Half way there! Of course I'm only making half the units to begin with as I plan on making a throw quilt. So... this is half of the half. In past mysteries I've sewn up all the units in each clue and then done the trimming and pressing. This year I'm working smarter and making smaller batches. Trimming and pressing umpteen units at one time is a pain.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]620340[/ATTACH]

Belfrybat, thank you for the idea. I have never done one of these mysteries. Thinking I should probably stop by next week and pick up a little more fabric just to be on the safe side.

I bought a Janome 6700! Actually my Mom bought it for me for Christmas! :)

Kalama, that is an awesome Not Ringo Star. Did you just scrap it all up or actually pick colors. I love it.

I did the same thing, made all the parts but liked my layout better so made "Ringo's Sister" (same DNA different look)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]620342[/ATTACH]

My alternative arrangement via not following the color directions at all is resulting in a less than satisfying experience. Sooo, I had two possibilities, conform to the color scheme or armchair quarterback the experience and decide later if I want to make it ;-). I looked out on Instagram and I see that people have the raspberry and blue blocks covered without my help!

Soooo, it is a football day, sooooo armchair quarterback it is. I will be out here cheering you all on. I can't wait to see how it goes for you.

Thanks Connie...I just wish I didn’t live so far from them. [ATTACH=CONFIG]620343[/ATTACH]

Oh Jmoore. He is beautiful! <3:boy:<3

Darn, your florals looked so promising!


jmoore, beautiful baby!

Saved the first step of Frolic for later cutting and sewing. Like others, I have prior commitments but this first step is an easy one and a good step for working on skills of being consistent and exact. Love to twirl my seams. I learned that a number of years ago and find I use it often even when a pattern does not call for it. Makes a smoother finished quilt top. Happy patching everyone.

Thanks! I think they're cute together. I arranged them into a border, and I think I'll make a few more and use them on a table runner. Who knows. I may incorporate more of Bonnie's steps into my runner. But I don't know that these bits are going to work on Bonnie's quilt. I was working toward something of a low contrast look sort of a Kaffe Fasset feel, but only using one Kaffe Fasset print! But the tiny squares don't work as well as bigger chunks would have. I'll follow along and see if I can keep going.

All 4-patches done! I am using yardage rather than scraps so it went much faster. I've never finished a clue in the week it was given, far less on the day it was posted. I've also been working on 2018 MQ Good Fortune and hope to have a completed top by the end of the weekend. It's been sitting around and I realized it's close enough to not need a whole lot of time to finish it up. It would be great to have one less WIP.

Edited to note that the light blue looks pretty gray in the picture but is really a bright sky blue.

Linda/wildyard,

I especially love your selection of darker blues (middle row, right) and red/raspberry fabrics (top row, right). I am amused that I recognize the fabric on the top of the bottom row, right section as a Jinny Beyer fabric - I got some of it in Lone Star quilt kit I bought. I think your choices will look really nice together and I look forward to seeing how your quilt progresses.

(This is back on post #315 for folks who want to see the picture.)

That always amuses me too, when I see a little snippet of fabric in someone else's project and recognize it as one I have in my stash or have worked with.

Belfrybat,

I think your color choices look lovely. (This is in post if you want to see the picture.) I especially love the green fabric you selected. I am not a fan of the yellow-greens that Bonnie has in her selections and your green is a really nice, light shade that appeals to me. All your fabrics work very well with each other. I look forward to seeing how your quilt turns out.

Jmoore: Such a cutie. Good thing there are several ways to keep updated with social media but I know there’s nothing like holding those little ones.

Fun 4 patches and quilts being shown.

I am getting the itch to join but I really need to finish a few other things and then get started on some baby items for my first grandchild in February.

Question... are we supposed to be using all our reds in this one step or just picking some for this part and saving some for using later? Same question about the blues... by cutting strips, and because I am making the throw size, I only used about half my reds and blues... any thoughts if this is the right way to go? Is it ok to ask on the facebook page?

Jmoore- What a beautiful baby!

I am in the middle of making a Christmas present so I won’t start until I am done with that quilt. I am enjoying looking at everyone’s and reading the comments. I am planning to use yardage but haven’t bought all my colors simply because I got caught up in the other quilt. Now wondering what I want to do color wise again! I had planned to use a navy (own) and a lighter purple (need to buy) but am now wondering if I should just do the dark and lighter blues. Since I am planning on doing a smaller number I am probably really overthink this! If I love it I can always do more later.

Thanks Kristijoy, Joe’s mom and Mumto2...he is a joy to hold, at least for a few more days while I am in California.
Retiredteacher, I guess I forgot you were expecting your first grandchild in February...how exciting.

Kristijoy, I hope you are bonding nicely with your new Janome. It is so fun to play and learn on a new machine.

I will be anxious to get started and, hopefully, catch up on Frolic next week...in the meantime, it is fun to follow everyone’s posts and progress.

Still cutting and sewing #1 this morning. Anyone else working on it this morning?

Jmoore- your grandson is absolutely gorgeous! (or handsome haha)
I just returned from DC with my granddaughter and missed her the whole way home. She's smiling now and I'm freezing that sweet face in my memory until Christmas. We had some serious "girl talk". :)

I plan on starting today!!! Looking forward to it. I appreciate all the posters who urged me on!!

wildyard, this is just a little bit of your total "red" fabrics

The Ringo mystery was basically aqua/pink/neutral, so I chose red/white/blue from my reproduction pile. I quit buying fabric in 2001 and have worked from stash since, so my mystery quilts are based on what I think I have enough of ;)

This year's mystery is basically 5 colors, so I'll just choose 5 of what I have in my 30's pile, which will have nothing to do with bluebonnets really.

Just use what you need to use to get the right number.....most likely the color will be used again in another step and you want to have some uncut for that step as it might be a different size. I usually try to mix up my reds...etc. but you get to decide! If I remember right, Bonnie usually says...that is all for the red....when she is done with that color...but I can't remember if that is always true....Have fun....for the first time....I am using just yardage as I had enough at hand and I am using my stash...already though I am tempted to throw in some variety! I love scrappy quilts....

grr no....so want to....but I told myself I could not start until I got the quilt I have on the longarm done...just doing an all over design, and add the borders to my judy nymier quilt....so want to start....I just may have to break my own rules....so far the blizzard we are supposed to be waiting for hasnt happened....I was planning on being snowed in all weekend!

I am not one for mystery quilts but I sure enjoy lurking on this forum and watching what everyone does and how different the quilts look with the same pattern and so many different colors of fabrics.

Thanks Kalama, it's fantasitic.

Wildyard, you never know if it's all or not. The only way to make certain is to make the usual amount and then see if it takes up everything. I think in the past, she has said if it is all of something. But there is never a guarantee. The perfect thing about scrappies are that you can always add more if you run short. It rarely stands out.

need to finish a few things b4 I start but excited to see

This is always an interesting question (you can certainly ask about it on the Facebook page). I really like the idea of using some fabrics in the color group for one clue and others for another clue, because that should make it easier to avoid repeating fabrics in a block. The difficulty is, we don't know how many clues there will be using each color, and I wouldn't want to leave some fabrics out and then not get a chance to use them. For this clue, I used all of my reds and medium blues because I have fewer of those, but used only the dark blues that I thought looked best with the other two colors, as I have more dark blues.

Last year I used different groups of neutrals for each clue and that worked out well.

I'm really intrigued by these 4-patches. It seems like an unusual color combination and reminds me of berries in a bowl.

I had kind of a shock -- I decided to measure my strip sets along the length and found that my pressing was atrocious. The first batch I measured were all very bowed out in the middle on the red side. Fortunately, I was able to fix them by repressing and using more pressure in the middle of the strip. I had no idea I had this pressing habit. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the second batch, but I was conscious of the issue then, so hopefully I did a better job. I have them all cut and pinned, so hope to finish up today.

Wildyard, the way I took the instructions was that I just cut enough strips to do this step and didn't concern myself overly with how many fabrics I wanted to use. I am cutting my strips in width such that it makes dividing the number of needed units easily and works well with the odd shaped pieces I have... With my collection of fabric it happens with the reds that it meant basically one cut from each piece, if I had full width of yardage I'd use less. In comparison, I barely touched my darks and used maybe half of my mediums in this step. I never reduced my available yardage to the required yardage and expect to use maybe half of what I prepared.

One thing I was aware of from the beginning is that the scale of pieces Bonnie uses means that my hand dyed fabric will mostly read as solid by the time it is cut down -- and that's true with step one. Although I can tell/recognize that 10 different reds were used, it "looks" more like 3 and I'm trying to keep out squares that read as yellow since that is my version of neutral.

I really like how she doubles the cutting. I felt I could get more variety the way I normally do things but as it turns out, it's pretty much meaningless effort since the mottled small pieces turn out so similarly and mostly what you see is some version of superman's cape to black/red. Am considering fully following the directions next time as this time I just increased my effort without results -- I think anyway.

Edit: Joe's Mom, I too am already not very happy with my cutting and piecing. For me these are tiny little widths, I usually don't cut below 2.5", but the reality is that is just an excuse and all we really should be concerned with is the accurate cutting and that darn 1/4", no matter how much or little is on the other side of the seam. Again, it will be a good skill builder for me because my usual style is pretty fast and loose, but you can do that with larger pieces. I am wishing I had my Bernina working (maybe I'll see if it decides to play today, since it decided not to sew correctly randomly maybe it will turn on and work fine!) or maybe I'll set up my trusty vintage machine instead of the cheapo Brother I'm using.

Don't know if I mentioned, but the car repair came in under estimate! Still expensive but I should still have budget for the Bernina servicing. Feels good to have the opportunity to drive myself, but with all the sewing I haven't bothered to do any yet :p

I don't think it really matters as the pieces are small and will be scattered over the whole quilt. When I used to do scrappy, I tended to use three or four fabrics in each step and the overall effect was pleasing.

First clue finished, I can't wait until the 2nd clue :)[ATTACH=CONFIG]620367[/ATTACH]

Beautiful Yarnfabricgirl!
My clue 1 is done!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]620369[/ATTACH]

Beautiful IrishNY. Congratulations jmoore your grandbaby is gorgeous! Amazing quilts KalamaQuilts and Kassaundra.

Clue 1 done but not trimmed yet
[ATTACH=CONFIG]620375[/ATTACH]

Well. I was so busy working on the 4. Patches. That I lost track of time. Yes I was a half hour late for work. But I am almost done.

Bonnie Hunter loves using scraps, which I am trying to remember in cutting for this quilt. I have always used a color throughout the quilt, light, medium and dark fabric and controlling the 'whole' piece. So I cut out pieces for the quilt not sticking to one form or another of color tone fabric. Hope to do some sewing tomorrow and enjoying all the 'eye' candy of those who are well on their way of completing Clue 1.

Quilting Vagabond, I like your fabrics! Sorta looks like in between an older type stash and civil war prints. Right up my alley! So you are changing up the colors a bit?

Beautiful 4-patches Yarnfabricgirl and Tweety!

QVagabond, your fabric does have a wonderful retro look!