Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery 2021/2022 - Rhododendron Trail
 

It's time for the Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery project for this year! This year's mystery is called "Rhododendron Trail" and the color/yardage has been released so we can start our planning. The actual cutting and sewing begins on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, this year is Nov 26). Clues/directions are released mostly weekly with a queen sized finished top being the goal sometime around January-February.

Here's the first clue:
https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2021...e-mystery.html

You don't need to join anything to do the mystery, but you will need to go look/download/print the clues. As the clues are released they will be updated in this thread, but I do recommend a link to the site as well, as well as printing hard copies.
https://quiltville.com/index.html

Bonnie asks that those of us who post do not spoil the mystery for others. That includes posting actual numbers and counts of things, including measurements, as well as spoilers in terms of final layout. It's fine to say "I got half my blocks done today" but not "16 out of 34". While we can share other construction techniques (be careful of cutting mats and rulers and such in photos), she takes great care in her own directions and tutorials -- they are indeed very good and deserve to be recognized as hers. While there can be confusion from time to time, the answers we seek are there, and besides, the way the internet works traffic to her site is good. It can be frustrating to come here and need a simple answer like "3.5" instead of a link to the clue and description of where the information can be found but we are guests to Bonnie's mystery party and we are going to try and play by the rules.

Mystery projects are not for everyone. If you choose to do it in "real time" there is quite a bit of sewing each week. Twenty-some years ago there is no way I had the time as a single working mother during the holiday season... Now it gives me something nice to do at home during a slow time of the year instead of scurrying about during the bleakest part of winter! I like to sew a bit every day, usually Bonnie's mystery keeps me going during the duration. Writing up this post made me realize that I enjoy the sew-along aspects more than the mystery. I'm always fascinated by what everyone is doing with their projects and how they are the same yet so different.

The projects are large and do require quite a bit of fabric, I would feel differently about it if I had to go out and buy all the yardage. She does give recommendations on making half the number of units to make a smaller project. Bonnie's normal style is quite scrappy, this is a great time to use up little bits and pieces and fat quarters and such.

Likewise. it is hard to commit when you don't know whether or not whether you are going to like it. Bonnie's style is not my style, nor are her construction techniques but she has style and people love her projects. I have all the rest of the year to work in my style, and I'm actually finding it rather freeing to give over the design decisions to someone else, and that the few times I really am not so happy with my fabric decisions or whatever -- hey, it's a mystery and some things are going to happen for good and for bad. Plus any scrappy project, things happen but when you step back they are usually just fine.

Some people prefer to watch the mystery as it happens and then decide whether or not to make the project. Non-participants and lurkers are welcome posters too. Personally, I enjoy the push of doing it real time as well as having some surprises in the design. Honestly, 2020 was a hard year for me in many ways. I had a bit of a breakdown at the end of the year and I didn't finish in real time but I was able to complete it on a slower time line, not everyone is first to be done https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png

While we are being truthful, there are a lot of Bonnie Hunter UFOs out there, mystery or otherwise. It happens for all sorts of reasons. We are here in quilting fellowship for encouragement and support and hopes of completed quilts. So welcome! Whether it is back (this will be my third in a row) or for your first mystery/first Bonnie Hunter, or just for the quilt party. Bonnie Hunter (on her site) as well as our participants here always have awesome stuff to share.


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Will it be OK to ask about converting the cutting directions to which Accuquilt die can be used when Bonnie posts the weekly assignment?

She specifically states that it will give too much information away.

I always look forward to these mysteries. Thanks for hosting Iceblossom.

I'm on the fence. Most of my favorite quilts are BH quilts, but I really don't care for this year's colors. While I've changed out colors before, from one to all, I'm just not feeling it this year. At the same time, if I don't play along, I know I'll miss it, lol. And this year I definitely have more time than I've had in the past, a I am retired AND we will not have any family with us for the holidays this year.

Basically, what I'm saying is, I'm going to do it but in different colors, to be determined, lol!

I love Bonnie herself. Constantly enthusiastic, creative honest... But that said I don't think I can handle one of her mysteries. I love watching them unfold and cheering others on. Lood guck my friends!

Quilted Twins is carrying a fabric bundle with all the colors. https://www.quiltedtwins.com/shop/c/...-x60431222.htm .

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Thanks for organizing this. I have done the mysteries a few years in a row, and I, too, enjoy the quilt along aspects. I love this year's colors and look forward to seeing how things go for you all! I'm going to sit on the sidelines a while and see how I progress with the UFOs I'm working on.

I am looking forward to the next clue. I like how I can use up my scraps with her quilts. It is fun to see how everyone's quilt progresses on these pages. I use my accuquilt cutter as much as I can.

I’m in!
I think I can use mostly fabric from my stash, but to be honest, I have yet to look. My Official Fabric Sorting Area (that is, the floor outside my fabric filled closet) is currently buried under FMQ practice sandwiches and my FMQ sampler quilt.
I should finish quilting the project that was my leader/ender for Grassy Creek in a few days. That will clear both physical and mental space to look at my fabrics. I have 2 baby/toddler quilts to do by February, so I may prep the fabric to use those as this year’s leader/enders. And I have that FMQ sampler and a small whole cloth to finish by mid-December.
So, of course I’m ready to tackle the next BH mystery!

Thank you for hosting Iceblossom. I'm looking forward to everyone's progress this year. I'm all in but haven't decided on colors yet.

Thanks for hosting this, Iceblossom. I think I'm in. Love the colors and have a lot of stash. I enjoy quiltalongs!

How wonderful to have the official thread set up :)

I did pull out my box of solids but I just don't know if I can do this project with them... good news is I have plenty of Pink and such in the stash and plenty of Rhodies around me to give me inspiration. I do have a huge piece of large pink-purple circles that I am considering using with solids instead of the Garnet color, but I'm concerned that the scale is too big. While you can use large scale prints in Bonnie's projects, you have to make sure the pieces come out the way you want. That is, you can have a large mostly red floral but that one tiny triangle turned out to be all green leaf and it can throw things off. This mostly pink could turn out to have yellow bits and that would cause other problems. Even if I don't use it in the quilt, it might be enough for the back and I might just use it for my color selections. Plenty to think about!

Hubby said that this seemed like an early start and I said no, it takes us this long to get ready. Speaking of him, we went for a nice long walk to look for mushrooms on Sunday. While that park is more of a natural watershed, it was only a mile or so away from one of our favorite places to go, the Weyerhauser Rhododendron Gardens. So for those of you looking for some inspiration might wander around the pictures and such here:
https://rhodygarden.org/garden-overview/

Rhododendron pictures
 

Thanks for pictures, Iceblossom. After seeing them, I am surprised BH didn’t include any green.

Ice Blossom, Thank you for the pictures and the beautiful link adding further visual inspiration.
I do not have any yellow colors. Time to buy some. haha

Placed an order with this fabric source in Kentucky. It was obtained from a QB member via an earlier BH mystery. I do not have any affiliation with this company.

Link : https://www.whittlesfabrics.com

Have not visited the store in Smiths Grove, KY.

They do provide excellent customer service. 👏

Thank you, Iceblossom, for taking on the hosting duties!

I'm just as excited this year about the mystery, even though I'm planning to wait for the reveal. These colors are so pretty, but I don't have any cool, bright pink or bright lemon yellow in my stash, nor a large enough piece of a single aqua, so if I go with these colors, I will have to buy fabric. It would be far less expensive (and less work) to go with one fabric per color, but not as much fun as scrappy. I'm going to do a leisurely on line search for these colors to see if I can find really interesting single fabrics to use.

I thought Bonnie's comments on the aqua were interesting -- that we won't be using it until well into the mystery and might want to make a decision then. Also, that she specifically urged a tonal. Very intriguing!

Thanks Iceblossom for hosting! I am looking forward to this year's mystery so count me in but will be changing colors. I worked real hard this past month to finish UFOs as to allow more time for this year's mystery. Two more quilts to bind and a quilt to start for my daughter- not too bad. Now if I could just settle on some fabric colors...

oh dear! Maybe I am going to do this one, I can use all stash...oops...somehow I ended up in front of my computer looking for an aqua....and One aqua, 4 yellows, 3 more pinks, and 1 neutral later....my fingers all on their own, ordered! Yikes....hope I can find cranberry somewhere in my stash along with some more neutrals...although as I have a big chunk of the cranberry...I am thinking of doing that one as a constant too...with just the yellows, pinks, and neutrals being scrappy.

I googled "close up photos of rhododendrons" for images.

It was helpful to me, because I did not know what they looked like.

I'm in! I used the quilted twins kit for grassy creek and it turned out beautifully, although i did have trouble with one fabric being so thin it would tear around the seams.

Love the colors this year, am going to wait a few days to see all the other kits pop up and then decide if I'm ordering fabric in or going to one of my local shops for fabric!

Thanks for hosting this, Ice Blossom. I am not sure if I am going to jump in on this one. I have been doing them since 2015, except for last year. So far, only 2 have made it to completion. Currently, I am doing the quilting for the 2015 one, Allietare! I would really like to finish that before I tackle another. But I will be eagerly waiting to see what everyone does with this quilt.

Leslie

Yes, thank you Iceblossom for organizing this year’s BH mystery. I think I have done four of them thus far…I‘ll have to get caught up on some other projects (Christmas gifts) but I will check my stash for suggested fabric colors.

I like to see familiar names that have joined in on this from years past and also the new people who haven't done it before. I do like the colors she picks, mainly because that is always hard for me to do on my own.

First look at my solids -- don't think this is going to work but I'm looking at it. I'd do much better if the colors were blue tones.

I have a huge amount of the circle fabric, almost enough to use as the neutral yardage. I'm thinking that I would use it for the Garnet color, mixing pinks and purples, yellows, and probably just one aqua/green, and my neutrals would all be basic white solid. Since I have so much of it, I have enough that I could make extra units for those that come out as "yellow"

You can see in the 2nd picture that those yellow circles are pretty big, more than a quarter, and Bonnie often makes the pieces pretty small. I think I'd have to throw out a few pieces from each strip.

I have plenty of more conventional florals and prints in all the colors. Today's task after my Tuesday group will be to start pulling those.

I will be joining but haven't pulled fabrics yet. Even though I'm not a pink person, I'm pretty sure I have all I will need in my stash. I think this might be a good one to gift to my granddaughter, her favorite colors are pink and yellow.

I'm joining this year. This year's colors are right up my alley, so it will be easy to have lots to pull from stash.

Thanks for hosting, Iceblossom. I am not sure if I will be participating yet as I am in the middle of a move and my now meager stash (I gave 99% of my stash to a good friend because I will no longer have room for it) is in storage. .

I have one question about the paint chips. Are these from Lowe's again this year? If yes, which paint line (HGTV, Sherwin Williams, etc) do the numbers correspond to?

Can't wait to see everyone's fabric choices. Seeing how many different fabrics there are is part of the excitement for me.

the paint chips are from the Valspar line at Lowes

Oh my goodness, ILoveToQuilt, 99% of your stash! I'm trying to imagine how that would feel.

I broke down in my resolve to wait until the reveal, and bought some yardage today, one fabric per color. What a wimp.

For more than a few years, I have followed these mysteries, but never participated. You all know the reasons. In fact, while being a member here for over 10 years, I haven't even posted since the month I originally joined. But I am viewing my coming retirement in the spring as an excuse to spread my wings as a quilter and get involved.

Let me start by saying that I am not by nature a scrappy quilter. Nor am I comfortable with the whole idea of a mystery quilt. And I was originally going to just pass this one by, as, unlike most of you, I HATE pink, and my pink stash consists of only two pieces smaller than fat quarters. But then Iceblossom posted the link to the Rhododendron Garden. The orange blossoms are what drew me in. So, I guess in am about to venture on my first BH mystery. And if it doesn't get done over the next few months, well, it looks like I already have a jump start on retirement.

It sounds like you're in for an exciting adventure!

I was initially leery about doing mystery quilts too because as a broke 30-something, I can't afford a very big stash or to waste a ton of fabric on a project I don't end up liking. That being said, I've really enjoyed all the mystery quilts I've completed (a grand total of 3 lol) I do cheat a tiny bit and try to track down example of previous mystery quilts from that pattern creator, to see whether most of their mystery quilts are to my taste or not. Doesn't guarantee the current one won't be a dude, but I've definitely dodged some bullets that way. If you know you like most Bonnie Hunter patterns, you should be good (maybe just opt for non-scrappy where she mentions it as an option)

Good luck!

Well there was some eyeball rolling at my initial batch of solids plus that wild circle pink when I took them to Tuesday group but my hostess provided me with a couple more pinks and I'm thinking it could actually work. With the yardage requirements showing Neutral about an equal amount as the colors, and the warnings to keep contrast between colors strong, I'd expect the white/pink to be very stark and geometric and able to hold up to that print.

I really have been hoping to use that solids box. I find solids hard to use in scrappy quilts, their calm solidness makes a "hole" in the business of the calicos, but I like the crisp geometric of solids together. I feel that geometry meets with the modern circles pretty well.

Rereading the directions again, I saw this years quilt will be rectangular (yay! my preference) instead of square as it has been for the last two. If I didn't use it in the top and went with prints, I probably would be able to squeak out a back from the pink print, which is why it was bought in the first place. When I'm playing with fabric today I'm going to have to measure the pink...

I'm perfectly happy being Iceblossom, but my birth name was Caroline. I have one of these in my front yard, at the corner of the house just under the bedroom window. it is rare among rhodies that it has a mild scent. Most rhodies have no scent.
https://www.rhododendron.org/descrip...new.asp?ID=440

And for Woodland Creature, I had one of these Centenials in the front corner of my yard but mistreatment from my husband and neighbor killed it off while it was still rather small... I'm glad to see from the second link set of pictures that it wasn't just mine that was sort of a "weedy" shape bush, but it had such glorious blossoms!
https://rhodygarden.org/product/rhod...te-centennial/
http://www.paghat.com/azalea_centennial.html

I'm not officially on board yet, racing to finish a couple more tops first before I decide. I have fabric in my stash that I will use if I join. Thinking of going none scrappy, which is very unlike me, and changing some colors to use what I have. We will see how I go.

I'm enjoying reading this thread and the excitement is contagious!

I so agree, NZ! We've had a couple of years of squabbling here (masks etc) and I like that we can all come together on a shared interest. I really like when we all get along!!https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png

Ice- I love your name!! Sweet Caroline da da da!!! :)

Thanks for the answer...Valspar paint at Lowe's.

I have completed the initial pull of fabric from my stash using BH’s suggested colors. I found that I am repeating some fabrics from Grassy Creek because I changed my colors on that quilt. Still, my Grassy Creek version had blue as the dominant color, so I expect that this one will look very different even with repeated fabrics. I added a photo of my Grassy Creek so you could see the difference.

I have 2 possibilities for the aqua. The darker one is a small scrap left over from Grassy Creek (I called one of my substitute colors in GC “sea”) which one of the online fabric companies is selling for the aqua constants in RT. The other is a piece (about 2/3 yard) that I got in a grab bag from Hancock’s (but which is still available).

Not participating this year but will enjoy seeing your creations! Have fun!

SuzSLO- that's beautiful!

SuzSLO, love your Grassy Creek!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can join in this year. We have new carpet on order. Imagine getting everything off your floor. Even getting hanging clothes out of the closet. Yikes. It's worse than moving, because I'm not going anywhere and of course, there's too much stuff. Just stuff. They said it would be 12 days to arrive but it's coming from Canada to Florida. If I get it in by the first of the year, I'll feel lucky. Yesterday I boxed up my sewing room. MY oh my, the dust around the baseboard under the sweing table. Frightening. Considering hiring Merry Maids or someone to just come in an dust my house. Today it's my son's room. Have to be ready either way. So I will be observing until I get my sewing room back.