JeanieG, I love the selection from your stash for this projects. Others are looking great also. Now that I have to paint samples I can choose some from my stash, maybe. Looking forward to the 29th and getting the first clue.

So much fun and happiness with the fabric selections! Ilovetoquilt, I love that paisley! Feathers, I'm always one for a wild and crazy back -- I have no idea what I'll use for the back of mine yet. Colorado, I'm afraid your aqua and light blue are a bit too close, but I'm facing the same sort of issues as I finalize my fabric selections. Kudos for Texas_Sue posting her first pictures!

I'm up early as I usually am, I have at least two batches of mediums for the vinegar/salt bath today that I didn't get done yesterday. We went to Costco and I got two big jugs of vinegar so I'll be able to continue fixing this bag. I'm using "fixing" as a dying term, fixatives and mordants and things like that, not that I'm fixing the problems left by the dyer but there is some of that involved too.

Hubby is trying to sleep in at the other end of the house but will be getting up for the Michigan/Michigan State game.

ColoradoQ, I'm so glad you will be joining us for the fun. I think reds are the most difficult to photograph, and yours is looking quite orange on my monitor. I'm thinking a red with more purple tones would look better with your greens; or, sticking with this red, would you have any different greens you could try? Bonnie's purple/red and yellow/green are opposite from each other on the color wheel, and I think that's what gives her palette its pop.

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I'm actually looking forward to cutting this year, since I got my Martelli strip ruler, which makes cutting much faster and eliminates the worry of ruler slippage.

Thanks to all for your help. I could tell that my aquas and light blues were too close, I'm glad you agree. I decided to change the blue to purple. I am determined to shop from my stash, I don't know why after 23 years of quilting I don't have more dark blue but I don't. Since I retired last year I have really cut down on the amount of fabric that I purchase and I have used a lot of my stash. I still want to use a lot more before I start shopping again.

I think the purple will look good with the green and aqua. I may use yellow instead of the pink. I can't wait to get started and to see all your beautiful quilts.

Love seeing the fabrics that are being chosen, so exciting. Feather-n-Fur your backing is so perfect. Looking forward to beginning and seeing posts of everyone's progress.

Picks from my stash
 

I've decided that I also needed to use from the stash rather than buy new. Here is what I have so far, but I'm open to any and all suggestions on what to keep or remove. My light blues and aqua's also look pretty close or some of the aqua not light enough compared to the lt. blue. This is always the hardest part for me....getting the values right.

Carol, I think it is only that one medium blue that is too light. Otherwise your values look great, except for the neutrals reading about the same as the aquas. Bonnie said that the darkest neutral should be lighter than the lightest aqua (which makes me wonder if they'll be side by side).

Thank you Lisa - I agree that the neutrals may be too dark and actually since looking at all of them again, it just doesn't seem like anything "Pops". I won't be able to start this mystery until January so I may go back to my original plan and buy yardage rather than going scrappy.

I agree with Lisa but if you are not starting until Jan you have time to let it percolate.

I love your color choices. I especially like the periwinkle blues and that hot pink. Oh and the navy! and the light aqua. Well guess that just about everything! Your choices have wonderful contrasts and clear yummy feel too.

I've been considering tweaking the colors, but your rendition of it has totally inspired me!

Any one else considering a Christmas colored quilt? I just picked up some awesome red fabric with snowflakes on it and thought perhaps that could be the 'fuschia'. Then perhaps greens instead of blues and a gold for her green.

I've also considered substituting a rusty orange for the fuschia. To make a navy, dusty blue, orange, warm green quilt.

I'm hoping to make it to the fabric store tomorrow and see if anything speaks to me! :p

kristijoy I'm looking forward to seeing your color choices. I'll bet it will make a gorgeous Christmas Quilt! What a wonderful idea. I'm such a follower. If someone says blue, I run off and find my blue. Sometimes I don't think I own an original thought, but I sure do like (mostly) the way the quilts come out! I hope everyone gets to have a little quilting time today. Susan in Texas

Apologies if this has been covered.�� I've never done a mystery because I haven't wanted to spend time and fabric when I don't know the outcome but these colors! I've seen people say they're making a throw or a table runner but how do you know how many HSTs or 4 patches or whatever to make? Wait until all the clues are given? TIA

Make 1/2 or 1/4 the number of units. You can make more at the end if needed when you decide on your layout.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]619878[/ATTACH]I think I've got plenty of teals but low on raspberry.

Somewhere, I read that Bonnie suggests making 12 of each unit. That should be enough to make a block or two and then you add the missing pieces later to make the number of blocks you want. I am going to do this.

I need to post a pic of my fabrics. I'll try to do it today.
I was surprised how few in the raspberry family I found. It's a lovely color. I'm using some more in the burgundy/reddish family. I want to make the whole thing from my stash.
As much as I love red I don't use it a lot because I'm always worried about bleeding. That must be why I'm low on those colors.

Well the car is still going to be in the shop for a couple more days and I am going to finish up with these hand-dyed fabrics. Just prewashed the few yellow-pink toned pieces and will be dunking them before I go to my Tuesday small group. Fortunately for me, my group is very close to my house, it's a bit over half a mile on a flat residential street and I'm just bringing a donation quilt for hand binding to work on.

When I get home I'll start on the yellows I need to make, also will be finishing up the parakeet light greens with some yellow highlights and over dyes.

When I was looking at things, I found a technique I never used before -- shaving cream! I'll have hubby take me to the dollar store when he gets home.
https://www.ritdye.com/2019/02/01/marbled-tea-towels/

Love your colors Battle Ax.

Iceblossom, I always wanted to dye fabric, but never had the nerve to try it. I have talked to a lady who displayed her dye work at conventions and was on her mailing list for a long while. Just never had confidence in trying it. Good luck to you on your dye work and I am anxious to see the results.

Iceblossom, I am very impressed with how much time, effort and labor you are putting into your fabrics and will be anxious to see the results too. It will no doubt be beautiful!!

I used the shaving cream method for dying. But I used India ink with it, not Rit dye. :-)

Battle Axe, love that plaid!

I think I will join in on this Bonnie Hunt quilt along. Instead of blue I will use purples, stay with aqua and I'm not sure what I will use for the raspberry (fushia) color. I will post pictures as soon as I pull fabrics.

Oh, that's just an exaggeration! Usually only 4,000 or so! Lol. I also think it's possible that it might be a little less complex than other years as black Friday is so late this year.

You will love it. Keep up as you can, don't make yourself crazy. It's a terrific experience and always a wonderful quilt. Well, except for Grand Illusion. :( My GI is still not done... Maybe 2020 will be the year. I know I changed out some of the colors, which I often do. Hmmm... Where is that thing? Not a PIG, as I don't keep them in grocery bags.

This will be the year of getting a good handle on what is started but not finished (have finished only 1 UFO, but am close to three more). I'm really going to try to make an actual list and work on them, moving them closer to done!

I so enjoy looking at everyone's fabrics and color combinations.

Iceblossom, you are more dedicated to solving the issues with those hand dyed fabrics than I would be. I want to grab and go, lol. At a retreat I went to recently, there was a class on dying using carrageenan. It's thick enough to kind of hold the paint at the top, in whatever pattern was made using a comb, spoon, whatever. I've done paper with shaving cream, back before i realized I was making paper crafts that cost a small fortune and really, just went in the trash a few days after giving them.

Red is one of my favorite colors! I am not a prewasher (see above, grab and go!) and have only ever had one red run. I do sometimes, but not often, check w/ hot water and a white cloth. I have never used color catchers (do they work in front loaders?) The one red I had run didn't actually run in the wash, it ran while at the LA! I think it was sprayed to remove marking lines or some such. Whatever, it came out.

I am anxiously awaiting the 29th!

Here are my color choices. I know I'm going to need more neutrals but I can find more in my stash. I'm thinking the red might be too bright.

I know I have more purples than I would need but I really love the colors together.

Decisions, decisions......I love digging through the stash, but now I have a question. I love that "inspirational" fabric and decided to change my colors just a bit. I would change the aqua to that gold, however Bonnie mentioned that the aqua should be lighter than the lightest blue. Do you think it would work to make the light blue my aqua and the gold my light blue?? Does that make sense?

I like those colors and I think you could swap the gold for the light blue. My other thought is that you could keep the blues as blues and trust that your gold has enough contrast.... just not lighter than.

QueenbarbieJ I think your reds look great with your selections even if brighter than the paint chip. Love those aboriginal turtles! And a fantastic collection of neutrals.

Carol in WI, love your single fabrics, especially with that background/neutral. I would probably declare your light blue the Refresh/aqua figuring it as sky and using the gold as the Skada/lighter blue. Both of those colors are the lowest amounts of yardage, slightly more of the Aqua -- so use your favorite of the two for that.

Today is the day to finish the dying! If I had not been stuck at home without a car there is no way I would have stuck with all this boiling. I will still have approximately 1/2 or so of that bag untreated unless I get some renewed surge of motivation, but on the other hand I have prepared about twice the yardage needed for this project. Still think a log cabin out of them would be nice and would work with the remaining colors. Have enough vinegar to do maybe half of what is left...

Oh, for an update on the water heater, our preferred installation company was able to find a model that will fit in our space, it had to be special ordered but will be installed (finally!) Tuesday before Thanksgiving. City sent us a notice on bright green paper to get our attention asking if we were using more water or was there possibly a leak and what to look for, we explained the situation and they won't send out a crew to inspect the lines. Total cost will be under $3k (we chose the no rush option on the special order), so less than the 3.5 I was figuring with the build out. I know things can be a lot cheaper and easier in other jurisdictions. Here, just to replace a water tank with no changes at all still requires a $60-70 permit -- yes, if you went down to the home improvement store and did it yourself on a basic electric tank it still requires a permit. We could do an electric tank but neither hubby nor I are comfortable around the gas lines. Now you also have to have a city inspection ($25-40??) within 3 months of installation or your warranty is voided, inspection is partly about the earthquake strapping. Permit was still required last time (I think it was only $20) but the inspection part is new.

Car should be ready on Thursday or Friday. I'm keeping myself ignorant of the cost because sometimes ignorance is bliss. I'm just trying to be a good sport about it all will be about two weeks total of no car. After I get the car back I'll see what's left of my repair budget and if I can take the Bernina in for it's servicing and possible repair. Nice thing is I have plenty of vintage machines to choose between as well as the cheapo Brother. The thing I have most against it is it is so light! Moves around all the time but I have some of that stuff you put under a carpet and I'll try that.

Or another thought, what does the back side of the gold fabric look like? It might be light enough but still be a workable color.

"Do you think it would work to make the light blue my aqua and the gold my light blue?? Does that make sense?"

Yes, Carol in WI, it makes sense to me. There are two ways to create contrast by intensity or by color. Gold would be by color. What we don't know is if she intends the light blue to be shadow to the darker blue. As long as you gold would look good with all the other colors, it might work. Love Kassaundra's idea of possible using the back of the gold. Yellow's and golds can really pop and take over.

Iceblossom have you tried the bleach pen? Maybe try drawing a design on your fabrics before dying. It might look more like a batik. It came to me when you said you were bleaching pieces before dying.

I did think about the bleach pen... when I pulled out my subtle batiks they were still too patterned for me with the home dyes. A lot of what I really would like to do is too patterned to go with the other fabrics. but I've picked up some odds and ends at the thrift stores to help sprinkle a bit of color and keep messing with this stuff if I want. Got sponges and squirt bottles and things from the dollar store so have all sorts of possibilities that way too. Back when I was actively playing with dying things, I loved doing work on screens which of course I bought at garage sales or thrift stores. The panels that go over a screen door to protect against critters and kids can be used in all sorts of cool ways. I'm about to start slowly today by taking a piece of my prepared washed/damp white piece of fabric and slicing a raw beet on it, folding the fabric over the top and weighing it down for awhile. I don't know how well it will transfer, so will check in at like 15 minutes. I'm going to try using the peels in little bits on a piece of the parakeet green at the same time as well. It might stain deep, it might not stain at all... but beets require very little effort to turn into dye.

I'm also going to check my penny jar for old pennies to use in once batch of the tie dye, copper is a mordant and can do some funky things, so bind the rubber band around the penny in a large dot/ring outcome. Modern pennies are mostly zinc, but pennies before 1962 are worth more as copper than they are as coins, and between 1962-1982 should still give me enough for a reaction. I think. Again, don't know until I try and it all depends on a lot of factors.

I did get the shaving cream at the dollar store, and my husband who is like the most non-crafty guy there is ever says, oh yeah, like for dying easter eggs? I looked at him stunned and he says that facebook takes him all sorts of places, maybe it was "things you never knew you could do" sort of video.

Qbarbiej, I think your reds look beautiful with your purples. Your aqua is reading as dark as your red (except for the lightest aqua), so I don't know how well they will work in the pattern, as Bonnie said contrast would be important; the aqua is supposed to be the lightest color group (not counting the neutrals, which are lighter yet). And Bonnie's green shows as medium, whereas your green is very dark and might not contrast well with your dark purple, should they meet in the pattern. But I think they do all look great together.

Carol, I think using the gold as the med. blue might be problematic, because Bonnie mentioned that we would be using the dark blues and med. blues in matched pairs. So rather than a same-color, shade difference effect, you would be getting a strong color contrast effect where we use the blues, and that would most likely change the effect of the pattern (which could turn out to be beautiful, we just don't know). I think if you could find a darker blue to be your med. blue, the gold could still work as the aqua.

Stabilized hand dyes at last! Bonnie talks about Refresh/aqua as being the color of April skies, I'm going pretty bright and strong but then again, I'm using those yellows instead of neutral. My Parakeet/green is ending up as the lightest fabric.

Darks and reds are easy. I'm still working with the balance of the medium/Skada color, have two basic ways to go and just have to watch the darks and the aqua along side them. Have plenty of fabric to work with -- and still have half the bag to stabilize but most is not in the colors I'm using here.

Iceblossom how are you getting your colors so vibrant? Are you using rit dye or food coloring?

Iceblossom, your colors are wonderful!