Time passes but the quilt projects keep growing

It has been too long since I last wrote.  I've struggled to find the time to quilt and to blog and recently started to get back to quilting.  I've got new projects that have helped to reinspire my desire to quilt.  I think all quilters go through these cycles of passion for this craft and feeling the minutes and hours of life being consumed by the mundane, the necessary, and the distracting.

So let's chat about what's re-ignited my passion for quilting.  Our guild is blessed to have a wonderful quilt designer in our ranks.  She has generously created a design for all of us with a clue a month through our season. Unlike a mystery quilt, we know what the end result will be.

When I get these opportunities to support a fellow quilter, I take the chance to push my comfort zone and try something new.  In this case, I need three colours plus a background.  She showed both a light, white on white, background and a darker background.  I decide to approach things differently.   I decided to flip that on it's head.  I have a colourful background fabric and tone on tone's for the foreground fabrics.  I have no idea if this will work, but I take projects like this as an opportunity to try new things.  Like all projects, I took both a colour and a black & white photo of the fabrics to ensure I had a range of tones.   What do you think? (Note: one of these fabrics did NOT make the cut.Can you guess which one?

 

The next project is a One Block Wonder quilt.  It is the first one I've ever done.  Again, experiment time, I have a panel that is part of the Northcott "Northern Peaks" line as my centerpiece, but the actual OBW is being built from the coordinating fabric line.  This was a workshop held in person by our guild.  We were all amazed at the diversity of choices everyone had made.  Like the previous experiment, we'll see how this goes with great anticipation.

Finally, Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery has started and of course, I joined in once again.  This time, having just finished a blue, red, and white quilt, Ai wanted a change of colour scheme.  Brown and gold, here I come.

There is a fourth project I started this fall too, but I'll leave that for the next post.  

Needless to say, I'm surrounded by fabric these days and feeling such joy at the potential this fabric represents.  I'll have a big update for my UFO list but 2024 will be an epic year as I work to complete all of these projects.  I hope you will join me along the way.

Chilhowie is pieced

I think I need to admit that I'm a Bonnie Hunter enthusiast who has started several of the annual Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts, but if truth be told, I've only ever finished one - Frolic.

Today, I took a big step forward and worked on piecing the 2022-2023 mystery, "Chilhowie"

I had to start with finishing the assembly of the border strips.  I have a love/hate relationship with pieced borders.  It can feel like a never ending effort but at the same time, it produces an epic result.

Once I had the top fully assembled, it was time to snap a picture.  It was breezy outside but the sun was shining, so I wrestled to hang the quilt on my clothesline.  The wind was so gusty that I had to lie on the ground to take any picture and the quilt was never fully flat when I snapped the picture.  Still, the quilt top looked like stain glass against the sun.

I brought the quilt top back indoors and laid it out on my floor to snap a shot.  Not as bright, but here it is.

Thank you, Bonnie, for a wonderful challenge and learning experience.  I still have to quilt this beauty, but getting this far feels like such an accomplishment.

Now, which of the Quiltville mysteries to tackle finishing next?

Happy New Quilt Year - 2023

 It is that time again when we can refresh our UFO lists (I've done mine on another tab of this website), and get inspired to spend more quality time indoors working on our projects.

I was fortunate to spend New Year's Eve with some fellow guild members and did a 12-hour Virtual Sew Day!  What a wonderful way to spend the day!  I've been busy working on my Bonnie Hunter Chilhowie mystery, and finishing off a Quilt of Valour project that will be going to a veteran at the end of this week!

How about you?  Is your New Year off to a good start?  Are you considering doing the Declutter challenge by Karen Brown of "Just Get It Done quilts" or are you like me and still in the depths of the annual Bonnie Hunter mystery?  Even if you don't mark the new year in a special "quilty" way, I hope you'll join me along the journey as this year I plan on blogging more than in past years and sharing my experience and journey with all of you.