Finish It February 2015 Update!

February 26th.  Two more days for Finish it February projects! 

Boston has had record breaking snowfall this winter, most of the snow falling this month.  I'd had visions of sitting in my sewing room, happily quilting while snow gently swirled outside the window.  In reality, I was outside dealing with the snow!  Daily chores included shoveling walks, brushing snow off the roof and working to keep leaks from the attic to a minimum.  The dogs, on the other hand, have been having a great time playing in the mountains of snow in the yard!  As they say, a tired dog is a good dog.  Three sleeping dogs makes concentrating on quilting easier!

All the hours spent dealing with the snow meant there was far less time for quilting than I had expected,  But it looks like I'll still be able to complete 5 of the 6 quilts in my stack!

Here are details of the two twin sized quilts.  The photos show some of the quilting and I've flipped a the edge of the quilts over to show the backing.

I'll post a gallery of all the finished quilts next week!  

Bonnie Hunter "Grand Illusion" Winter 2014 Mystery Quilt

Board Basting Quilts

I had good plans for my quilting this week.  But instead, Winter 2015 has demanded my attentions.  With over 100 inches of snow in Boston in the past 4 week I'm spending a lot of time dealing with the demands of mounds of snow on the ground and ice and snow on the roof.  Lots of time outside, very little time working on quilts!

Yesterday I did grab a hour to sandwich my Bonnie Hunter Winter 2014 "Grand Illusion" Mystery Quilt.  Whew!  I was so glad to get that done before I went back outside.

Layering and basting quilts is so much easier since I discovered Pat Merkle's Board Basting method. She blogs at www.colormequilty.blogspot.com.  Pat's board basting technique is pure genius.  All you need is a long table (I use my dining room table with 2 large cutting mats on it) and two  1" x 3" x 72" boards from your local home improvement store.  (If you have a choice of lumber, purchase the better quality boards. They should be straighter with smoother cuts which means less likely to splinter).  With board basting, I can put a queen size quilt together in a about an hour.  The layers are always flat and wrinkle free.  I have said good-bye to the volatile basting sprays that I used to use.  That's good for the environment, my lungs and the fabric in the quilts.  Check out Board Basting at the link above!

Winter has won a few rounds in our battles this month.  Yesterday a friend asked for a mitten pattern.  When I ran upstairs to the printer I heard "rain" in my sewing room.  What??   Water was dripping from the molding of my craft closet. Grrr. That was a very low blow from Winter. My craft closet of all things!!  I was able to contain source of the leak in the attic and there was no damage to the items in the closet.  Whew. It could have been a lot worse.

My craft closet is back to back with a linen closet where I keep my seasonal quilts, I pulled them out and tossed them on my bed which is in another room.  I didn't think any more about those quilts until bedtime. I discovered they were all under the watchful care of Hazel and Tipper!  

Tipper, left, and Hazel guarding the quilts

What good dogs!

Hoping to find some time for quilting soon....

"Construction Zone": A modern twist on Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" 2014 Mystery Quilt

This week Boston had the largest January snow storm on record--24 1/2 inches. It was predicted well in advance.  "Snow Day!" I thought.  "I can sit inside and quilt and watch the snow accumulate outside."  That so did not happen!   I spent the snow day snow-blowing and shoveling.  And catching up with neighbors-- that's one of the great things about Big Snow in this city.  (My neighbor @franklin.e, an artist at work at home during the storm, did a watercolor of me shoveling show. It's on IG at #snowdraw.  How cool is that)!!

I did find some time yesterday to finish up my Modern take on Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" 2014 Winter Mystery quilt.  It was made from the orphan blocks I had left over after I decided to make the quilt twin size instead of queen size. 

This morning I went out and shoveled around the fence in the backyard so I could take some photos to share with you. Then I went out front and put the quilt on a sunny snow drift in the front yard to get the photos of the quilting.  That's why the photos are a bit ripply!

Shoveled out for photos!

This modern quilt is a snapshot of the assembly of the "Grand Illusion" quilt. (Click the link to see my completed "Grand Illusion" quilt top).   Top to bottom:  Outer border, inner border, "exploded block" on the left, block components on center right, blocks falling off the sewing table bottom left and completed block on the bottom right.

Here are some pictures of the quilting. I used my walking foot for the geometric/straight quilting and did free motion quilting for the flowers and vine.  I used the serpentine stitch (#4 on my Bernina) to create the motion of the blocks falling off the table onto the floor. 

And here is the back.  The backing fabric wasn't wide enough so I added some the left over border strips.

"Construction Zone" Back

Now, time to tackle quilting my real "Grand Illusion" quilt!!

Modern Twist on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion: "Construction Zone!"

Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Winter 2014 Mystery Quilt was designed to be a queen size quilt.  As I was assembling the quilt I decided to make a twin size quilt by omitting one of the vertical rows of blocks.  That left me with lots of partially completed orphan blocks.

I had toyed with the idea of changing the quilt to try to give it some modern aesthetic, but decided that was just too difficult to do with a mystery quilt.  I wasn't willing to wait until the reveal to start sewing. 

However, my stack of orphan bits, pieces and blocks gave me the perfect opportunity to create a Modern Quilt.   I call this design "Construction Zone."  I took the elements of the Grand Illusion quilt and laid them out the way you see them when you are sewing a Bonnie Hunter quilt together. 

On the top row are the component blocks for the outer border on the left and the border unit on the right. 

Below that is the inner border, yellow on my quilt.

In the middle of the quilt on the left are the units set out they way the final block and it's green checkered border will be sewn together.  In the middle right are some of the individual components of the focus block.  

The completed focus block with its border is at the bottom on the right. On the left are block units falling off the sewing table and piling up on the floor! (It always happens at some point in a project this complex)!! One of the fallen blocks is attached by machine appliqué. The corner of that block will extend over the border of the finished quilt. 

This was so much fun to make.  I put the pieces up on the design wall but the assembly was all improv.  I sewed pieces together, measured and cut and sewed some more.

I'm giving away the "real" Grand Illusion quilt so it's great to have this lap size quilt to keep.  And it makes me smile!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Completed Top

My Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Winter 2014 Mystery Quilt Completed Top!  

At the last moment, my quilt took a change in direction...and went to the dogs!  In a good way!  I'd been asked to make a quilt for a little girl who loves dogs.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple. As I was putting together the large blocks in this quilt I realized this is the perfect pink and purple quilt.  It just needed dogs!  

Some turquoise dog related print fabric was already in my piecing so the basis of the dog theme was already there. The cornerstone blocks were the perfect place to add the dogs. I had just enough previously fussy cut dog fabric in the right color way to cut out the 3 1/2 inch blocks I needed. 

Here are some of the dog blocks and one of the turquoise half square triangle patches with a ball, bones and a vanishing squirrel!   I had to smile when I saw the rabbit in the square above the pointer at the bottom corner of the quilt!  "Turn around puppy! The rabbit's behind you!!"

I deleted the last vertical row of blocks which makes this a generous twin size quilt at 74 x 88 inches.  That leaves me with 5 large orphan blocks--and some interesting ideas about how to use them.  Stay tuned!

Check out the Linky on Bonnie Hunter's Blog to see what other folks have done!  There are lots of great quilts and quite a number of quilts with variant number color ways.  This project has been great fun!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 5

Hard to believe we are already on Part 5 (and week 5!) of Bonnie Hunter's Winter Mystery Quilt. This week's assignment was straightforward 4 patch blocks. 

I spun the seams on the back of these blocks.  They were easy to spin. It was almost as if these blocks wanted to spin!  I do like those tiny 4 patches which appear when the seams of a block are spun.  But the sad thing is, only you know they are there!  Unless of course, the quilt survives to a grand old age, starts to wears out and someone in a future generation decides to take it apart!  

I tried to spin the seams in the pieced blocks in Part 4.  That was a struggle.  I finally decided they were better pressed without spinning.  

I suspect that we probably have made most, if not all, of the blocks needed for this quilt. I think there might just be some serious sewing activity on New Year's weekend!  I can't think of a better way to start off 2015!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 4

It was so great to read Bonnie Hunter's instructions for Part 4  and finding that part of this step was done back in Part 1.  Bonnie is really good about looking ahead at the calendar and planning the work so that the week of the major holidays there is less sewing time needed to complete that week's step.  Thanks Bonnie!

Above are 2 more sets of Broken Dishes blocks.  It was snowing when I took the blocks outdoors to photograph them.  Can you spot the 2 snowflakes on the grey patch of the left hand block? It's such a swirly fabric that the snowflakes look like they are part of the design!

To see how other quilters are progressing, click here to view the Part 4 Linky for Grand Illusion on Bonnie Hunter's Blog.

I've tried out some titanium coated sewing machine needles this past week.  I have always used Schmetz needles and have been very happy with them.  But I had heard good things about titanium coated sewing machine needles so I purchased some Superior Titanium Coated Needles to give them a try.  I used a Topstitch 90/14 needle to do some quilting and really didn't see any difference.  But I was amazed at how beautifully the Topstich 80/12 worked for piecing.  The needle moved so easily and smoothly through the fabrics.  The eye of the needle is larger than most sewing machine needles so threading the needle is really easy.  

I'm not giving up my Schmetz needles.  I still really like them a lot.  But I'm happy to know about the Superior needles. With the titanium coating, they are supposed to last longer than regular needles.  I haven't used them long enough to comment on that yet.  However, I think using titanium coated needles might make a lot of sense when you are doing a project with lots of piecing-- like this Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt!  

For the record:  I don't have any connection with the Superior needle company nor with the Schmetz needle company.  

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog last week based on the photo of the scissors destroyed by my dog Hazel!  I enjoyed your great comments and appreciated your commiseration!  Hazel is well, no harm done to her.  I don't think she even swallowed any of the pieces from plastic handles she chewed up!  

Here are a couple of photos of Hazel with her new wide wale corduroy Pink Pig and a well loved Nylabone-- more appropriate dog toys than my sewing scissors!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 3

It's so easy sewing green!  Well, maybe not THAT easy!  But I was really happy to see Bonnie gave us straight strip sets for Step 3.   

I set up a fence on my sewing machine to get those 1/4 inch seams perfect.  My sets with 2 strips measured exactly 3 1/2 inches.  I had a harder time when all 4 strips were stitched together. I had to press the 4 strip sets with a hot iron to get them to measure 6 1/2 inches 

Here are my 2 strip sets ready to sew together.  I cut my strips at least 20 1/4 inches long with most about closer to 21 inches long.  That allowed me to cut ten 2 inch sections out of each 4 strip set.  Overall, I needed twelve 4 strip sets to make the required 120 8 patch blocks.

My Lab mix, Hazel, who is going to be 4 years old in January, has weighed in with a dog's comment the amount of time it was taking to sew Step 3:

Right Hazel.  I hear you!  Too much sewing, not enough play time with dogs!    (Shh--don't tell Hazel---I still have 110 8 patches to sew together to finish this step)! 

Click here for the Step 3 Linky at Bonnie Hunters blog, Quiltville.blogspot.com to see how everyone is doing!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusions" Step 1

Thanksgiving is over, so that means that it's time for Bonnie Hunter's annual Winter Mystery Quilt.  This year she has named her quilt "Grand Illusions", and has is using a color scheme inspired by the decor of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, MI.  Bonnie has picked  warm yellow, hot pink, turquoise, grass green, black and neutrals for this quilt. (Click the link to  Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com blog to see the Mystery Quilt steps).

I really enjoy making Bonnie's Winter Mystery Quilt.  Each of the steps is very manageable but the end result is always a quilt that is so complex that I would never make it if I saw the design before I started sewing!

The other great thing about Bonnie's quilts is that they use up quantities of scraps!  The more varied the scraps, the more exciting the quilt.  My rule this year--all the fabric has to come out of my scrap bins or stash.  After trolling my fabrics I found that the scraps in my bins don't correlate well with the colors Bonnie has recommended.  I will need to use a different color way.

Last year, making Bonnie's Celtic Solstice Winter Mystery Quilt, I swapped out the orange in her design for hot pink so there is little hot pink in my scrap/stash.  And I rarely use blacks, so that bin wasn't looking very promising either. 

My Celtic Solstice quilt, with Taffy

I've changed out 4 colors for my quilt:  

• Yellow, the constant fabric in this quilt, will be a peachy pink with a tiny green detail
• Pink will be lavender and purple in my quilt
• Black will be switched to dark grey
• Neutral will be white on white fabrics 

I'm keeping her grass green and turquoise.   I know my quilt won't have the strong color contrasts as a quilt made with the colors Bonnie picked, but I'm hoping my white will give enough contrast to keep it interesting.

As I was ironing and starching my scraps in preparation for cutting, I found a lovely strip of aqua fabric which was 2.5 inches wide.  I found myself ironing, and ironing and ironing...the strip seemed to have no end.  Then it dawned on me.  This "scrap" was a binding that I had started to make and then decided not to use.  But it will perfect for this quilt.  So I finished ironing it, folding it in half and pressed it in half the long way.  The quilt's binding was made, before I'd cut a single block!  That was a first!!

I laughed when I saw Step 1.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, the block we are making is "Broken Dishes."  100 of them!  I thought that was amusing!  But with the blocks finishing at 4 inches square, that's probably more like Tapas plates than Thanksgiving platters!

Here's what I did this weekend. 

Step 1: Done.  
Step 2 Coming Friday!   Happy sewing fellow Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt fans!

Here's link to Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" Step 1 Link-up.  Check it out to see what other folks have done so far.