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.

Fire and Ice Bargello

Bargello patterns have always looked too complicated to me, and I'm not sure how I came across this one, but the pattern is a free one from Fons & Porter.  It uses 20 different fabrics, which I pulled completely from my stash and was fun to make.

Scrappy Stars Around the Corner

The 2016 Scrapitude Mystery by Charlotte Hawkes is now in progress.  Here are my fabrics:

I chose a black tone-on-tone for my background fabric and love the way all my colors "pop" against it.

Here's the completed top.  I decided to add a Seminole border.  It has been quilted and is on a guest room bed.

Youth Quilts

I am way behind on updating my blog.  I am still doing quilts for the Foster Teens at King's Home.  Here is a sampling of the ones I have done since my last post.

Paths to Faith

My ex-sister-in-law, whom I love dearly, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.  I have been thinking for a long time about giving her one of my quilts and when I heard this news, I decided now was the time, but could not decide what I wanted to do.  I saw a picture of a similar quilt using the Wings of Prayer panel on a Facebook page and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one for Barbara.  I was able to track down the pattern called Paths of Faith and the panel.  All done except for quilting and hemming.  I know she will be very surprised and will love it!

En Provence Mystery

This is Bonnie Hunter's most recent mystery.  I have mine finished except for a couple of borders I plan to add.  I made a couple of changes in mine to make it a little different and less "busy" and to add more color.  The centers of the blocks were supposed to be a neutral.  I made mine purple.  The centers of the magenta stars sashing was also supposed to be a neutral.  I made mine the same magenta.  Much happier with it this way.  I will add a narrow yellow border and a wider magenta border.

Trickling Boxes Mystery

This is a mystery that was done through a group I'm following on Facebook called Just Us Quilters.  We received a clue a month.  Chose all fabrics from my stash.  Completed and will be donated as a charity quilt.

Scrap Dance Tango Mystery

Just came across this mystery in April, which started in January,  and decided to "catch up" on the first 4 steps of a lap size quilt.  Here are my A Blocks.  Still have some cutting to do, but will cut as needed on the next units.  Most of my blocks have no two fabrics alike of either darks or lights.
Here's the link to this mystery quilt:  https://frommycarolinahome.wordpress.com/category/2016-scrap-dance-tango-mystery

Here are my May units:

Received final clue on June 10.  Here is my finished Scrap Dance Tango quilt top.  Will put it in line for quilting "one of these days!"

I Love a Mystery!!

I started doing mystery quilts in 2012 when I came across Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com website. She does one every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, giving us a new clue each Friday starting the day after Thanksgiving.  In 2013, she also had one published in the Quiltmaker magazine.  Here is a collage of these quilts.

In December 2014 I came across Love Bug Studios, Designer Ebony Love.  She had planned a mystery quilt called English Manor to be done in conjunction with the PBS series "Downton Abbey" beginning in January 2015.  Clues were received weekly on Sunday morning before that week's episode aired on Sunday evening.

In January 2015, I came across Scrapitude Quilts.  Charlotte Hawkes is the designer on this blog.  She gave us clues once a month on the second Tuesday evening in conjuction with doing one with her local guild.  She did her third one this year. I missed the first one.  Scraps in a Box was in 5 parts and Scrappy Stars Around the Corner was in 4 parts.   Here are my two Scrapitude mystery quilts.

Youth Quilts

Still having great fun making quilts for the foster teens at King's Home.  Keeps my creative juices flowing and my stash under control! Such a great "excuse" to keep doing what I love doing!!!  (I haven't figured out yet how to make these pictures line up the way I want them to....sorry they are all over the place.)

 Several are made from leftover units from other quilts.  Some are jelly roll quilts made from strips cut from my stash as I was sorting and re-organizing fabrics to move to my new sewing/quilting room.  Most are approximately 56 x 72  lap quilts.

I have quilted 8 of these since moving into my new room, which I did during the last week of December.   Agnes Poole, the  coordinator to whom I send them, has graciously agreed to add the binding and hem and get them completed.

Quilting Room Celebration

I recently had my carport closed in for a new quilting/sewing room.  When all done, I invited several of my bestest quilting buddies to come for a visit to celebrate.  Three of them traveled over 4 hours to get here and spent three days with me.  We worked on a mystery quilt, did some fabric shopping, ate lots of good food, and just had a grand old time, as usual!!

Here are a few pictures of my quilting room:

Quilting Room Celebration Retreat:  All set up and ready to go.  We had a great time!!

Mystery Quilt:  We worked on a mystery quilt designed from the Chain & Bar quilt block found on Quilter's Cache.  Four of us got all of our blocks completed, with three of us completing our quilt top. Peggy and Linda did theirs in a different layout than Anne and me, but we loved them all!!