earthquake here

Hold on Sun! Hope all is well.

I'll be glad when Bonnie opens the link thing on Monday. It will be interesting to see how many are making her quilt without changes.
I haven't done any more on mine. Still thinking about it.

Just checked on the earthquake. 4.5 Was it scary? I can't imagine having that going on so often.
I have done several of the mq's here on the board. I've never seen anyone complain about the pattern. This is my first BH mq. I can't believe how many people are complaining on facebook. I hope Bonnie doesn't see all that.

I'm thinking about changing out my diagonal blocks with white on white. I did for one block and it shows up so much better. Wish I could post a picture here but it's not accepting my i-Pad pics today.

I finished the top today. I am not going to put the pieced border on since I think it is too busy for me already. I thought I allowed for the busyness of Bonnie's quilts by using single fabrics for the black, white, yellow and blue (substitute for green). The only scrappy colors are pink and aqua. It is still way busier than my usual style. I'm planning to bind it as is in yellow.

I did the pattern as Bonnie designed. I knew going into this experience that I was not going to be comfortable - I don't like scrappy or patterns with a zillion little pieces, but I thought it was a good opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone. Changing the pattern seems counterproductive to that goal. I have a niece expected in the spring - this will be her quilt.

Bonnie has a more blended look in her sashing block area than many people are getting. Her greens are lighter, her neutrals are varied and her aqua is warm and light. Warm blue is close to green on the color wheel, and warm green is close to yellow, and to me, it all blends and shimmers and is not stressful to look at. I think this area is the resting place in her quilt, but in many of the others, that isn't translating and so people are left without a resting place. I don't know if that will work in mine; I'll have to wait and see.

I hope all is well, Sunliten.

Got the first row done...I will make 3x3 with my own added borders. I used the black for the corner squares & it toned it down alot. I used the inspiration fabric for the quilt in the center & it will also be the outer border. I will used the black as inner border so the eye can stop. I will use leftovers top & bottom for an extra row each to make it longer. Luckily I used a lighter shade of green. The 2nd pic is the square & shows the fabrics alittle better. The last pic is the actual inspiration fabric. I think doing it this way will be more pleasing to my eye. I will work more slowly on it now, though, cuz I have several baby quilts I need to get made before mid-Feb. I will keep watch on the thread in the meantime to see everyone's finishes & post my finish when done; though it may be a few months till that's done...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]504634[/ATTACH]
Here's my progress on assembling my blocks today. I'm planning to make two quilts - one with 16 blocks and the other with 9. This is the beginning of the larger one.

I hope she does read all the comments as an opportunity for increasing awareness thru constructive critiques. I think the color choices for an intricate quilt pattern led to high distractions and difficulty to look at the quilt without experiencing vertigo. I loved the pattern in some of the alternative choices; however, with the original color pallets it was a Mackinac miss.

I like it, IrishNY. I think the purple and black work really well together to frame the other part of the blocks. I went non-scrappy for black, white & yellow. Hoping that's enough to keep it calm. One day I'll get my design wall cleared off so I can play with mine.

Looking at the closeup on the last pic, notice I lost a point. Will not frog...I can live with it!:)

Looking good! You used the lighter greens, too; I think that shows off the pattern better.

Also, I'm soooooo glad I stuck to single colors...normally I love scrappies.

colorfulom, I think that's working beautifully. I hope mine looks as nice! But I have some darker greens and may end up with a darker yellow, so I don't know. I think I may make a few extra clue #3 blocks with only my milder greens, so that my more intense greens are fewer and farther between.

Your colors are great...show off the pattern really well...this is showing Bonnie's mystery as it should be...Great work!:thumbup:

I like your interpretation Jeanie. I think the plainer whites really calm it down too.

I kept trying different things then finally decided just to go with the Bonnie's plan and have started sewing it together! I want to be finished in time to jump on Judy's mystery train.

The ones being shown look great.

Jeanie, I think yours is an excellent solution for those who can't tolerate the pattern as is. To me, all the other 'fixes' look like fixes (I'm not including char's in that group, as to me that is a totally different quilt and doesn't look to me like an attempt to fix a problem). Your version looks to me like a version. Grand Hotel on a gently breezy rather than on a really windy day.

Again, just want to say how sorry I am for the disappointment many are feeling.

I am halfway finished with clue #2!

hi there, with reference to your question about negative opinions on the reveal, I decided to do this years mystery because I really liked the look of some of the previous results, especially last year's quilt. I suspect that this one is just a bit too far out of some people's comfort zone lol. For instance, I can't even look at an ordinary pineapple quilt because it sets off my motion sickness lol.

Your block layout is very similar to the one I went with.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]504662[/ATTACH]

I went with green cornerstones in the green/neutral sashing. I did toy with the idea of further sashing all the blocks with either black or red, but it turns out I don't have enough of those fabrics left anyway.

Not sure yet what I'll do with my outer border units - I don't have half enough made yet.....

Cheers, K

Thanks for the good thoughts... it was two little (3.0 & 4.5) quakes, but close together like that and very close to my DD's home.....21 years ago there was a large one here. Anyway, did the "California" thing and went to sleep with my shoes next to the bed !!! just in case.

This morning I am making additional border blocks and will sew on the narrow inside border and hopefully the pieced border......I am excited about the backing I found (on sale for $4.50 a yard...and it is a Ro Gregg for Northcott) that I will piece with a length of the black and white check (like the flooring) also have a bit of green jungle leaf print like that wallpaper....but decided it stays in the stash ! With all the information about the island, thinking it would be fun to go there someday and see Lake Superior not just fly over it.

Looks great! I just had an AHA moment - I'm doing 3x4 and know the border won't fit perfectly and was wondering how to use my math to get it to work. I figured I'd have to adjust the width of the yellow border but never thought about piecing the inside and the outside FIRST and THEN measuring for the border. Thanks for laying yours out this way! It helps TONS!

Vicki I love what everyone has done. I haven't started yet but I have saved all the clues and will save the#8 ones as well. And do them when I can

i was trying to figure out the layout for my daughters full sized bed and was thinking 3x4 or 4x5. Do you have the measurement of the 3x5 layout without the borders? Floating the inner border confuses me too. I have a Craftsy class on borders and there is a formula but I think until I actually do it (like on a sample) I won't quite get it.

No sewing for me yet this weekend. I donated blood and put away all our Christmas things. Very very busy.

I think the less scrappy the better when I'm looking at completed blocks/ quilt tops. I think some of mine are too scrappy. Some of my week 3 blocks are going to go on the back of the quilt for an accent. There was just not enough contrast.

If you plan to use the borders Bonnie designed, each side of your quilt needs to end up a multiple of 8 inches, including the inner border. That's because the repeat of the border design is 8 inches (one each of the two slightly different broken dishes units).

Each of the main quilt blocks finishes at 12 inches, and the green sashing strips finish at 3 inches. So if you have 3 blocks wide, that's 3x12=36 for the blocks, plus 4x3=12 for the sashing, so 48 inches before adding an inner border. The next multiple of 8 is 56 inches. So you'd need 8 inches of additional width in this case, so 4 inches of inner border on each side.

If you have 4 blocks wide, that's 4x12=48 for the blocks, plus 5x3=15 for the sashing, for a total of 63 inches. You could either add one more inch to get 64 inches, meaning a 1/2 inch finished border, or you'd need to add 9 inches, by using a 4 1/2 inch finished border.

If I were making a 3x4 block quilt, I think I'd add a 4 inch finished border down the long sides, and 4 1/2 inch on the short sides. Then the outer border should work out all around, and the slight difference in inner border width won't be very noticeable at all.

mine is 2 blocks x 3 blocks..............so I am going to keep the inner border at 1 1/2 inches and make the adjustment with a yellow or possibly black 'keystone' in the center of each border strip.....or maybe green....hummm...will audition the colors first.....or a second inner border.....hummmm thinking....

or I could use some of the black and white checkerboard fabric for the inner border if it is printed on grain, actually have it in two different sizes of check......or not...have to consult the 'buzy' meter. :wave:

I followed Bonnie's design completely and am having a great time putting it together. One thing I've noticed over and over is that when the greyish green is substituted for the grass green I find the colors blend better and are more pleasing to my eye. As some have said on FB, the Grand Hotel is literally a riot of color and BH definitely achieved that with her quilt.

If anything, I think she will see that this particular pattern would have been better if it was less scrappy. I'm still not sure why she chose yellow as the only constant, when I can see that the white, pink and green would all have been better choices as constants while the yellow, aqua and black could have remained scrappy without losing the secondary pattern. Some of the quilts (I suspect mine will be one of them) that have a lot of variation in the greens and the neutrals will camouflage the secondary pattern.

Thanks all for answering my questions about some of her past "busy" quilts - particularly Celtic Solstice and Orca Bay. Both of them had lots of colors and are really busy.

Bonnie sure is a genius at putting wonderful patterns together and getting a great secondary pattern.

Yes. I'm using my white tone-on-tone as cornerstones which also is the constant in my quilt. I'm also using pink in the center of my blocks. Mine may end up being 1/4 sized. We'll see. . .


Jane

This is what mine looks like. I have about 10 blocks completed and when I put the sashing next to the blocks - the seams do not match up. Looks like they are sewn on just matching the top yellow and bottom yellow of the blocks? Is that what everyone else is doing?

Color & Irish ... they both look great!

I'm loving looking at everyone's quilts. I'm behind (way back at clue #4) but now that the holidays are over, am anxious to get back into it.

I believe Bonnie said the seams do not match. On my sashing, only the center black squares match any seams.

Oh how I admire yall who chose well and these colors blend. I chose a mustard yellow color and it came out quite garish. It just proves that your favorite colors don't always play well together. I did solve my puzzle as to how to proceed. I am taking out all the yellow and replacing it with pink 4 square centers and aqua outside corners. The aqua also will form a star. As you can see below. It works. I am not using the green/white sashing. That will be another quilt in the future. [ATTACH=CONFIG]504687[/ATTACH]

Here's four new blocks together. [ATTACH=CONFIG]504695[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]504695[/ATTACH]

Love the 3D look of the secondary square

Well, I think my rendition of the Machinac quilt (based on the "scrappiness" despite none of the fabric choices were scraps). There is one thing I'm not sure of....the addition of the border. What do you think?
I think it needs to be omitted.
I did learn a lot from making this mess- I love piecing, I love cutting fabric, and I love sewing at 4am before getting ready for work. I have extra sashing a and 4 patches left over...think I will use that in the backing. Can't think of sandwiching this just yet...need to work on a quilt with a different color scheme. Lol.

People with a complaint are far more likely to voice it than someone who is happy. Applies to restaurants, shops, whatever.

Toverly, that's gorgeous. But I'm not up to replacing all my yellows.