Allietare - Finally a Finish..

After a few very very hot (40C+) days here in Lara, with high humidity on the cooler days, not a lot of sewing was done.  Actually not very much of anything was done!

But in the slightly cooler evenings I finished my Allietare top.  Not quilted and bound, but the top is finished.  I have decided not to do the wide border as Bonnie has, but just to keep a narrow border and then I will bind in the same black material.

When, at the beginning of this I didn't want to make the full size quilt, but a smaller version, I chose to make 3/4 of the numbers of each step.  Not knowing what the block/s would look like and also how the whole thing would come together, choosing 3/4 was a great choice in the end.

Only a couple of times did I have to add an extra one as 3/4 came out as an odd number.  But when putting the lot together as in Step 6 - I only had a few pieces and one complete block (the star block) left over.

Originally I thought about only doing half of the requirements, and then make extra blocks (if needed) at the end.  BUT I do not like doing this - generally I find I'm too lazy and want to get on to something else.  Would rather have some over than have to make extras.

So pleased making 3/4 turned out this way that next time (??) I will stick with 3/4!!

Allietare Step 5 - nearly there...

After a scorcher of a day here yesterday (41C) and with the air con on full blast, I have finished sewing Step 5 and nearly all of the 'finale' or reveal and final step.  Hoorah!!  This is one quilt I have enjoyed working on.  Everything just seemed to go right and I love the choice of materials I am using.

Typical of Bonnie is her way of keeping things very very secret until you get to the final clues and the 'reveal'.  There are actually only two (different) blocks in this entire quilt, plus it is set on point.  AND would you believe the setting triangles are 'pieced'.  First time for this, for me that is.

So, after a mammoth sewing day today, I have now completed all the blocks, setting triangles and am ready to lay them out tonight.......

Remember that pile of 2" finished HST's from Step 1 and the 2" black squares - here they are - all joined into a 4-patch.










AND they are also here as the corner blocks in these squares - joined with the red and white trapezoids. All ready on my design wall to be sewn together.  Please no comments on the one that has one of its components upside down.....

I promise I won't sew it this way...

But wait there's more of these little devils to come......








Four of the above blocks sewn and pressed.  Loving the secondary pattern in the middle.... but we have to wait and see how they are used in the quilt.

This block uses the yellow/neutral 4-patches, plus the red/black bow-tie type block.  They also look good together on the wall.

Of course, a close-up of two finished blocks -

The final lot of those pesky triangles are used with those long neutral strips with a triangle in the corner, together with a red triangle for the 'setting triangles'.  (Note 3 triangles to make one...LOL)






The blocks are set alternately on-point.  After laying them out on my floor I can start sewing them together.

Then, I can have my 'reveal', hopefully this weekend.

The New Year is upon us.....and a mystery is in the wings...

It crept up very quickly.....

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and healthy 2016.

After finishing off the grey quilt, I was itching to do something with a bit of colour.  I had decided early in the December that I would sew Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year.

Over the past couple of days with the heat we are having here in Victoria (some days of 35-40C) and with the air conditioning on I started on the mystery.  I am a little bit behind as the reveal and final steps will be posted later today.  But that's OK - I will only look at each step as I finish the previous one.

Here is what I have achieved so far - my materials sorted - blacks, reds, golds (although mine are more yellow/gold), neutrals and the one piece that is used throughout the mystery a grey.

 One of the reasons I decided to follow along on this journey is the colours that Bonnie chose to use. I know some people choose to use different combinations when making a mystery quilt, but generally I go along with what the designer suggests or what they have said they used.

This next photo shows the first step - a pile of 2" finished half square triangles using the grey and neutrals.  Typical of Bonnie's style - heaps of little sewing.....

 Step two the cutting and then the finished pieces sewn together.  In this step she introduced the red with the neutrals and the grey material.

 The finished sewing of step two.  I am only showing 4 blocks here so you can see more clearly how they look.  Besides the pile was too big and it kept falling over.....
These had to be sewn in groups of four - the same four pieces of red and the same four pieces of neutral, but each group of four to be different but the actual four to be the same.

 Lastly step three.  We used the gold with the neutrals and cut 2" squares and sewed them into a 4-patch block.  Very easy step.  So am wondering what step four will be like.  So far each step has been easy sewing.  I am sure step four will have a lot more in it.

Tomorrow I will look up the instructions and start cutting and sewing, while trying my best not to look at step 5 which is generally the reveal and final part of the sewing.  There has to be a lot more as so far it doesn't look like much.  The last couple of her mysteries I usually have a gazillion little piles of blocks.

Well, we will see and I will post in a couple of days when I have sewn step four.

Grand Illusion Step 4 now completed

This was quite an interesting one to do - although there is a lot of sewing and trimming to be completed.  In Bonnie's instructions she suggested to do an extra step not included in the actual mystery step.  That is, when sewing squares onto an oblong or larger square to make a half-triangle in the corner, to always sew another seam just a little over 1/4" away from the original seam and then cut between these two seams - you then get an extra "1/2 square triangle square" - I have always done this - it is surprising how many extra squares one gets.  I finished up with 96 pairs of pink/neutral and 96 pairs of blue/neutral spare half square triangles.  I plan to do a 'half square triangle quilt one day......hmm, planning that is....

These were sewn individually then sewn together in pairs.

I chose not to complete Step 3 at this time as it involves the green/neutral squares.  If  I decide to use them I will complete Step 3 then.

Steps 1 and 2 completed...for Grand Illusion

I have been cutting, cutting and cutting;  plus sewing, sewing, sewing all those 2 1/2" blocks that Bonnie loves.  I have to say here, that I also love cutting and sewing lots of small blocks.  I would rather make a quilt with a zillion small pieces than one with just a couple of dozen large blocks.  I love the process and often wish it would go on a lot longer.

So - here is Step 1 - 2.5" finished pink/blue triangles, with the navy and yellow 2.5" squares.

 Here they are sewn into their blocks - they don't look very scrappy - that is because I didn't have many actual small scraps to use, I only had larger (fat 1/8th or bigger) pieces in my chosen colours.  Also the different materials are very much in tune with each other colour/hue wise.

 Step 2 was supposed to be 2" green and neutral 4 patch squares, but I made them 2.5" squares. My reason for this - I wont be making many of these as I'm not sure if I will actually use them and if I do I can cut them down;  if I don't they can be used in other projects more effectively if they are 2.5".

Back to the sewing room for me for Steps 3 and 4.

To Do or Not To Do......Bonnie Hunter's mystery......

How many of you are doing (or have done) Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year?  It's called Grand Illusion, named after a hotel in the US where she taught some classes earlier in the year (2014).

I thought, and thought about it.  I have loved her mysteries in the past, but didn't think I would sew it this year.

A couple of weeks ago I went to my monthly GTG of the CBD group of Scquilters in Melbourne and two of the girls (Vireya and Jeanette) had their nearly completed mystery quilts for Show and Tell.  I quite liked what I saw, although I still think it is a very busy quilt with nowhere to rest your eyes.

This one is Vireya's.  She decided to make it smaller - which I like.
















This is Jeanette's - Jeannette has made it full size.  She hasn't got the borders on as yet.

Comparing the two - it does look different with the borders on.  Hope to see Jeannette's with hers at our next meeting.

Apologies here - for the table and (I think) Vireya's hat.



I went through my stash (before it started) and found most of what I would need.  Changed the colours slightly - I'm substituting Royal Blue for the Black, as it's not a colour I like very much in quilts and I don't have very much of it - used a lot in the Orca Bay quilt. Not sure if I want to use the yellow Bonnie is using -  I am taming it down a bit - have quite a stash of yellow, no problems there, also have a huge amount of green, as well as the pink - mine is more of a darker dusty pink; but the lighter blue or aqua is a problem - not much of it in my stash. Plenty of neutrals, but I'm sticking with creams/cream-on-cream.

Now that I have seen the finished quilt, I know I can make it smaller and therefore will have enough of the aqua material to finish it.  I am thinking of double bed size not the large queen that she has made. Bonnie's is 5 x 5 large blocks with sashing.  Vireya's (above) is 3 x 3 - I'm thinking 4 x 5.

As I sew happily along I will post what I have achieved at each stage.  Having collected all the steps I will be able to work through them - and of course, typically, there is a lot of cutting, sewing, cutting, sewing.

Following Bonnie's instructions is very easy - full of explanations and photos.

Back to the sewing room - have completed all the cutting, cutting, cutting. Will post the first step very soon.

Take care,
Joy

Mystery Steps 5 & 6

Step 5 - Remember the 350 half-square triangles in Step 3 that were sewn into little aquares- well they come into play with Step 5.  I had to cut another 700 (yes 700) more black 1/2 square triangles and these are to be placed either side of those little blocks.  When joined they make these black and neutral slightly larger triangles:

Still no idea how these are going to be used (I hope I'm not adding any more little ones to them!!!) 

Step 6 - More fabric cutting - this time squares - 2-1/2" - 112 black and 112 neutral and for the red 56.  When I came to cut the red I realised I was running short and might not be able to get 56 out of what I had left unless I used 'red-looking' fabric, but I thought this would not work as some of those fabrics were slightly on the orange side.  Had a look at the blues used in the string squares earlier and had some of those, enough to do half. 

Reading the second page of this step I discovered that we would be joining these with the hour-glass blocks to make Ohio Stars - half with neutral backgrounds and half with black backgrounds.  I played with the blue and red squares and some of the hour-glass blocks and decided that the blue could go in the neutral blocks and the red in the black.  Here you see one of the neutral ones finished with a red one about to be sewn.  I'm happy with this.  I think it works.

At long last, starting to see some blocks coming together.....

On to Step 7 and 8 over the weekend - well maybe Sunday - have my Guild meeting tomorrow (Saturday).

Ok - now to Steps 3 & 4

After a short break over Christmas and the New Year AND emergency Nanna duties I am finally back home and have completed Steps and 4 of the mystery quilt - Orca.  This is Bonnie's name for the quilt - have still to make up mind what I will call it (could be 'my mojo gone mad').

Step 3 consisted of making 350 pairs (that's right 350) of half-square traingle units sewn to make a 2" finished square.  This is the pile after being 'dog-eared' and pressed (Bonnie likes you to trim them off...)  Oh well, definitely going to need new blades for my cutters when this is finished......

Step 4 was a tad easier cutting wise, but still a sewing marathon. 

At long last we are going to use our reds, but first we had to cut (that word again!!!) 64 x 5.5" foundation paper squares.  The sewing marathon - that is sewing our red strips or crumbs, onto these papers to make the string blocks.  When this stitching was completed, then trim the blocks back to the 5.5" and then slice in half.  My finished pile of string triangles:

This quilt is certainly an interesting mystery - haven't yet seen any hint of where all these gazzilion piles are going.

But onward we go - focus on completing all instructions and I will have a beautiful quilt.

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Already I fee the need to evaluate my day and FOCUS.  I chose that word for my mantra for this year and now I want it to work for me.  Oh my, if I can't focus now what am I going to be like at the end of the year????

Early last year I decided to get my stash in some sort of order, especially my offcuts (scraps) as they were multiplying at a rapid rate.  My larger pieces are sort of OK - they are all in a cupboard relatively safe, but these other little beauties were getting out of control.  I have always followed Bonnie Hunter's blog and site - Quiltville - there is a link in the right hand side bar and also here and decided to loosely follow her way of organising these wayward bits and pieces.

I purchased a set of 3 large tubs that stack on top of one another like a mini filing cabinet.  You can access each one without having to take the top one down.  THEN I set to work and did the sorting and cutting and actually filled them - one with dark strips/strings; one with light; and the other with specifically cut 2.5" strips.  I filled 4 smaller tubs with other strips and squares.  They fit nicely in the space between the cupboard and the shelving where my TV and other stuff are located.

Now for the focus part of this epistle - When Bonnie announced  her new Mystery Quilt - a light in my brain went off - I can do it - I have now got my scrap bins sorted.  Downloaded Step 1 - sorted my colours, (I decided to use the same as Bonnie suggested) cut into the black and neutral strips - 1.5" wide; got out my rotary cutter to start cutting - woo - 'cut 448 pairs of neutral & black quarter square triangles' - that's right 448 pairs, ie 448 neutral AND 448 black!

Ok, I tell myself, this is Step 1, let's get it over with - the going will be easier after this!!  Once cut they are then sewn in pairs (Bonnie then says to TRIM THE DOG EARS - on 448 pairs......)   They are then joined to make 224 hour glass units.  This is them before the trimming...

On to Step 2 - We are now going to sew strings - easy peasy.....  BUT we need to sew 72 x 3.5" foundation squares!  The 3.5" squares, ironed and trimmed.

This quilt better be worth it in the end......

Of course before I was able to get on with Step 3 etc - along came Christmas and New Year.  This is why I need to FOCUS.  Bonnie has now posted the final step of this mystery and I need to get on with it.  So far I have resisted the temptation to look at the later postings - I'm afraid there might be more of these gazillion little pieces.  Tonight I will download Step 4 and work on it tomorrow - I sort of have a free day (if I don't go and do anything else...)  Focus, Focus - complete Step 4.

Wish me luck..