Allietare - Monday Mystery linkup Part 5

Link up time for Part 5 of Bonnie Hunter's Allietare Mystery Quilt. Follow this link back  http://bit.ly/1UdyGZq to see everyone else's progress

I am far from finished this step. I hadn't finished all my Step 1 HST so had to play catch up on those to start this step. So many of the sub units are still on the ironing board waiting to be ironed. The week isn't done yet though, LOL.  

Part 3 with it's gold and neutral 4 patches is completed.  This was where I started the mystery because it was the clue that was live when I came home from holiday

Part 4 (long, oh so long) is completed.  I love these little bow tie type units.  I think they would make a great border for some sampler blocks I have sitting around.

You know when you're making a mystery quilt there's always a fabric choice that you think "hmmmm, I wonder how that's going to work out"?  Well with Allietare mine is the grey.  So because I'm contemplating my choice of grey fabric here's a grey photo from my recent holiday.  It's taken at the Koutu Boulders in the Hokianga Harbour on Northland's west coast.

Off to sew...

Allietare - just starting out

I've just come back from a road trip so I'm  late starting on Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery quilt, which is called Allietare.   I love making Bonnie's mystery quilts over the holidays and had lots of fun on Grand Illusion last year.  I have my fabrics ready to go for Allietare so tomorrow I think I'll make a start with Clue 3 and then work from from there on new clues and catch-up.

 

Even though I haven't made my first cut yet I wanted to link up and say "I'm in".  Check out Bonnie's blog and the link up to see the progress other participants are making here

This is going to be fun!

97, 99, 100

Sampler blocks are DONE.  Waahoo!!!  Time to play with laying them out.

Hold on, something is wrong with picture  and I don't mean the tabby cat having a wash on  the blocks, or the poor quality photo.  Do you see that gap in bottom right hand corner?  How can that be.  Where is my 100th block? Don't tell me it's back to the sewing machine.

Today is an orange kinda day

A little bit of stash enhancement meant I could make progress on the orange blocks for my sampler.  Isn't that daisy print the prettiest thing?  After counting, recounting, ticking blocks off the list and recounting again, I think I only have 3 blocks to go. 

Little blocks keep coming

You can tell I'm playing catch up with this project now because the block colours are all mixed up. I'm starting to count down... only 9 blocks to go.  I just need to find some orange fabric for the orange section.

Back into it

After a break I'm getting back into my Rainbow Scrap Sampler - the 2014 one!!  Catching up on some brown and black blocks today.  Clockwise tfrom top left they are Sarah's Choice, Prairie Queen, Contrary Wife and Chevrons.   I still seem to have about 15 or so blocks to make to finish the 100.  This includes all the orange ones (about the place where I came unstuck with the project and stopped working on it), the light blues, and a few others 'here and there'.    I really want to get these down and play with setting them.

Feet up

I have my feet up for a few days with a sprained ankle so I'm binding a quilt and listening to podcasts. This project is a long time UFO. It's a scrappy Bargello using Bonnie Hunter's free pattern. 

History never repeats

I used to have two lovely golden retrievers, one of whom loved to be the star of my quilt photo shoots.  The moment I got out a camera, Oscar was on, or in front of the quilt.  Well my golden stars have moved on, and now I a wee tabby cat called Tillie to keep me company on my quilting journey. 

Today I trimmed by quilted Grand Illusion quilt and put it outside to photograph.  Who should pop right along  but Tillie.

 

I didn't get a very good photo.  I need to get up higher.

I love the backing fabric, an Ikat style print on sale from Hawthorne Threads. 

It's going to be a long way around this one with the binding.  

Plugging away

I pulled fabric for more six inch blocks and have put several together over the long weekend. I'm up to the brown month now. And if you think that one on the top right lolls a bit big you are right. It needs trimming but I had misplaced my ruler.  Not bad for an afternoon.

Cruisy last day of holiday

So how have I spent the last day of my summer holiday today?   I've taken a very cruisy approach to it.   A little (emphasis on little) household organisation, interspersed with a little reading, and a little quilting.  3 more blocks for the sampler...

There is a bunch of blocks that are orange.  I'm not sure how I'm going to go finding fabric for those...  I have plenty of orange hand dyes because I love muddling with red and yellow, I can think of only 2 orange print fabrics I've used in quilts. 

And some reds and neutrals for the border of Double Delight.  

These units are at a REALLY boring stage to sew so I am using them as leaders and enders.  This has somehow stopped me from having to focus on them and it makes them a much more manageable task.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Let's do the time warp - old and not so old projects

I've been doing a bit of a stock take. Overdue for new year perhaps?  I wasn't in time to sign up for Adrianne's Q1 Finish-Along, but these are the 3 projects I'd like to work on finishing during that time.

I've checked off the list of 6 inch sampler blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The 2014 challenge that is. It seems I stopped after July's red blocks and didn'tmoved on to greens of the light and bright variety.  So I have a few blocks to catch up on.  Well 29 to be precise.  Except that now it's 26 because today I made these 3.  And the title of today's post came from the background fabric which I decided while playing with these today that  I LOVE.  It really is a time warp moment because it is and old print that I picked up at Fabric-a-brac last year.  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make these little blocks.  They work up largely from scraps - and I mean little scraps like left over binding strips, charm squares, those little giveaway pieces of fabric you get in goodie bags at shows...  you don't need a fat quarter bundle of an entire fabric collection to put together some little squares. 

Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion.  The top is finished, and the backing is sewn together ready to go, so this "just" needs quilting.

And another mystery from Bonnie.  This one has been around for a few years.  I got stuck trying to find perfect border fabric and when everything seemed to look a bit flat I decided to piece one instead.  So  I am working on making a pieced red and white border for this, in the style of Andee at The Modern Diary

So I have some goals.  What fun!

A Madden Brothers Moment

... Otherwise known as... We are done 

It's a bit breezy here today and this is a big quilt so getting a good photo was trick but here is my version if Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion. 

Tinkering away with Grand Illusion

I am making progress. Many people seem to have finished already. I had a little set back when I discovered that I hadn't made enough sashing  blocks. Back to clue 3 and the green and neutrals for the afternoon to fix that oopsie. Here are the 2 rows together. 

Grand Illusion revealed

The mystery quilt was revealed on New Year's Day. I have the first row together and have been piecing more blocks today. I love this quilt design. Bonnie Hunter did a great job of this one. The pattern is available for a little while on her blog www.quiltville.blogspot.com