Chilhowie Mystery Quilt Nearing Completion

So happy to be at the quilting stage of Chilhowie Mystery Quilt, designed by Bonnie Hunter. I look forward to making the mystery quilt every year. This quilt is for another granddaughter, who has a birthday is coming up.

Bonnie has named it Chilhowie after a town in Virginia. The name Chilhowie is a Cherokee word meaning 'Valley of the Deer. The original colours of the pattern were the colours of the Chilhowie area.

I used all the same colours suggested except for one. I replaced the orange suggested with pink. I thought with orange it may look more like a Halloween quilt. I do really try to stay away from pink, purple and teal/aqua quilts as I have so many, but the colours look beautiful together.

I made only half the number of pieces the pattern said to make as I wanted a smaller quilt. A few steps in we were to make sets - I knew then that making half wouldn't work so I started making half plus one. That gave me the right number to make a smaller quilt.

The top is all done and I have pinned the 3 layers together to start the quilting this weekend. I even have the label ready to go on.

Link Up Parties: 

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday

Peacock Party 

Beauty Pagents

Messy House - Happy Quilter

In my last post showing the Grassy Creek Mystery quilt top, Michelle from 'From Bolt to Beauty' commented that she was hesitant to embark on a mystery quilt. That was exactly how I felt before my first mystery quilt. I was very hesitant, but needed / wanted something creative that I could work on as stress relief from my everyday job. This mystery quilt idea came up and I thought what the heck, give it a go, BUT..... I wasn't going to use my good fabric! The mystery was published in a monthly magazine and was in four or five parts, so it took four or five months. The end result I was happy with, and sort of wished I had used better fabric, but it is what it is and I love it. One day I will turn this top into a quilt!😉

Mystery quilts, I've made many over the years. There are year long mysteries, 6-8 week mysteries and a few one day mysteries. Most of the one day mysteries are based in the US, so the time difference means I either get up at 3 or 4am, or I start later in the day and look at the clues in turn and don't check social media. Most I like, a couple I'm disappointed with, but that is a learning curve. Now, I've learnt from experience, I do check the end result with a couple of designers just in case I don't like the final result. 

Bonnie Hunter's mysteries are always good, and I've learnt a lot from doing her mysteries. I love the small pieces and I love the final designs she comes up with. The past two weeks I have been making slow progress quilting one of the two Unity Quilt mysteries made last year. Both daughters wanted a quilt so this pattern came at a perfect time. Both are the same pattern and are both very different.

Putting the sandwich layers together. See my box of selvedges, I'm using them as leaders and enders.

I started quilting in the centre with a normal foot - and I forgot to put in a new needle - oops.

As the quilt is straight blocks, I decided to quilt it with meandering straight lined. Much easier with a new sharp needle and the walking foot. Starting in the middle, I worked my way around the centre and the first round. That is where I am up to, and hope to finish this weekend, ready to put the binding on next week.

Most of my hand sewing this week has been working on the applique quilt my Auntie gave me and a Focus Cutting Sew Along - photos of that the beginning of March.

I tried posting once a week, and it was good as I had set aside Saturday morning as 'blog' day. Then I decided to go to twice a month, but then I forget to blog, so I'm going to attempt to go back to once a week. We are also going to start travelling this beautiful country of ours, so that means the YouTube channel PetalliTravellers will be updated with our travels as well as the 'Are We There Yet' blog.

Link up Parties:

Whoop Whoop Friday

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday 

Finished (or Not) Friday 

A Pageant of Finishes Peacock Party 

Messy House Catch Up December

I like this time of the year - Christmas and Bonnie Hunter's Mystery. A few years ago we would always have Christmas on the Bellinger River. Being the middle of Summer it would always be a cold yummy lunch - that we would graze on all day. The mystery quilt would be sewn before and after Christmas day, with a view of the river.

This year is different for EVERYONE! We will still have a lovely cold seafood lunch and a hot Christmas Eve chicken dinner, but the sewing view will probably be a view of Netflix 😏.

The last few weeks has been all about Grassy Creek Mystery, although I am not using green, so may have to change the name. Clue one was to be grey and gold - I used grey and aqua.

Clue two was fun and easy to make. It was suppose to be gold, neutral and green. As I had changed my gold to aqua, the greens didn't really go together, so I changed that to purple. I really am trying hard not to use pink - getting out of my comfort zone.

Then along came clue 3 and more neutral with red and orange. What to do. The red is good with the colours I've changed but I wasn't so sure about the orange so had to audition all the different oranges I had with the clues already made. I had used most of my neutrals on clue 2 so a trip to buy more white on white fabric. Of course I bought more than the whites, got some more aquas, reds and some lovely panels. I had to unpick a whole section because I made a mistake - oops! After a few night sleep thinking about whether to use orange or green or a different colour I decided the orange would be okay with what I have.

Now to move onto clue 4 this weekend.

I have been posting each week, but now that we can freely travel the country I'm going to try to keep up with a post twice a month, with my travel blog in between.

Here's my Link Up Party List - enjoy.

Whoop whoop Friday

Wednesday-Wait-Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished (or Not) Friday

A Pageant of Finishes

Peacock Party

Staycation Sewing

Strange times we are living in. Normally this time of year we are traveling in the caravan or cruising, but this year we are on a staycation - like everyone else. I don't mind being at home, always something to do - not house work, but sewing and crafting and writing and family tree etc. Just so much to do. I finished Frolic mystery quilt top and I'm really happy with it. I'm not sure when I will get to finish it. I did the next two months of the Sugaridoo Bernina sewalong. 

 I loved working with a purple tone this month.

..and did a fun toilet roll wall hanging.

With the work safe at home, Bonnie Hunter started a new mystery - Unity. I'm making one for daughter's family in England, and our other daughter liked it so now I'm making one for her as well, although I still need to start that one. This is week one.

 With week two finished I think it looks better on point. Now to start week three.

 

So here's to another month staying safe at home.

Home Again and Back to the Machine

Back home after our travels and Peter made me a wooden stand for my rulers and mats. Great having something made to order. It fits all of them perfectly.

Continuing with my Simply Colourful Mystery quilt Freedom, I chose not to make scrappy cream, as it took so long to make, but it does look so good. The clue then had a purple triangle sewn on one corner.

 The next clues were sewing all the previous clues together. I do like the way all the different creams came together. I guess, looking back it was good that I had time to make them.

One can see how by the time I got to the red scrappy blocks I wasn't using such small pieces.

I do like the way it looks and GD1 does too as she has claimed it for her new bedroom. The backing will be dark purple, her favourite colour and will be lightly pieced.

Happy quilting.

I Love a Mystery!

Back in May I started two new projects:the new Simply Colourful mystery quilt; and Ulas Quiltpage BOM. Now I am almost finished the Simply Colourful top. After travelling for a few weeks I'm back home and on the machine again. I love a mystery and the first step is choosing the colours, always hard for me, one because I tend to choose the same colours 😊 - pink, purple, and teal; and two because it's a mystery, and one is never sure how it will turn out.

The colours of this Freedom mystery were red, white and blue. I am already making a red white and blue footie quilt so decided to change the blue to purple. First step is sorting the colours into light medium and dark. I usually do this by taking a photo and turning it into black and white, then it is easier to sort the values.

The mystery was nine weeks with a clue every week, and Lynn, the host, would release the clue on Friday morning US time and at 8pm US time that evening would sew the clue. Two of the clues suggested that scraps could be put together to make the same colour block. I think I went a bit too far with some of the scraps, especially with the light neutral blocks. I completed up to clue 6 before leaving home to travel and had a sneak look at clues 7, 8, and 9 while away.

Many of the blocks called for bonus triangles .....

 ... and I do love bonus HST's

 I now have all the blocks made and I'm sewing them into the rows and the quilt top. It looks great.

 I love creating and sewing.

Good Fortune Top Finished

I do love doing Bonnie Hunters Mystery Quilts - well I love doing all Bonnie's patterns. The most recent one "Good Fortune" I was not able to finish before going on our three month caravan trip to Tasmania, but now the top is all done and just waiting for me to decided on a backing. Above is clue 6, which I completed on New Years Eve - see the Sydney fireworks in the background, and it was string piecing. Then I had to wait until a few weeks ago when we got back to complete clues 7 & 8.
Clue 7 was using all the four patch and half square triangles from previous clues.

Clue 8 and the final reveal, and boy was it a long clue. First step sewing units together to make two larger units.

Then came the borders. The first border caused me grief, due to me not being attentive to Bonnie's pattern. I had to unpick two of the four sides. Not a good way to spend a Saturday.

 The second border was using all the green and neutral bonus half square triangles - how I really like the use of all the fabric. Third border was neutral strings again, and instead of doing solid corner stones I simple continued the strings. The last border was all the pink and purple triangles. Woo it looks so good. Can you spot the mistake? I was missing one left hand side triangles unit, and Ithought about making another one, but then thought no....... and here it is! Still thinking about backing and binding.

Next project still to complete from last year is the Moda Blockheads 2 ROOSTERS Quilt. Love my football boys, and many tops to quilt.

BUT

I am starting two other projects:the new Simply Colourful mystery quilt; and Ulas Quiltpage BOM.

I love creating and sewing.

Ringo Lake part 4

Finally caught up and ready to start part 5 tomorrow.

After I posted to Bonnie's Part 4 Link up Party with my parts 2 and 3, I had a look at some other links and came across some great ideas and lovely colour choices - BUT I'm not changing my colours now 😏. One of the random links I came across was Vireya's Blog - wow, I'm so glad I did. Vireya shared a way to make unit 4 blocks without using cut triangles. Vireya also includes a link to how to make  this unit in a different way. You will have to use Bonnie's measurements in the adjustment, and it worked. I followed Bonnie's suggestion of cutting a cardboard template to check on one block and double checked using my triangle ruler. So, I continued to cut out the pieces and sew the units.
Ready to start part 5. It really pays to see what others are doing. You can see Bonnie's Monday Link Up here.

I also had time to make a few more fabric coasters, and this time I adapted the method. I will post about that in another blog post, when I've taken photos of the process.