"Grassy Creek" - Getting Grassier!

 As you may recall, I challenged myself with the Bonnie Hunter mystery "Grassy Creek" to alter the colours.  It is not that I disliked Bonnie's picks - in fact, I loved them - but I was using 2020 as the year I stretched my boundaries with colour design.

As I started seeing the final pieces of the mystery coming together, I grew more and more unsure of my choices.  I decide to put a corner of the quilt together, just to see how badly I had messed things up.  I was already starting to plan on downsizing this from the full size to a lap quilt.  Keep putting that corner together, I would tell myself.  Maybe I would just donate it and hope no one noticed I "forgot" to put my name on it.  Don't give up yet, just a little further and then you can decide, I would hear between my ears.

I have not even finished putting it together, but was far enough along that I started to see what was coming as I laid these partially assembled pieces on the floor.  Perspective is EVERYTHING.  I have not even finished assembling this corner, and my feelings about this quilt have already changed.  It is not what I expected, nor what I envisioned with this project, but the result is shaping up to be something wonderful.

What do you think?

"Grassy Creek" - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Coming Together

Friday was the day Bonnie revealed to her fans, this year's completed mystery quilt - Grassy Creek.

Today was the day I revealed that I had finished the 5th of 7 clues - progress!  Bonnie's quilts are challenging and complex, but she provides detailed instructions and with patience and persistence, it is possible to replicate her design.

Having completed part five, I started with one of the grey string piece blocks of part six and moved to part seven to try assembling the main blocks.  Have you ever struggled with colours?  I'm trying a technique a friend once shared with me - use your phone/camera and take a black and white picture - you will clearly see the light to medium to dark tones of your fabric.  Here is an example of taking scraps of my fabric, laying them out in the order I could possibly piece them, then taking their picture.

 

As of writing this, I have two blocks assembled, and I'm so proud of myself.  This is the first time I altered Bonnie's colour selections, and this was to challenge myself with the creative use of colour.  I think when this quilt is complete, it will definitely have some fantastic patterns emerging.

My thanks to Ms. Hunter for her time and energy in creating these projects.  This is my third Bonnie Hunter Mystery and I think they are amazing!

Elm Street Quilts - UFO Challenge - January 2021

One of my goals this year is to get serious about finishing some of my many UFO's.  To help motivate me and hopefully keep me accountable, I have joined up with Elm Street Quilts and their monthly UFO challenge.

How does it work, you might ask?

You pick a UFO you commit to completing, and at the start of the month when the site is opened up, you submit a link to where you have posted your UFO.  At the end of the month, you return and post your wonderful and hopefully completed result.  While there are prizes as an incentive to participate, I'm mostly in it for the combination of bragging rights and getting quilts done!

If you want to learn more for yourself, why not check out the blog at:  Elm Street Quilts - One Monthly Goal

January's UFO for me is my Westalee Ruler Class Quilt project - Continuum (or as mine will be called "Skeewiff Learning with Style"!

How are you approaching completing UFO's this year?  You'll see an updated UFO list for 2021!  We'll need to revisit it at the end of the year to see the progress that will be made.  I guess I better get at it!

On the cusp of a New Year

 There is a saying I've heard many times that has taken on unique meaning this year:  HINDSIGHT IS 2020!

As I look back, this year I definitely had a turning point in my quilting journey.  I lost some of the zest for my projects and it seemed I could never finish a project.   In fact, for 2020 I finished nothing but managed to start 3 new quilt projects and umpteen (that's a technical number I often refer to whenever I've lost count) masks.  My beloved sewing machine had a motor burn out that controlled zig-zag stitching and it froze off centre, so machine quilting became more of a challenge.

But I meet once a month with a lovely group of women who moved to Skype with global pandemic.  They also increased the times to meet from once a month, to almost daily.  These ladies have been such a blessing in this pandemic.  We don't always talk, but we always support each other in our quilting journey and they certainly served to inspire me often. 

One of the ladies found a quilt in a bag opportunity for us all.  It was a class on using machine quilting rulers that would result in a finished quilt and a whole lot of learning.  I've only ever done stitch in the ditch type quilting and it was high time I expanded my repertoire. I got talked into joining in and adding a fourth quilt to my start list (in all fairness, my arm did not take much twisting).   For several weeks, we would watch the video tutorials on my laptop over the Skype connection.  We all bought the kit individually and each of us had the videos, but it made sense to watch together so we could stop and start it as needed to discuss key points.  I learned a lot, despite the frustration with my machine and my skeewiff needle position (another technical term that most quilters will understand).

The highlight of 2020 for quilting would come in two distinct events. One was the completion of a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt top.  I have yet to sandwich and quilt it, but I completed the assembly of the "Frolic" quilt top.  I was really proud of myself for getting this far and having this beautiful quilt completed in 2021 is definitely a goal. 

The second was my "new to me" sewing machine.  I got a Husqvarna Viking Epic 980Q.  I call it my "Ferrari" as it is definitely a high-end machine that I didn't have on my radar to consider purchasing, but when an opportunity came to get a one-year-old used machine at the store that sold me my previous machine (and it had been purchased and maintained by this shop too), I leapt at the chance (with my husband actually being the one to insist that I deserved it).

So here's to 2021, and continuing the quilting journey as I build my skills and complete projects (I'll be updating the UFO page tomorrow!!).  To everyone, I wish you all the best for a new year and here's hoping 2021 brings more quilting adventures for us all!

Starting "Grassy Creek"

 It is that time of year again:  Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  This year's theme is "Grassy Creek".  Each year, Bonnie generously creates a unique quilt pattern for which she releases weekly clues starting on "Black Friday".

This year, I challenged myself to not use her colours.  Of course, she puts out some of my favourite colours in her recommendations, so don't be too surprised if mine are not too far away from hers.  I started with a photo of my father and used a free application online to pick out colours.

This version of the colours is slightly different than Bonnie's but enough that it is going to make it a challenge.  

I took this page and the colours to a local quilt shop and went to town with picking out fabrics.  I ended up pulling the following fabrics 

I look forward to the challenge of a Bonnie Hunter mystery.  If you are curious about joining in, check out her website at:  Quiltville Blog - Grassy Creek Mystery

Learning to use rulers with machine quilting!

 In this era of COVID, learning new skills can be a real challenge.  I am very fortunate to have a group of quilting friends who discovered a "Ruler Class in a Bag".  It is DVD of lessons from the creator of Westalee rulers, the rulers, and a project guide booklet.`

We arranged for a number of us to purchase this "Ruler Class in a Bag" kit and then have weekly Skype calls where we play one lesson in the video and work while on the call with the block of the week.  We would encourage and support each other as some weeks were very clear and made sense and others were a little tricky.  We would be there if someone had to pull out a seam ripper (which I did often, especially since this was my first time working with rulers and those first few weeks seemed extra challenging).

I am amazed with myself.  Even though I have a beloved sewing machine that has a seized side-to-side motor and an off-centre needle position (which means some of my quilting is wonky), I am so happy to have already learned so much about working with rulers.  Below are two of the blocks I created:

One note of caution I would share:  If you don't have a ruler foot for your machine, you will need to purchase one separately.  It comes in low shank, high shank, and longarm versions, so it is important you check out what type of machine you have.  If you already have one, you'll also need a curved ruler that Westalee sends out with their ruler feet.  Confused you yet?  Well, check out the link from where we purchased the class in a bag (though other stores that carry Westalee rulers may also have this).  I should mention that I have no vested interest in this link, but here is where we purchased this kit:  https://www.stitchintheditch.com/Quilt-Class-in-a-Bag-s/1196.htm

Have you challenged yourself to expand your skills with quilting?  How did you do it?  I'd love to hear from you about that.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilts - The Saga Continues

 I am fortunate to have a group of quilting friends who introduced me to Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts.  If you have never heard of them, they are an annual right of passage for quilters around the world.  On Halloween, Bonnie releases her theme for that year's project along with fabric requirements and colour inspiration.  She then waits for US Thanksgiving to release one clue a week until early in the new year.

These quilts are not for the faint of heart, but you will learn a lot.  I know I have!

I mention Bonnie Hunter quilts today for two reasons:

1)  The second Bonnie Hunter mystery I've attempted, Frolic, is now got a complete top.  The piecing is done.  It may be more accurately described as piecing, ripping apart, piecing more, ripping apart more, and so on until I got this:

I can not even begin to say how proud I am of myself on this.  This is the largest quilt I have made yet.  Now to figure out how to quilt it!!

2)  This year's Bonnie Hunter has been announced and the race is on to decide on fabrics.  For those new to Bonnie, it is always safest to use her colour recommendations.  Some brave souls decide to do a variation on her colour selection.  Even though I love her colours this year, I decided I was going to challenge myself to change it up.  For inspiration, I used a picture of my father from Christmas's past and I entered into an online tool that would pick out colours in the picture for me.  Here is what I got.

I took this to my local quilt shop, and was able to select the following fabrics:

I'm a little scared, but also very excited to take on this challenge.  As you'll see in the coming posts, this is one of the three mystery quilts I am undertaking.  No one could ever say I wasn't a glutton for this kind of punishment, but I love it and in these days of COVID, quilting is a source of positivity in my life.