I'm in awe of how all of you are keeping up. I'm not only behind, but realised that I pressed my seams the normal way, so they are not in the direction Bonnie wants. I guess that means I'll have trouble nesting them or have bulky seams. But I'm not re-doing them.
Part of the reason I'm behind is on Monday I picked up a dog from the animal shelter. I had not planned on getting another dog but this one tore at my heartstrings. Since I live in an apartment, I have to go with her anytime she needs to go out. I hadn't realised how time consuming that would be since I've lived in houses with yards for the dogs in the past and could just let the dog out. But hopefully I'll be able to give her a good home.

I am almost caught up...just have to make all my pinwheels for clue 7 tomorrow. I bought a flying geese ruler as a birthday gift to myself...and it arrives on my birthday! I was too afraid of running out of fabric to continue the way I was.

LOL, Belfry. We didn't do three other mystery quilts on New Year's Day.

Congratulations on your new dog! I hope she settles in well.

It looks like I will have enough sufficient contrast HSTs to make pinwheels. I'll decide if I need to remake the low contrast HSTs once we find out what we're doing with them. I am just about done pressing them, so it looks like tomorrow will be pinwheel day for me.

It's an adjustment, Belfrybat, but you will be glad to for your kindness. I still haven't heard anything further from either the two dogs people or the rescue I wrote to last week. My remaining dog is used to being part of a bonded pair, he is so needy right now it's driving me crazy. He'll be better as part of a pack no matter where he ends up fitting in the order.

I did indeed get all my sewn units for this clue sewn and pressed. I is indeed doubtful that I will do anything further with them today. So tomorrow's goal is to trim all, and turn the portion into pinwheels.

Disclaimer before next section: I took a lot of statistics in college. I worked a lot of years with engineers. I play games based on things like random number tables and while for whatever reason Sudoku doesn't appeal to me, other games with numbers and such things do. I've struggled with randomness in my scrap quilting for years and I've found mathematical ways for me to achieve that. The problem with randomness is that true randomness does often result in ugly. Yes it does! As quilters we want attractive randomness which is really more about balance and advanced forms of symmetry. But we just can't prevent some of the things we don't want to happen from happening.

When I combined this step, I randomized the reds before combinding them with the blues/darks & mediums in their cutting groups. I sewed them in groups of 10-ish but as I pressed the HST I started sorted them into 4 piles. I don't think I had any groups of more than 3 of the same fabric, possible there were 4, some were just very similar. Most repeats were groups of 3 so having 4 stacks would spread them apart. Every now and then I'll take a stack and randomly divide it in half, or put in some blocks on the bottom of some stacks and on the top of others. Then end result is that the different fabrics are pretty well randomized at this point.

Part of me really wants to pick which sets I use for pinwheels, but that's the part I'm trying to tell to loosen up, so I am just going with the first sets in a row to make my pinwheels and hope for the best! I've done really well so far in letting what fabrics come up next to each other stay next to each other, even when less than ideal. I'm glad some of you are looking forward to my top with excitement and anticipation -- I have more concerns and apprehension. I keep telling myself (because it is true) that it is all going to be ok.

If someone told me I had to make an entire quilt out of flying geese I think I'd blow my brains out!!! haha
Almost finished but I'm not enjoying this part at all. Yuck.
Yesterday and today I listened to a performance of Hamlet to get me through a large portion of them. It
saved me!

Kalamaquilts and Iceblossom, thanks for trying to help with attaching pictures here. I think it might just be the tablet I'm using for accessing the forums. I can find a paperclip but nothing happens when I click on it and unfortunately I don't see a manage attachments. So it is probably my Kindle tablet. I'll try my laptop that my hubby just rebuilt with a new OS.

Belfry, congratulations on the new addition to your household...I’m sure she will be a loyal companion and is lucky to have a good home.

I’ve got all my cutting for Clue 7 under control but will fall behind with piecing, especially on this next clue. I am dropping my favorite machine off today for its annual service on our way to Boston and unfortunately, the dealer is 2 hours away...in the midst of a BH mystery. DH will pick her up for me the following weekend so I will have to check my scant quarter inch on one of my Janomes.

My green fabric hasn’t arrived yet so I am still waiting to get Clue #6 done. Tomorrow we shall see what the clue brings. Hopefully more neutrals. I think there will be a lot of piecing at the reveal. Not whining mind you. LOL

there is a new thread for those who use mobile divices, look there!
https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...d-t308920.html

I am caught up on reading Bonnie Hunter clues 1-7 and looking forward to more. I have finished all 3 boxes of kits up through clue 3 now. I love flying geese, and made a whole quilt with them. Yes, I have my Bloc Loc for them and that helps. Also have a bloc loc for the HST that I have used. Did a bit with BH essential ruler and loved it. Unsure about posting pictures, so I will continue to enjoy what you all have posted here. I do enjoy all the helpful hints and conversations that give me good advice about the clue. It keeps me going with the time I have to sew. Another Physical Therapy session today, and my knees are starting to feel better; but they say it takes eight weeks for the muscles to extend and grow stronger. So I am halfway there. Going through a leading store's light section first time on a handicap cart was a bit scary. Luckly nothing was broken on my runs around the section.(Lights or me!)

Taking a coffee break, about halfway done with trimming the sets. Then it will be make the pinwheels and then that's it for sewing today.

For the afternoon, I'm going to make my first batch of vegan tamales today. Dear son and DDiL are full vegans, so no dairy and they are also no honey. As a former vegetarian, I was not against honey but there are many issues involved and it is their decision not mine.

For years I've been saying "this is the year I learn to make tamales" and there was a recipe posted here by a new member on tamales that uses broth and vegetable oil, no lard or crisco and I have both ingredients on hand. I did have to buy the masa and corn husks, but that's at my regular market less than 5 miles round trip. So first I tried it with turkey stock and turkey from Thanksgiving with verde sauce. It came out pretty darn good, I still have to work at the cooking time but they were entirely edible!

Yesterday I made a spicy mushroom mixture, just sauteed chopped fresh mushrooms, a strong onion, and some red chili paste with olive oil. Before I put it in the tamales I'll add a bit of fresh cilantro, I'll make about half that way those as traditional tamales. The other half I'm just going to throw in a can of corn niblets into the masa and make it as more of a cornbread side dish, still wrapped as tamales. One of the places I go to offers a dulce variety with raisins mixed into the masa like that, I only wish that some day I will achieve their perfect texture. Only way is to practice.

Next try will be "Toddmales" for my hubby who always wants more filling in his tamales. I'll be trying Banana Leaves instead of the corn husks so more like the Guatemalan version. Yes, I even have banana leaves at my local market, the specialty Asian market across the way from there, and at least 3 other places I know of within 5 miles of home. I'm envisioning something more like the stuffed sticky rice packages we have out here, Square patties with a layer of filling and then another patty on top.

Hope you all have a great day. For those that need a prod for progress -- get to it, you! For those of you that need a break -- oh poor dear, this might a good time to just sit down with a cup of something nice and a good book (tv show, music, etc). Remember we are supposed to be having fun. And it's all going to be fine, fine, fine. Whatever our concerns, it's going to be fine!

Iceblossom- I needed your last paragraph!!!<3
Getting to the end of the geese. I have a lot of clue 7 done but not the pinwheels.

Almost done now, but this is how I put together my pinwheel units. I start with one pinwheel, and if I got that one wrong they are all going to be wrong so hopefully I got it right! So I lay that one out and then fold it down to prepare for sewing. Yes, I press open and I use a lot pins, it works for me. Again, most of the stuff I complain about I do to myself!

So then I set up a second one and check it and hope for the best. Then I stack a few blocks on top, and turn them over as I turn them into sets. I'm finding I'm happiest somewhere around 4-6 sets at a time, easy to keep track of. Before I leave the cutting station I clamp the groups together. You can't see it but my bucket-o-clamps is just to the left of the picture (and the blocks to be worked on are to the right).

Usually I buy pads of graph paper but this had holes so it got shoved into a notebook and is my quilting notebook for now. My notes I write on to myself for this are in there, along with other projects. It works pretty good for a chronological order too. But right now, it is very refreshing to me to see bright white, so many of these fabrics have been really hard on me with Olfa green.

You can see in that top pinwheel how I have two pieces that go more together and two that are better with themselves, yet they were all cut from the same piece and how some of my pre-re-dyed pinks were causing problems turning into yellow. I did switch around two pieces so the like ones were on the diagonals. The fussy me then wanted to move that yellow one up to the top corner but I mentally slapped myself and told me to let it be.

Edit: Note that I pin below my seam line, below my foot line even. It will hold things in place fine from down there. My old vintage machine went over pins with ease and panache, but it's best if you don't and I wouldn't drive over pins with an expensive machine.

Edit 2: I left my oversized squares for the next step whole because of my issues with the two sides. It's just going to be easier for me to move them around and attach them as squares instead of triangles.

Another process picture before I'm done -- just as a help for people who haven't started their pinwheels yet.

If you stack and attack the pinwheels construction as I did and then sew them as the top/bottom sets, then when you have chain sewn them, they will be ready to stick together in their left/right sides. So the top of the picture shows one of the pinned sets from the previous sets. Then is the sewn set, notice that I kept the chain stitching between them. Then you just fold them from that stitching, pin and sew the next seam.

It does take a little stacking and sorting and working with the concept to get it right. For me, the less times I move the fabric the less time I have to confuse myself. As we've found in this thread, I get confused a lot!

I can't wait to see your finished quilt, Iceblossom! The colors are so pretty!

I am cutting triangle sets for step 7 today...definitely going to be short on the raspberry. By 6 sets, i think. I have plenty of raspberry/pinks left, but they are not quite wide enough or they are not long enough to make a full set of 8.

I am trying to remember if I have something in my tiny tiny stash that is close enough to use, because all I need to complete it is one more fat quarter, but I think all of the pinks I have are totally the wrong shades to go with what I have. And I would rather not introduce a new print this late in the game that I did not use in the earlier clues. I may try to find an extra bit of dark blue too, because I am almost completely out of those as well. A lot of these pinwheel units are actually pieced together from blue scraps from earlier sets.

The fun part is going to be trying to find matching fabric...I bought this as a curated bundle, and a quick check shows me the shop I bought it from removed the listing, and has none of the pinks or dark blues left in their fabric listings. Neutrals and a couple of the lights, but not what I need to purchase. Most of my favorite fabrics in the bundle I got the selvedge edge without the label on it too, so off to google I go!

I spent my time today arranging units on my wall instead of constructing my pinwheels, silly me. I'll try to finish up the clue tonight.

Clue 7 complete! Scrappy vs Random: to me, scrappy means using many fabrics but often chosen carefully to achieve the desired result. Whereas random means anything goes - even if it is the same fabric next to itself.

My journey with Bonnie Hunter's quilts has taught me that I can go really scrappy (lots of fabrics) but at the same time be fairly controlled. My pinwheels have good contrast, which is always my goal, but used between 7 and 10 blues and the same number of reds. Can't wait for the next clue. I would love it if Bonnie would do the reveal in more than 1 clue!

I ordered a half yard of my favorite of the raspberry fabrics to finish my clue 7 with. Unfortunately it won't be here until late next week, but as long as clue 8 doesn't use raspberries I will carry on. If it does use raspberries I will start checking size and trimming up previous clues. My HSTs are pretty good, but I put the flying geese aside to trim up a few at a time.

I am using fat quarters for this project, and some of them have the same print across different colors. I have repeats across greens, blues, aquas, etc. I've been pretty careful to keep from repeating color combinations in my sets, but I might have to repeat a couple for the pinwheels. Overall I am aiming for a controlled scrappy effect.

I wonder if we will get a reveal this week? I still have a ton of neutrals to use up, a handful of scraps in blue and pink, one last strip of aqua, and quite a bit of green left.

I doubt I will ever randomly place a piece of fabric in a quilt. I don't really understand the reasoning behind random placement.

Wondering if there will be a reveal, if we will use more greens, what we will do with the aqua QST piece, and how we will use our neutrals.

There's at least one darling block lurking in our pieces, but I thought it was probably too ordinary to be a Bonnie block, plus I could see no reason for the particular orientation of the pinwheel being necessary, which Bonnie said was very important. I suppose that dog ear is a vital clue!

I'm hoping it will be another early morning posting.

Please be gentle with yourself Suzie Q. Here is the quilt I made for my son for Christmas this year. "String Theory" is the name and it is all geese. By the end I never even counted how many. Not a fun adventure but I learned a lot along the way. One of my quilting friends let me use her Accuquilt to cut the triangles. It made a big difference and was very accurate. This was a labor of love that will not be repeated. (From my mouth to God's ears!)

WMUTeach- that quilt is absolutely stunning!
I have most of the geese done finally!
Sorry everyone, for the terrible expression I used to illustrate
my frustration. I meant it in a humorous way but
it's really not a good expression.

WMUTeach, That's a fabulous quilt! The colors are so pretty, and the black background really sets them off.
I like using the 8 at a time flying geese method, but I would prefer more variety in the fabrics. This is my 5th Bonnie mystery, and I finally feel happy with how my units are ending up using Bonnie's technique. I finished clue #6 and have cut about half of the pieces for #7. I'm using a solid for my green. I sure hope it gets used in another clue, although this one seemed to eat up most of the amount I had.

Leslie

WMUTeach...such a beautiful quilt!
Kirsten

QuiltingVagabond, sounds like you have kept up nicely with this year’s mystery and I look forward to seeing your scrappy Frolic. Origamigoldfish, I am hoping that after clue 7 we are pretty much done with the raspberry/framboise fabric because I am also running low...I still have plenty of green, aqua and of course neutrals.
I am away from home for a couple of days but will be standing by (via my iPad) for this week’s Clue 8.

clue 8 is up https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2020...rt-8.html#more
I got up at 4 AM because I forgot I'm still on Jury Duty and forgot to call in last night...not called today it turns out but I was awake by then!

Thanks for the link, KalamaQ!

And still no neutrals!

I notice Bonnie did request no guess layouts be posted, as they can confuse people. So it looks like that was a new rule and that's why we haven't seen any this year.

It will be fun putting the sets together; that can help propel us through the geese -- not so many this time!

I like that there's no cutting this week!

Whoopiee! Here we go with clue 8. I did get the pinwheels done yesterday but I waited to do the qsts and the rest until I see what we are doing and those will cut pretty quick. I love that she has said no layouts! That makes this a true mystery! Thank you to our moderator, I think it is Quilt Nan that she has been watching this.

More organization this week and it turns out I would have been fine had I sliced my triangles stacked this time. It's ok though because it was much easier for me dealing with them as squares. I thought they'd be combined with the Parakeet, but thought they'd be in matched pairs.

I'm going to stop and think a moment for my organizational efforts before I get started moving fabric around. But this is a doable clue and we are getting closer and closer.

Is so exciting!

Organization wasn't too much of an effort. I was afraid this was going to be 4 seams at a time again for me, but I'm managing with 3-4 sets at a time.

I put the first 10 or so sets together just as they came up in their boxes/shuffled order. Then I got worried and decided to match up the remainders to make sure I do have maximum fabric variation plus sufficient contrast -- forgot that the pinwheels is only part of the last Clue and was worried for a minute or two when I found I had so many "extras". Only 2 had to get switched because of color or contrast issues, but truly some of these combinations are less than ideal (that translate to pretty awful!).

Once again, I repeat the mantra that it will all be fine fine fine, and at least this is a pretty easy clue.

Well now I'm thinking there is going to have to be another clue before the review. We have way to many neutrals left,,, and you know Bonnie never does sashings on these. Someone, somewhere pointed out that the number of sets lends itself to being on point for the final layout. Maybe the setting triangles will be neutrals. So curious.....

Oh, I'm pretty sure we are getting one more clue that involves neutrals and that I know what it is... I think there is enough for that plus another step I'm pretty sure on. I'll just say -- Sashing, I don't think so. Borders I think yes.

I'm not posting any photos this round because the way I would position them is part of the layout I think she doesn't want shown yet.

But the good news is I'm getting my red triangles in the right places and I'm almost done already. Going back to double check the clue, so far as I'm thinking now I only have the pinwheel sets to go through.

She did have one that had pieced sashing that inter connected w/ her blocks, and I think Ringo Lake had those funky angled sashing people were having fits with (I didn't layout my Ringo Lake her way so am not 100% sure, but the other one I know had a pieced sashing)

I can't remember the name right now but this is the one I was talking about that had sashing. My colors are different

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net...29&oe=5EA2C612

I finished up my clue 6 geese by using the 4 method and the Tucker trimmer. I wish I had started with it because they came out really nice.
I did a lot of complaining for nothing!!!!

That's your glow-y En Provence, Kassaundra. I love it!

I think sashing and/or the interaction of blocks is Bonnie's forte.

I just had great fun making up my combos. And there have been some progress photos on quilts with constants/solids on Quiltville and they are looking wonderful, as well.

Now I have to try and quell the excitement and finish up my pinwheels.

While reading this thread, we had a thunderstorm, rain and “freezing rain”. It is the start of our winter storm this weekend. I question the freezing rain, b/c our surfaces are all warm. We broke a high temp 65F for January 9th, 2020. And today we go to winter weather. I guess our lovely warm winter weather is over for a while. Goodby 65F. I will miss you for a few months.

Well I’m not having much progress on my mystery steps. Other projects and life is getting in the way. I’m debating if I should follow her directions on cutting the flying geese or do the technique where I complete 4 at a time (my favorite technique and use my flying geese ruler to square them. I’m leaning towards this way. It way faster and easier than her confused method. (Sorry Bonnie). I have steps #1, 2, 3, Sewn, still needs squared. Step 5 is cut, just need to mark and sew. Then I will start on the step with the flying geese next and tackle the other 2 confusing steps (at least I think they are confusing). I just hope she does not do a step each day for the last week. That we actually have a full week before her reveal (so I can catch -up). Keeping my fingers crossed.

IB, I enjoy all of your comments and help. I think your dyes are beautiful. I’m really looking forward to your reveal. I’m enjoying everyone’s comments. And few pics I have seen so far. I do miss all of the possibilities we used to post and everybody’s progress in pics. That used to be one of my favor parts of this mystery. (I do understand why we can’t this year). Oh well, back to binding 2 black batik scrappy quilts. Pic hopefully will be posted in the UFO thread when I finish them soon. First I need to figure out how to post in this new quilting board layout.

Enjoy our mystery trip (and sewing etc.).

I remember that one.... I always think of sashings as one piece and when it's a pieced sashing, in my mind it's a part of the block. Does that make sense? She does do the pieced lashings to give more depth for sure. I was thinking more along the lines of plain sashings.

With the new board format there is an option to do Spoilers. Would it be allowed for those who want to make guesses to post pictures that way? I know that there are bunches of pictures of people trying different layouts on Instagram but mostly I like to see all of your colors and ideas here in one spot. Then people who don't want to see wouldn't have to.

Thoughts?

Darn it! I went back and read the clue again. Ok, so instead of being done I'm done with my first pass. Thought that was a little too fast and easy.

It's ok, with my issues it's easier for me to keep repeating steps than trying to combine one and done handling. I've gotten confused enough in this step, but I am proud that I caught my last bobbin running out within 3 pieces. And of course, there was only like half an inch of actual stitching on the first one. Having everything consistently right side up and pinned so I can tell has been marvelous.

But I am not tempting fate by wearing any of my quilter shirts. Instead I'm in one of my flowing hippy dippy weather chickie outfits. I shall do my best to not sew it into my project but that sort of thing has happened before...

I’m so glad I’m still working on clue 6, I have a handful left to finish, and have not even started 7. At least I have some wiggle room for oversized and then trim down, I too am using the Wing Clipper for my units and I m happy with the results. I hope to get all caught up this up this weekend since my desk is clean and year end is done!