En Provence Revealed!

Well, that was quick!  Bonnie revealed Clue 6 for the En Provence mystery quilt on December 30, 2016 and then posted Clue 7 and the Final Reveal on New Years Day, 2017.  Isn't the finished quilt gorgeous?  That Bonnie is a genius!

Photo Credit: Bonnie K Hunter - Quiltville.com

So Clues 6 and 7 are hourglass units comprised of 2 green sides, 1 neutral side and 1 light purple side (Clue 6) or 1 yellow side (Clue 7).  Okay, but I've never done hourglass units before, and they look awfully complicated and mathy.  Lucky for me, I got Bonnie's Essential Triangle tool and her wonderful tutorials to get me through!

Here's my progress on Clue 6:

Cut the 2" strips:

Sew them together:

 As you can see, I had some technical difficulty with thread tension at first because I'm using my Singer 15-91 for the first time.  She's about 70 years old, so I cut her some slack, re-threaded and fiddled with the tensioner, and she was good to go after this!

Look, half hourglass units!

Sewed those together, pressed, and voila!

Clue 6 DONE!

Clue 7 process pics look the same, except with yellow, so here's what I got:

But the fun part is putting this bad boy together!

Sorry about not editing this pic.  Also, I ended up swapping out those gold squares for ones more the color of the hourglass unit yellow.

Following Bonnie's diagram, here's what I got:

Woot Woot!  It looks like a block! :-)

I'm not too crazy about the subtleness of the contrast in the purples, but it should be okay in the quilt.  I think.

So I made a few blocks and sashing units, and mocked it up:



I think it looks pretty cool!  But I've also realized that I need more width to make this a good-sized lap quilt.  So I'm going to make more units for 4 more blocks to make a 3x4 block quilt.  I'm hoping I have just enough of these fabrics (especially the dark purples!) left to pull it off...

Final Link Up for Clues 6 and 7 is HERE!  A bunch of peeps have already finished their entire quilts, and some have just absolutely fantastic versions!  Good thing it's not a contest, because, seriously, there's so much awesomeness out there! ;-)

"En Provence" Clue 4, and a Finish!

I'm so proud that I'm keeping up with this year's Quiltville Mystery Quilt "En Provence" by the amazing Bonnie Hunter!  This is Week 4, and I'm still chugging right along.  

Bonnie is having us make more Tri-Recs triangles, this time with our neutrals and scrappy dark purples:

I only had to make 40, instead of 80.  It's a good thing, too, because this is all that is left of my dark purples...I sure hope we don't need much more:

So after some chain-piecing, I got mine done:

These are so cute and pretty, and I really love using those Tri-Recs rulers!  I see a Storm at Sea in my future!!

Check out the other participants' progress at the Mystery Monday Link-Up on the Quiltville blog!  I love seeing others' creativity with the colors and fabrics!

And in other quilty news, I also finished a quilt for my friend's son:

This is pre-wash, so it's not as magical as it will be once it gets all crinkly!  My friend's son is in cub/boy/eagle scouts, and has a bunch of patches.  She wanted something so he can display and use them for years to come, and she came up with the idea of a quilt.  Only she doesn't know how to quilt.  But guess who does? ;-)

I really should not have volunteered to take this on, especially during Christmas-gift-making time.  But it's done, and she'll love it, so there you go!

And Then There Were Three...

Our third clue in the Quiltville Mystery Quilt "En Provence" is a repeat of the first clue...only this time the four-patches are in our PURPLES!!  Okay, tons of four-patches it is!

Sewing, sewing, sewing:

 

And spinning the seams:

 

And DONE:

There are some that I'm not sure have enough contrast, but they'll probably work.  I hope!

But check out these Quiltvillians who are really gettin' 'er done at the Monday Link-Up Party!

"En Provence" Quiltville Mystery Quilt - Clue 2, er, Deux

The Second Week's Clue involved the Tri Recs rulers, neutral fabric, and your chosen constant fabric.  I actually bought these rulers a while ago, but have never gotten around to learning how to use them...you know, with how scary-mathematical they look and all! :-)

I don't know about you, but I love learning through watching others, so the fact that Bonnie included some how-to cutting & sewing vids for the Tri-Recs in her post was totally awesome for me!

So after letting Master Bonnie teach me the Tri Rec ways with her fantastic tutorials, I ended up with what I think I was supposed to have:

It was actually pretty easy, and I daresay, kind of fun!  At the very least, it was WAY easier than I had thought it would be.  I've always wanted to make those star blocks with these units, so I'm really excited to have this little skill in my back pocket...or at least I know where the videos are for future reference! 😉 So, let's sew these suckers together!

And through the magic of chain-piecing, and with some help from a mind-numbing movie like "Legally Blonde" (I know, right?), I got a lovely pile of 50 units (I'm making my quilt half-sized):

And after a little starch and steam:

In her Tuesday Link up post, Bonnie says that we are done with this fabric, so I'm kind of sad because I think it's so pretty, although she tossed around the idea of using it for binding, which I just might do...or maybe a thin border?  Who knows?  I guess it's a mystery (har har har).

Speaking of Tuesday Link-Up, check it out HERE to see what all the other crazy-talented Quiltvillians are doing.  I'm super-stoked b/c Bonnie used one of my pics in the collage on her post!  And yes, I'm a total geeky fangirl! :-)

 I'm only a tiny bit concerned that my "constant" fabric is blue with magenta-ish spots, instead of all-magenta, but I think it stands out from the purples I've chosen, so I don't think it will look too wrong.  Only time will tell!

Mystery Quilting - Part 1

So Bonnie Hunter has started her Mystery Quilt for 2016!  I'm a huge fan of hers, so I'm excited to sew along in real time with her and all of the other Quiltvillians!  This year's is entitled "En Provence":

Click to go to the "En Provence Mystery" page on Bonnie's blog Quiltville

In the Intro Post, Bonnie has us pick out our fabrics based upon the gorgeous lavender fields she visited in...Provence! 😀 Here are her paint chips for the color scheme:

And here are the fabrics I pulled:

Instead of the magenta "constant" fabric, I picked the light blue w/the purple triangles.  I was really tempted to buy new fabric for this project, but I forced myself to use up my existing fabric...you know, to make more room for new fabric!   Most of these are reproductions, so I'm hoping that will be the overall feel. But I think my yellow is a little too "gold" and not enough "butter"...I'm hoping it will all work out!

I'm also only going to do half of the amounts in the hopes of ending up with a throw-sized quilt.   

So it looks like Bonnie will be posting "Clues" every Friday for us to complete.  Our first part was to make a bunch of 3-inch four-patches out of our neutral fabrics...221 to be exact!

Cutting:

Sewing:

Done:

I ended up with 120.  I love how scrappy and cute they are!  You can check out the progress of the other Quiltvillian participants in the Monday Link-Up.

I'm really going to make an effort to keep up with the clues as they come, but of course there's Christmas gift-making to do, and I volunteered to basically make a quilt for a friend of mine to give to her son.  Can't wait until I can retire and quilt/craft/knit/create full-time...in about 10 years!! 😂😂