Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2016: The Reveal!

Just like the last few years, Bonnie Hunter is sharing her annual mystery quilt on her blog Quiltville. This year it is called En Provence! I participated the last couple years with Grand Illusion and then Allietare and really enjoyed the process. I've shared my weekly progress on clue #1, clue #2, clue #3, clue #4, clue #5, and clues #6 and clues #7. 

Once I saw the reveal I started to play with the block layout and all the puzzle pieces we'd been given. This is a great opportunity to play with the different building blocks and see what you can come up with. I really like Bonnie's En Provence design and I have been toying with making it in a different scale with batiks. I'll leave that for another day.

I decided that I didn't want to use all those low volume four-patches in a border. This is completely personal preference. I love the look of a scrappy border, but I'm not a fan of how easy it is to introduce a really wavy border with all those blocks unless they are pieced and sewn perfectly and were are an identical size. The 54 seams down one side is more than enough to cause all manner of problems. I chose instead to use them in the blocks to create a quite striking star.

If I were to choose the colors for this quilt again, I would not have left so much contrast between the dark blue and the light blue. I would have picked a dark and a medium. My light blue just reads almost equal with the low volume prints. I pieced these while working on other things.

 Slowly I finished the blocks and put them up. They are quite striking without the sashing blocks.

Then I added the sashings and corner squares so I could see where I was headed.

The sashing units are coming together nicely. I still have plenty of work ahead of me but I think I've made great progress.

A note from Bonnie on her blog Quiltville: "Clues will be available until February 1st, 2017.  After this date, the pattern will be available as a digital download in the Quiltville Store."

Knitting Update: Another Dotted Rays

I've cast on the first shawl of 2017. I know, I know. How many shawls does one person need? The answer is one. But since I still have yarn...

This yarn is Hawthorne from Knit Picks. I purchased a sampler pack a while back and when Stephen West put out his new pattern for another Dotted Rays shawl I grabbed these three cakes and came up with a plan. The pattern is Dotted Rays - Speckled Fade. Since I didn't have a collection of speckled yarn I went with this collection.The colors are different enough and similar enough.

This one starts out like a Dotted Rays and then uses stripes to blend the colors together. I had made one using two colors a while back but I wanted to give this method a try. If you have the original Dotted Rays pattern you can find a simple formula for making your fade on Ravelry.

I know it is a little strange but I like where it is going.

I still love this pattern. So simple and soothing! I also love an i-cord edge.

Quiltville Mystery Quilt 2016: Clue #6 and #7

After the holidays I got distracted and I just realized i hadn't updated for the last two clues and the reveal of En Provence! from Bonnie Hunter on her blog Quiltville. I participated the last couple years with Grand Illusion and then Allietare and really enjoyed the process. I've shared my weekly progress on clue #1, clue #2, clue #3, clue #4, and clue #5. 

Part six was where I got to learn how to use my rulers to make the quarter-square triangle blocks. I have to admit, I like these way more than I thought I would. The rulers (Easy Angle and Companion Angle) make these so easy and they do come out with the minimum of waste, and little trimming is required.

This almost-red orange is one of my favorites of this quilt. I was very pleased to find that I had more than a few of this dark color in my collection.

These piece up rather quickly.

I knew we were getting close to the reveal when my bin was almost overflowing.

Clue seven was more quarter-square triangle blocks.

All of the pieces stacked up and ready for the next step. Next time I'll share the reveal and my blocks.

As always, I've learned a few things from the mystery quilt experience. I highly recommend you take a chance on yourself at least once and try one of these quilts. Breaking any project down into manageable pieces like this takes the anxiety down a level and you would be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Note from Bonnie's blog Quiltville: "Clues will be available until February 1st, 2017.  After this date, the pattern will be available as a digital download in the Quiltville Store."

Starting Off the New Year with Charity Quilting

The first meeting of Annapolis Quilts for Kids was my opportunity to drop off this bag of finished quilts. These quilts were finished in 2016.

I picked up a couple kits, some scraps to make string quilts, enough 2.5" strips to make a jelly roll race quilt, two quilt tops with backings to finish, and some fabric for borders for string quilts. So many people contribute to Quilts for Kids by donating fabric. They are always looking for people to help with the sewing.

I picked mostly greens for the jelly roll race. I pieced together the top the same day.

I used part of my day on January 16th to quilt for Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

I quilted the two tops I had picked up and the green strip quilt. Not a bad start to the giving year.

2017 Charity Quilt Count: 3 
I'm just getting started!