocks as Leaders & Enders, and I got a lot done!  I look forward to making more progress on them next week when I work on Allietore Clue #2.  :)

Happy Quilting to everyone!  I hope you're having fun with your Allietore mystery.  :)

Grand Illusion: Clue 2

Bonnie unveiled Clue #2 yesterday, hooray! 

You can download the clue from the Quiltville blog until sometime around June 2015, at which point it will be retired for inclusion in a future book.  If you're even thinking of working on this quilt, download the clues and save them... or else you'll have to wait until the book comes out.  :)

Grand Illusion Mystery

 Every Monday after a clue is posted, Bonnie has a Mystery Link-Up where participants can share photos of their progress, like I've done in this blog.  Be sure to check it out and see all the wonderful variations in color and fabric!

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 2

As soon as I woke up, I ran to my computer to download the clue for myself.  Because I am on the West Coast, my news feed on Facebook was full of photos of units that others to the East of me had made. What fun!  Unfortunately, I had plans to be out in the morning and only had time to make up two test units before I had to leave.

Bonnie gave us three different methods to make this unit.  I tried her template method, my test unit is on the right.  Unfortunately, it came out a little bit too small, by 1/8".  Next I tried the last method she suggested, the sew-and-flip method, and I got a perfectly sized unit... so this is the method I used for the rest of my units.

All my pieces are cut and ready to be sewn!  In order to keep this from being overwhelming, I attacked this in stages.  I would work on 20 units at a time: sew, trim, flip and press.  This made the job seem more manageable and less daunting.

See?  I got all my units sewn in no time!  :)

And look at that pile of trimmings!  I put my rotary cutter next to it so you can see just how large this pile is.  No, I didn't sew them into HSTs, I honestly don't  have the time right now.  I did save them to my crumbs bag, one of these days I would like to make a crumb quilt.

And voila!  All my blocks for Clue #2 are finished!  I'm really liking how my colors are turning out.

At this point, however, I may need to put the mystery aside.  I just had a BIG project dropped in my lap which I will have to focus on as it actually has a deadline LOL.  Or, I might use the mystery as incentive to keep myself motivated on this deadline project so that I can carve out a little time to play.  We will just have to wait and see what happens.  :)

Have fun, everyone!

Grand Illusion: Clue 1

This past Friday, we got to kick off the Grand Illusion Mystery with Clue #1.  Yippee!  There was much excitement in the air as quilters across the globe hurried to download the clue and get started.

You can download the clue from the Quiltville blog until sometime around June 2015, at which point it will be retired for inclusion in a future book.  If you're even thinking of working on this quilt, download the clues and save them... or else you'll have to wait until the book comes out.  :)

Grand Illusion Mystery

Every Monday after a clue is posted, Bonnie has a Mystery Link-Up where participants can share photos of their progress, like I've done in this blog.  Be sure to check it out and see all the wonderful variations in color and fabric!

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 1

If you remember from my last post, I'm mixing my colors up a bit from Bonnie's colors.  Instead of aqua and pink, I'm using blue and purple.  But the black and yellow remain the same.

Here are all my pairs of blue and purple triangles, cut with my Easy Angle ruler, and ready to sew.

Yes, it took a while to get through all of these triangles, but working in chunks I managed to get them all finished!

Once the HST were finished, I cut out my black and yellow squares.  Bonnie is sticking with a single color of yellow in her quilt, so I decided to do the same.  If you choose to go scrappy with your yellows, that's perfectly OK because it is YOUR quilt, make it however you want to!  :)

Once again, I worked in chunks to get the black and yellow squares sewn to the HST, pressed, and then paired up into Broken Dishes blocks as directed by the pattern.

And voila!  Here are all my completed units for Clue 1!

Already I'm having so much fun on this mystery, and I can hardly wait for Clue #2 to come out.  Of course, I've got plans to be out and about for a large chunk of Friday, and I'll be in a 12K running race on Saturday... think I can get the clue done on Sunday?  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.  :)

Making Grand Illusion: Colors

Yippee!  It's time for the next Bonnie Hunter mystery!  She gave us a nice surprise by announcing the name and posting her colors and required yardage a few days earlier than in years past.

This year's mystery is called Grand Illusion.  Here is a link to her Intro with colors and yardage:
Quiltville's Grand Illusion Intro

With Bonnie's mysteries, sometimes her colors call to me, such as Easy Street.  I had to make that quilt based on the colors alone LOL.  Sometimes, the colors don't speak to me at all or I have been inspired by another color scheme and I switch out the colors, such as with Celtic Solstice.  This year, I liked some of the colors she chose, but not others, so I'm mixing things up and making the colors mine.

Not wanting to rush anything, I gave myself time to consider my color choices.  One person on Quiltville's Open Studio swapped the pink for purple, and I really liked that.  But then I'd have a quilt with green, teal, and purple again, which is already in Easy Street and I didn't want my colors to be too similar.  I hemmed and hawed, until one night while binding a quilt I looked over at the spools of thread I had on the table.  There was a spool of bright green and a spool of bright blue sitting next to each other, and I loved the way they looked.  Then it hit me... these would be great colors to use for my Grand Illusion quilt!

Without further ado, here are my colors for Grand Illusion:

I will keep the black and the yellow that Bonnie indicated.  I'm keeping my neutrals white, I have a mix of white-on-white fabrics and some with a light print and a white background.  I will swap purple in place of pink.  My greens are brighter, and I'm using bright blue instead of teal.  My colors are jewel tones, and I think it's going to look very nice.  :)

My Little Labels

I have decided I'm going to try selling some homemade items at a Holiday Bazaar next year, which means the time to start making those items is NOW.  :)

I want my items to have a  professional look to them, so I decided I wanted some labels to sew onto my projects.  Not big huge tags, but little ones like you see sewn onto the hemlines of some shirts, or sticking out from the trim on a bag.  Then I came across a link on Pinterest that talked about exactly the kind of labels I was wanting.  That blog writer recommended this Etsy shop, where she had her labels made:

Worldwide Label

This shop is located in Hong Kong, and I guess they must deal with large volumes of label making because (to me) the communication was pretty slow.  I'd ask a question, and it might be 2-3 days (sometimes more) before getting a response.  Of course, I'm always on the computer and I'm very much a now.Now.NOW kind of person, so to me a response time longer than a day is "slow".  So take that into consideration LOL.  However, despite my impatience, they were very professional, answered my questions well, and the end result blew me away.

Finally, after much anticipation, my labels arrived!

Aren't they just too cute?  They turned out beautifully, exactly what I was wanting.  And they're the perfect little size to add on to my sewn projects.  Of course, I had to try them out as soon as I got them out of the box, so I made some rice-filled neck ice/heat packs and sewed a label into each one.

Here they are!  My first items with my tag sewn on.  How cute did they turn out?  Oh, I'm so excited!

I have 300 of these little labels to use up, so I'd better get cracking with making my items.  :)

Making Celtic Solstice: Final Reveal

Bonnie surprised us by publishing the final clue of Celtic Solstice on New Year's Day!  It was definitely fun to see the final design and how all our units played together, but at the same time it was a sad day, knowing that we were done playing until next year.  Be that as it may, I got right to work on assembling my quilt.

First, we put together these blocks:

Next, we put together these blocks:

The blocks are set together so they alternate:

What a fantastic secondary design they create once they are put together!  I nearly fell over when I saw Bonnie's quilt all finished.  Of course, I had to lay out a few rows to see how the design would look in my colors:

Squeeeee!  Oh wow, I'm really loving this!

It took me 2 days to get the blocks assembled and the rows sewn together.  There I had to let this project sit while I got some work done on a project with a deadline.  But today was my play day, the day I save for MY projects, so I buckled down and finished my top:

Wowsa!  I really like the way this quilt has turned out!  This is as far as Bonnie's pattern took us.  However, I do have a plan to make the quilt bigger by adding a row of chevrons along the top and bottom, and then adding yet another border all the way around.

I may still do this, if I can find the right print for that outer most border.  I want to bring out more of the grey that is in the quilt, so if I can find a suitable print in grey with maybe some red and blue in it, that would be perfect.  I'm also rethinking the chevrons, I may instead make pinwheels or maybe 4-patches.  Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

Making Celtic Solstice: Part 5

I can hardly believe we've finished Clue #5 of Bonnie's Celtic Solstice already, which means we've been working on this mystery for five weeks now.  How times flies when we're having fun!

This week we were making Split Triangle Units.  I'm making the smaller quilt, which meant that I needed to make 100 units.  Remember those "extra" or "leftover" HST units from Part 3?  They are being used in the making of these units.

I have a funny aside for you though.  When Bonnie said to use the "leftover" HST, somehow I got it in my mind that these were "bonus" HST that you get from trimming.  Oh no!  Did I miss a step?  Did I throw away scraps I should have kept?  Desperately I went back to view Clue #3... where I remembered that we had made those extra HST units and didn't turn them into pinwheels.  Whew!  Disaster averted!  It was definitely time for more coffee because I obviously wasn't completely awake yet LOL.

Here are all my pieces, cut out and laid out and ready to be sewn together... including those extra  HST:

Here's a block all laid out, to test out how the pieces will go together and how the colors will play with each other.  I think I'm going to like this unit!

Look!  All finished!  Yippee!

Of course, my curious engineer's mind has been trying to figure out how these units will go together.  Bonnie said that the small quilt will finish at about 75" x 75".  That could be divided up into 25 blocks set 5x5, with each block measuring 15".  Each block would use a total of 25 Clue Units set 5x5 (each unit finishes at 3", and 3" x 5 = 15").

We have 25 pinwheels from Clue #3, which could each be the center of a block.  We've made 100 Units in both Clue #2 and Clue #5, which can be divided up so each block gets 4 of each.  But my math falls apart when we get to Clue #1 (having made 92 and 96 Units in two colorways) and Clue #4 (having made 120 Units).

So really, this is me just saying that I have no idea how these units are going to be used and how the blocks will turn out.  What will come next week?  Will we make even more units?  Will we begin assembling blocks?  Only time will tell.  :)

Making Celtic Solstice: Part 2

Clue 2 of Celtic Solstice was posted:  We're making chevrons!  My color scheme is different from Bonnie's, I used light blue in place of her green, and grey in place of her yellow.  (You can see my entire color scheme earlier on my blog if you're interested.)

My fabrics, cut and ready to be sewn:

Do you notice that grey with the black texture in front of the right-most pile of grey squares?  I bought that specifically to use with Bonnie's last mystery, Easy Street. See below:

It's a good grey print, very versatile for a lot of different projects.  Since I have a lot left over, I thought it would be appropriate to use it in this mystery as well.  It fits right in with my color scheme!

Here you go, my chevrons all sewn up and ready to be put in their place in the quilt:

I am really liking this color scheme, the light blue with the grey.  I may have to plan another quilt in this color scheme, I like it so much.  At this rate, my list of "to do" quilts will never end LOL!