Yay! Clue 6 is done, trimmed and I thought it would never end! Now, clue 7, still a confusing clue for me but I will do what I understand is correct and can hold back what I dont until the reveal. I signed up for instagram per Bonnie's advice. When I was at the quilt store yesterday with my paint chips I had some of the raspberry colored fabric fall into my hands and came home with me. It was a perfect match to the paint chip so had to have it.

Well, I'm way behind on my clues ........ lol ...... nothing new there. I do have clues 1, 2, and 3 done and now working on clue 4. Hmmmmmm ..... I have been trying to attach a picture of my finished clues but there is no way to do that. Oh well ........................

Finished clue 6 and stumbled through one of the clue 7 sets. There sure is a lot of bulk in the center of the pinwheel unit. I guess that always happens with pinwheels though.

after she squeezed clue 6 in mid week I was hoping for a simpler clue this week. Ha!


I had a few funky little monkeys too Iceblossom, I’m determined to just make them fit when the time comes.

I've been thinking all along that one of our nicest color combinations is the dark blue with the med. blue. So while I'm doing clue 7, I will also make some blue/blue HSTs and cut some blue/blue triangle combos. Maybe I will find a way to work them in somewhere.

Yay! I was able to stay on my feet long enough to get all the green strips cut for clue 6, I have about 2/3 of the strips cut into triangles, and about half the triangles paired up with the sets. I even sewed 2 sets of FG units. I haven't trimmed them yet. This step reminded me of something not sewing that I use for piecing that might be a helpful hint to some others.
Because of arthritis and fibro, I can't always do good finger pressing of my seams, so I took an old style, wooden pinching clothespin and took it apart. Tossed the spring. If you look at one half of the wood, at the clipping end, not the squeezing end, there is a rounded piece at the very end. I use this piece for doing my "finger" pressing, It works great and takes very little pressure.
If any of you have hand issues like I do, give this a try and it might be helpful to you, too!

Lol, funky monkeys indeed. I was thinking of mine as goosey geese.... but they both work. LOL

Just finished clue 5 and hope to get caught up soon. Although we just had a death in the family so I don’t know how the week will go.

Clue 6 happened this weekend. Yay!

Still luring while I work on a hand-quilting project that has a dead line. Been saving the clues and will get to it later, maybe February. Enjoying all the conversation as you work your way through the "Frolic".

Hmmm........ I posted yesterday but today it's gone. Not sure why. I didn't say anything that would make it delete-able.
Still getting used to the new format here.
I'm still working on the geese.
I feel a lot better after reading some of the posts, thanks!

I have Clue 7 all cut out and HSTs sewn. Need to iron, trim and put together pinwheels, then I'll be caught up. For now. I'm almost out of raspberry so I hope we're finished with it.

KalamaQuilts: Nice selection of fabrics. I have some of that peach print with the cats somewhere.

All done! I finished clue 7 and the rest of 4 and 6. Goes so much faster when everything’s cut and ready to go. I took everything out and played around with the units. There is not enough neutral yet. But some interesting patterns did emerge. I’m getting more excited!

My guess is that we will have one more clue and then the reveal. And I figured out why the dog ear cutting was so important... I think we are going to use those with the aqua QST to make flying geese and it’s important which side which color goes on and they are easier to make.

I wish I could post a picture but the board won’t let me from my phone.

I agree Sandra-P that Clue 6 seems to take forever...I think I’m too anal or just plain slow but they are coming together one set at a time. I’ll start cutting for Clue 7 and hope to get a few done before Friday’s next clue.

Quiltsrfun, sorry for your family’s loss. I hope you can find some peace in your sewing room from time to time.
Iceblossom, keep us posted on the possible dog adoption. DH and I love dogs but we are just too busy to have one, it certainly wouldn’t be fair to have a dog in our home.

sync, there is supposed to be a paperclip somewhere to facilitate adding photos, but I've yet to see it. I'm still doing it the old way,
If you are quoting someone like this, if you scroll down a bit you'll see "manage attachments" click on that

If you are just making a new reply at the bottom of the thread, click on "go advanced" and then scroll down to "Manage Attachments" you'll get a popup, and you'll need to make it nearly as wide as the page to see the upload button but it works.

edited to add: we have so much neutral left, I'm wondering if we will have some string work to do. which can always be replaced with a single square, but strings are pretty fun. I'm making selvedge string blocks between clues, too cute.

I agree with QuiltingLawyer. I think that we're going to have one more clue & then a reveal. I also think that we've been cutting the parts for blocks all along. If you stop & think about it, her following has been growing over the years & most are beginning quilters or confident beginners, so she has geared her patterns towards that genre. So, the next clue may not have a lot of cutting except for neutral to go along with all those triangles that we've already cut.

For posting pictures, I'm still doing it the old way. I type in Quick Reply and then when I'm ready I go to Advanced. The pictures I take with my camera still go to the Resize Images site first and then are in my downloads. I don't seem to stay logged in very well so I copy my post first so I don't lose it. At the attach photos window, I have to open that up way wide to get the open button visible on the far right side. It defaults in the old vertical form, not the current horizontal.
https://www.reduceimages.com/

But Frolic-wise, today is a new day. I'm feeling better about the pink fabric, the thing is that it is usable pink now and it was not usable before, it was more barely blush pink with freckles or veins or way too yellow or other issues. I should dig out the color catchers from the trash, now those are some vibrant lovely reds...

My blues are in bigger pieces and I'm going to get more out of each one, still a few are in their last usable strips and/or will only make one or two sets. Since the last set with the geese turned out so dark, I'm trying to get more mediums in this batch but I'm concerned about the overall consistency so don't want to go all medium. I'm going with my oversized squares again this round, I've cut my first round of darks/mediums and think I'm pretty close to the total needed, after I'm done with this first cup of coffee (ahhh) I'll turn those into squares.

I think those neutral/red rectangles we made earlier (clue 2?) are going to come back paired with more neutrals.

I did go to the trash and got the color catchers. The sad thing is between each of those color catchers is several boiling or whatever treatments. So the original reds (which did have some pinks) are the furthest out, the Pepto Brigade is that last row especially. The rectangles are the color catchers!

Iceblossom, those colors are beautiful!

I am hoping to finish my clue 6 tomorrow, and do all of clue 7 on my day off Thursday. One more clue and then the reveal would be great for me...I am going on vacation the 19th. Would love to get the top pieced that week.

I have made progress with clue 6 today; all are sewn and a bit more than half pressed and trimmed. The ones I did today were considerably better than the ones I did the other day. I consistently have a problem with the bottom right corner slanting significantly upward. Many of those are going to have a very small seam allowance in that spot. I have the sets of triangle pairs cut for clue 7, and the HSTs all ready to sew.

I'm thinking we might have another clue before Friday, and the reveal on Friday. We know for sure that we'll be using neutrals sometime because Bonnie mentioned it, and we know we have to do something with those sets of aqua triangles. I'm enjoying reading everyone's thoughts on that.

I was disappointed with clue 6 as it’s not my preferred method and I find it tedious. I was going to stop and wait before continuing, but decided to just go with the flow and work through it. I’ve started this morning and I’m halfway done, hope to get all caught up and finished with 7 before the next clue. I agree with others that 7 is a bit confusing so I’m glad I opted for traditional method vs the specialty ruler which I find far more straightforward. I’m really enjoying seeing everyone’s progress and colors, really looking forward to the reveal.

I'm still slowly plugging away at my geese. Clue 7 is cut and ready but I'm not going to try to sew it until I finish the geese. I don't trust my brain to keep it all straight! If I can keep up with the cutting it's no problem to sling pieces through the machine later as I get the time.

I can imagine some cool things happening with the pinwheels I haven't sewn yet and the HSTs. I could see the geese as star points since they are in matched sets of 4s. Maybe the 4 patches and skinny rectangles could be pieced sashes and cornerstones, mostly because I can't imagine what else those skinny rectangle units would go with so far! I have some half baked ideas but I enjoy the surprise of each clue so I don't count units, do math, or think too hard on it. It all works out in the end. This has been a fantastic mystery for keeping people guessing all the way through.

I am still waiting for the green fabric to arrive so I have not done anything with that clue. I did cut and make the pinwheel units and extra unsewn triangles today. I only cut enough for the pinwheels and 4 extra but not enough for the remainder of the 41 sets.
I think I will need to re-read some of the clues. I don’t remember leaving any other units unsewn before. Maybe that was the clue using the green? Hope I have not messed up on sewing when I shouldn’t have.

Everyone has been so industrious! I finished up the Merry Mayhem quilt so am behind on this one. I did half the FG for clue 6, and tonight cut the squares for magic 8 HSTs using the darker blue. Tomorrow I'll sew them and try to finish the rest but using light blue/ red. I'm only making a half-size and I can't imagine how those of you making the full size are managing.
I too think there will be one more clue before the reveal, but knowing Bonnie it will probably come early. She seems to get on the fast track when close to the end. But I've kept up better this year than in years past.

I'm kind of bummed tonight. I really liked my dark blues and reds together in clue 1, so I thought I would like them used together in the clue 7 HSTs. I'm seeing now that an HST is rather useless without contrast. I'm wishing that I had just used the medium blues in this clue; it looks like I'll eventually have to do some of these over, along with re-doing some of clue 6.

I really struggled with clue 6 - put it aside and moved on. I think I'll wait until the reveal and decide whether to start over or figure out how to use what I've done. Working on 7 now and after reading it about ten times should be able to get it right:)

Hang in there folks! For those waiting I don't think you'll have to deal with some of the mystery elements those of us doing it along with the clues so you won't have to do the organizational work.

I'm still working on the current clue but it is going so much better than those geese units.

I've learned a lot working with these hand dyes, which I think also goes along with working with batiks and some issues with large scale prints as well. First is, unless it really doesn't matter, don't fold your fabric when you cut it! I spent so much time in the early stages looking at both sides of each piece trying to determine what was what. By this point, I figure out a right side, stack it if I have multiples and single cut it if I don't. If the piece varies in shades from one side to the other, I put the like sides together and cut sets. If I have to flip a piece over so it fits in better with the others, I do it at this stage. Finally, if there is a problem piece that would end up with one light side and one dark side, I put those on the top. For the fully scrappy combinations it doesn't matter, but for the matching set ones it is better if I slice it the other way, so I get two half-and-half triangles instead of two completely unrelated ones.

If this really was more scrappy and less done in sets, I wouldn't have had to worry so much about those color shifts. As it is, if there is one 2" spot of yellow in the red fabric, when I cut the fabric that yellow is entirely one triangle!

So once you've determined what side is up and cut, leave it on the board as I did in the clue with the geese where I could only do one set at a time without getting confused, or pin them together so you can remember which way is up and don't have to look at them all again! I put top side up as a constant, and the safety pin is a nice little handle for the blues. Getting out these basting pins just for organization as about tripled the speed and ease of actually working with these pieces.

I'm still using my oversized squares with a line drawn down the center to make my HST. For the reds I turned them over and drew my line on two of them down the back. I decided to not cut my non-sewn squares. Last time I stacked them in alternating colors but did not use them that way and it annoyed me to unstack them. Since I don't know yet (but I have a strong suspicion) what we are doing, I'm leaving them whole, and I just took my pencil and made a little tick mark in the dog ear part of the corner so I can easily tell which side is which.

Today at my Tuesday group I'll be putting together the red and blue units and prepare them for sewing. I'll be done with this clue by Friday. Maybe tomorrow even... but I can make it by end of day Thursday.

I'm having trouble with the geese. I don't know why.
I'm using the wing clipper but some aren't coming out right.
Grrrr.....
Iceblossom- I love your hand dyes!!!

I have my fabrics cut for clue 6 but not 7. After I am done with the 2nd Merry Mayhem 2020 quilt I will do clues 6 and 7. They shouldn't take too long. The longest part for me is the trimming.

Thanks for the kind words SusieQOH. Those darn funky little monkeys/loosie goosies! I think most of us need kind words on those.

Most of the disappointment with the pink is having seen them red and glorious and popping with color and contrast. If they had already been in the bag that way, I'd have used them. In Clue 2? the one with the neutral/red rectangles I had some I wasn't happy with because I felt they were too pale but I had made too many and so was going to sort in some of the brighter combinations. Depending on how they are used, I might reconsider that stand and it may be a good thing to have some of the paler pinks in that series.

So here's what I did last night and what I'll be putting together today. Hubby has bowling league on Mondays and sometimes I come along for the ride and the fun and work on something behind the action. The guys are really sweet and come and chat and look at what I'm doing. Last night I was drawing the lines on the reds and I randomized them, lol the pinks aren't even what is bothering me today but again I'm telling myself it's all going to be fine.

So the pinks are grouped together in sets and many of them have 3 or more repetitions, but what I've done is just randomly sorted them out. Since I rarely had more than 3 of any type, I started with three columns and just put the squares there and then stacked them up.

The blues on the other hand, I am keeping in their cut sets and/or putting some of the individuals in with similar pieces. So I know if I have 3 blues in a row, for example, each of those same fabrics will be paired with a different red for maximum variation. Other people (and on other projects) maybe I wouldn't care but I feel I'm having enough repetitions with the groups that I otherwise I want more random. Again, on another project maybe I wouldn't care/want enough. Most of what I complain about is stuff I am doing to myself. I really am a lot more compulsive and uptight but I'm trying to get free-er.

Have to say again that my "Blues" are really Darks and Mediums and have been all along. They are blue, purple, green and everything in-between and combined. Despite the pictures, there are, however no blacks or solids!

What I do isn't exactly the same, but Karla Alexander gives a remarkably good way to deal with fabric combinations in her Stack the Deck series. Highly recommend them. There are the fast crazy quilt template sets now, Karla was one of the people who developed the technique and teaches how to do them without templates.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...tack_the_Deck_

The second picture is a before/after of some of the pieces. What I had left of the red splotchy one was basically white with a few red splotches. Now it's pink with red splotches and was very usable, what's shown is actually two different over-dyes. The darker piece was the original piece which had light background dyed once. The top piece is actually mostly light background and dyed twice, and is the "back" of the piece dyed once, it was almost all white when it started. The golden yellow... well it's more orange with stains but it mixes in.

Iceblossom, those are so beautiful. I think we're all waiting with bated breath to see your quilt.

I felt better about my clue 7 HSTs today after seeing some of the med. blue ones next to the darker ones.

I have a few more sets of geese to trim and a few more sets of HSTs to sew. I found that I prefer the Wing Clipper for trimming geese over the Bloc-Loc; that is partly because we've pressed that first wing so the Bloc-Loc doesn't catch. The other problem with the Bloc-Loc for me is that I put gripper strips on the bottoms of every ruler. You can't do that with the Bloc-Loc, and so I was having trouble holding it in place.

Iceblossom, your fabrics are beautiful, definitely worth the effort of dyeing them.

Queenbarbiej, it sounds like you enjoyed the Merry Mayhem pattern as much as I did. I haven’t started a second quilt yet, but have started to pull fabrics for a larger one. I’ll get through the Frolic quilt first...well maybe...

I have only gotten half of Clue 6 pieced and trimmed and just started cutting for Clue 7 (sigh)

I have finished piecing clue six, and am starting to trim down the flying geese and am running into problems. I have never made flying geese before, and the first few I pressed open and checked for size were correct. Now that I am trimming them, the blocks are all just slightly oversized...probably from me trying too hard to press the blocks flat and distorting them with the iron.

My problem is that I am using that folded corner ruler Bonnie recommended to trim them down, because it is my only ruler with a 45 degree angle on the quarter inch line. When I lay the block flat under the middle of the ruler to check the overall size, the initial quarter inch seam above the point reads as oversized, and needs a sliver trimmed off. When I flip the ruler around to the edge where the 45 degree angle is, that first seam to square off is too short to even reach the edge of the ruler. (It's not on every ruler I checked...distance from the point to edge of fabric is about 3/16 of an inch). On the few that did not read as too short, once I made the first cut on the point side, I kept getting the same results with every other side. I figure this is part of making flying geese with all of the bias edges involved, but I do need to trim these down. Do I press them again and weigh them down while they cool so they're as flat as I can make them when I trim? Will a specialty ruler make this easier?

I trimmed down four sets before I realized what inconsistent results I'm getting and stopped. I don't want to accidentally trim them too short and have to start over...I don't have that much fabric left! Advice please? And thank you in advance!

Origami- I'm having a hard time with the geese. I'm using the Wings clipper but I didn't make them the way you do with that ruler.
I'm going crazy with them. Some are fine, others not.
I may just make some the other way and hope they come out okay.
Sorry I don't really have any advice.

Origami, I don't think you need a 45 degree angle for trimming geese. A small, square ruler with clear markings is good for trimming any type of small unit. Normally what I do when trimming is find the point on the ruler that represents half the measurement of the unit. I then place this mark on the halfway point of the unit (in this case you could use the point of the triangle as the center of the unit). I trim whatever is hanging over, then flip the unit and do the same for the other side. I then flip again and check the width.

The Wing Clipper ruler by Deb Tucker makes it so easy to trim flying geese! If you're up for buying something to trim the geese, I'd recommend the Wing Clipper!

SusieQ, sorry you are having trouble with the geese! My early geese were awful but the later ones were much better, after I moved my fabric a little way from my seam guide.

Origami, also try marking your ruler with some tape. I have the 1/4" seam line masking tape but blue tape can work too. I wish I could show the rulers I've adapted for this project but it gives away size into and things I shouldn't say.

Earlier in this thread though showed a ruler I used on a different project and the diagonal tape line I placed so I could trim 7.5" QST blocks. Same concept but smaller sizes here.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/8343280-post685.html

So there I am, zooming along with this step, keeping my pieces organized but doing 10 sets at a time instead of just one. Life is good, but I'm watching my top spool, it's getting low and sometimes there are crossed threads or other problems. I glance up and see it's still awfully full from the last time I looked and darn it! I've just finished sewing my last 4-5 sets with no bobbin thread and now they are mixed up. Fortunately, the non-sewn squares were clipped together in the sewing order and so it wasn't too bad to get back on track. The safety pins are working well, I'm keeping the unsewn fabrics together with them, but I'm keeping the combos together with clothes pin, less invasive to the fabric.

True Story: Today I'm wearing my "It's all fun and games until the bobbin runs out" t-shirt. Coincidence or tempting fate??

Goal for today is to finish sewing the pieces that get sewn. I'm more likely to trim the HST tomorrow but it would be nice to get them done today. Still, I can trim and assemble my pinwheels tomorrow and be back on track. It's doable.

Sorry, but laughing till the tears squirt.

I just finished cleaning up my selvages box, 57 of those little cute blocks, ready to be paired up with something down the road. A good clean up! Paper piecing uses up bobbin thread way faster than standard piecing... I ran out a bunch of times

Last night I ran out of bobbin thread with a half inch left to sew on my fly geese.

Sorry Iceblossom. I feel the frustration. I sewed 41 pinwheel blocks for clue 7, then flipped the page of instructions and realized I was having way too much fun sewing along. Had to rip out 16 of them. Now life is back to normal in my quilt world.