Mystery Quilts

I did several mystery quilts during 2017.

This is a mystery by Charlotte Hawkes, called Surrounded by Scraps.  Started in January and finished in May.  I gave this to a close friend who is dealing with a serious illness.

This mystery is by Shelley Cavana of Cora Quilts.  It started at the end of March and we received  weekly clues through May.  It is called The Gathering.

This was done in the Facebook group Just Us Quilters and is called Jo's Medallion.  We started with a center block and added a different border each of the next several weeks.

This was designed by Cheryl Brickley of Meadow Mist Designs.  We started in September and finished in December. It is called Magnolia Mystery.

This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake mystery, which started the day after Thanksgiving and finished with a "rapid fire finish"on New Year's Day.  Since this picture, I have added a narrow dark brown border and a wider turquoise border.

I am currently working on another Charlotte Hawkes mystery called, Summer Stars Over Fawn Lake.  Will receive clues monthly.  I will also start another one by Shelley Cavana at the end of March with weekly clues.

I LOVE A MYSTERY!!

Starry Burst

This is from a book called String Quilt Revival.  Used black and white fabrics as the focus of each block and added strings from my stash.  Added a string pieced border.

Quilting Retreat 2017

My quilting friends arrived on Monday afternoon, August 7, for our annual quilting retreat. I live in South Alabama.  Three of these ladies live in North Alabama. Rhonda comes down from Virginia to Huntsville to visit her Mom, Pat, and always plans her visit so she can come to our retreat. We spent the rest of Monday having "Show and Tell" with all the quilt tops they brought to leave for me to quilt for them, as well as what I had accomplished since our last retreat, eating and just catching up on news and got started in my sewing room early Tuesday morning.  Lots of fun....cutting, piecing, shopping, eating out, more cutting and piecing.  I was the "teacher/helper" so I did not complete a project but here are some of the others accomplishments.

Anne made a large lap size chevron quilt with Alabama Crimson Tide colors/fabrics:

Pat finished a quilt top that her son had started.  He had all the blocks made, but she finished it with sashing and borders.

Rhonda was the most industrious.  She brought fabric for her very first Stack 'n Whack Quilt.  She chose a fan layout and wanted my supervision and help in cutting the layers for her fan blades.   She persevered and finished this 90 x 107 inch quilt top from Tuesday morning to late Thursday evening with most of the day Wednesday spent shopping and eating and putting our toes in the beautiful Gulf of Mexico beach sand.   Gorgeous fans!

Peggy spent Tuesday cutting out  pieces for a pattern she brought with her, but after seeing Rhonda's fans, she decided on Wednesday to buy fabric for a stack n whack fan quilt.  She did not make a lot of progress on hers while here, but her fans were turning out beautifully, too!

We made a trip to Pensacola, Florida, on Wednesday to our favorite quilt shop....A&E fabrics.  Another quilting friend, Linda, accompanied us on that trip.  We shopped and then went out to Pensacola Beach and had wonderful seafood at Peg Leg Pete's Seafood Restaurant.  Here we are in front of the fabric store.

WE HAD A GREAT WEEK!!

Sashed Half Hexies

I did not actually do all of these projects posted for January 2017 in January..... these projects were completed from early summer through the end of 2016.  I'm just playing "catch-up."

This is a Jenny Doan tutorial.  I ordered the half-hexie template and the pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company and pulled from my batiks stash for this one.  This one went to King's Home for Foster Teens.

Roll Tide Bargello

A quilting friend came to visit and wanted me to help her figure out a pattern called Two Fabric Bargello... for it to be so simple, the pattern was more complicated than it needed to be, but "the light bulb finally came on" and we figured it out for her to finish her project.  I later made this one.  It went much faster!!

Checkered Dresdens

This is a Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company quilt tutorial.   I chose 40 different fabrics from my batiks stash for this.  Had never made a dresden of any kind before.  Now I can say "been there, done that!"

Kinabalu

I was going through some older magazines and came across this pattern.  I had been wanting to try a curved log cabin, so decided to make this.  I gave it to my sister.