It's lovely, Kathy! You made a real treasure. :-)
Still hanging in here...just finished block #20.

QuiltingVagabond, That turned out beautifully. Congratulations on a great finish!

Your top looks wonderful, Kathy!

Christine, can't wait to see a picture of yours when you get it finished.

It's beautiful, Kathy! Bravo!

I am also continuing to progress slowly putting my blocks together (I am only doing 16 blocks).

Kathy that looks stunning the colours are fantabulous :)

I am stuck on mine. I had to stop to work on a Round robin I had coming up and now just can't seem to get it out and work on it. It may have to wait for summer.

I auditioned my 2nd border yesterday and decided on a simple black beyond the first yellow border. If the yellow border ends up at 2", what size should the black border be?

Finished the binding on my mystery quilt last night. The turquoise cornerstones and the binding are from a Mexican dress that I took apart, and my favourite flower is the dark pink bougainvillea so I will call mine Bougainvillea along the Mexican Riviera! [ATTACH=CONFIG]511307[/ATTACH]

Just for fun.... here I am wearing the dress in 2000 preparing for our 1st guild quilt show. [ATTACH=CONFIG]511310[/ATTACH]

Such pretty finishes that just keep coming! Nice work ladies!

Nice work thimblebug. Love your name for the quilt, too.

Love it, Thimblebug. True spirit of the old days quilting.

I love your quilt Thimbles and it's name, how lovely to be able to incorporate such memories into it :)

I just love your quilt and the great ideas that you used, they always mean more when we put ourselves into them.
Lovely name.

Such a pretty quilt, thimblebug! Thanks for posting photos!

Great colors, Thimblebug. How cool that the dress lives again in a new incarnation!

Thimblebug, that is perfect! You need to print out that picture of you in the dress (onto fabric) and incorporate it into the label!!

What a super idea!

I agree that would be a fun touch!

For a big quilt like this, I would guess in the 6" to 8" range. I would try mock-ups with various widths to see what proportion looks good to you.

I ended up hating my finished mystery quilt top.I love the colors but think it's messy looking. My husband compliments me on every thing I make until this one. He said it would look good from a distance if hanging on a wall so the pattern could be seen better. I'm quilting it now then am giving to a neice downstate but I feel guilty about it cause she is so sweet and won't say anything bad about it. I wouldn't take the time to even quilt it but had told my sister I was giving it to her daughter. I recently talked with LQS owner who said that she made the units but didn't like the final block so is not going to finish it but may change her mind later. I think I may have liked it if I used black sashings instead of the pieced ones. I saw one done like this and liked it but was too late to do mine that way.

Oh my, I love the picture of your dog!!

She may love it, but if you want to be sure you could show it to her before you send it and see what she thinks.

Lafpeaches, maybe you could include a note with the quilt, explaining that it didn't turn out as you expected, and give her the option of keeping that one, or waiting for another? I think there's a good chance she will love it.

It seems like the younger generation like it more than we do. I showed mine to my son and daughter today and they both really liked it. I showed it to a 70 yr old friend the other day and she couldn't even stand to look at it. Said her eyes couldn't focus on it.

Done! I finished my Grand Illusion this week. Not sure where it is destined for, but I'm glad to have it finished.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512450[/ATTACH]

Krista it looks beautiful!! Congratulations getting it done :thumbup:

Beautiful, Krista. It took me all year to finish my Celtic Solstice and I don't expect GI to be any different. But seing all these finished quilts makes me wish I didn't have so many projects ahead of it on the list.

Beautiful, Krista... so much movement! My top is done, but not quilted.

Krista, that's beautiful! It's looks like spring. Congratulations on getting it finished! What is the back like?

Your colors are beautiful Krista. Great job!

Thanks for asking. I didn't think to take a photo of the back. Here it is (in pretty bad lighting, unfortunately). I think the flowers are rhododendrons rather than Geraniums, but it works for me :)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512617[/ATTACH]

I completely understand and sympathize. It was my first mystery quilt and probably my last. I have so many things I want to do that I hate to spend as much time and money on something when I don't know where I'm going with it. For those who are short on "things to do", then it is great. But since I have lists of quilts I want to make, I'm thinking for me..."mystery quilts" will have to wait until I see the finished results.

I came to the "reveal" thinking that "wow...can't wait". When I saw it, I said to myself, "You're kidding, right?" Then I saw she wasn't kidding. I can't describe what my feelings were, but well, let's say, I went to the computer and worked on another version.

My feelings of ambivalence weren't because it was "too busy", but because I couldn't see a pattern. (It is the same reason I am not crazy about the D9P. I know tons of people like it, but for me, it looks about the same--and when I can't see pattern and I think I'm supposed it, it leaves me feeling frustrated.)

With the right colors, it is possible to see the pattern, but... This one would be one I would pass on in a book.

So, I made two. One large one - my improvisation of the original - and the original pattern made into a couch sized quilt. For both, I changed the middle blocks into a solid and for the couch sized (original pattern) one I replaced the bright green for a softer, minty green so it would fade into the background and I could see the whirligig movement better.

More or less the original: [ATTACH=CONFIG]512637[/ATTACH]

And then my variation/improvisation:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]512638[/ATTACH]

I happen to love these colors so I wasn't about to let these beautiful fabrics sit around in a UFO! I like them both now. Love? Maybe not. But I like handling them. I spent so much time on my improvisation and really enjoyed adding to it, that I really was impressed by the end result. (It surprised me, in fact.)

Nice work on both, justflyingin. You ended up with two great looking quilts and I'll bet you learned a lot along the way. It will give you new confidence as a designer.

Good work, Justflyingin... I have to say I still prefer the abstract look of the original design, but I LOVE the little arrows border you have around the second one! What a great detail they add.

Thanks, Krista! I love your big rhododendrons! It's such fun to see the backings along with the fronts. Everything seems to look nice with this pattern -- solids, smaller prints and large ones, I haven't yet seen one that I didn't like.

justflyingin, I think it's so commendable that you pushed through to make two beautiful quilts even though you weren't enthused by the reveal. I've had similar thoughts about whether to do other mystery quilts (this was my first) because I also have so many quilts I want to get to, and this brought things to a stop for two months (and I'm still working on it, but no longer exclusively). It's a lot of time (for a slow worker like me) to give to someone else's vision. Fortunately for me, I love everything about this quilt, from the Grand Hotel inspiration to the pattern. It's been so much fun that I wonder if I'll be able to resist participating next year. I imagine it wouldn't be nearly as much fun to wait until the reveal before deciding whether to commit.

This could totaly change your mind
 

I love this setting I saw on the Facebook site. This is how I want my finished quilt to look, pillow shams, HAPPY pillow, "dottie" backround and all. It amazes me how each of us can turn the same quilt into a treasure.

Justflyingin, Those are two beautiful quilts. You know, if you said I could have one and gave me my choice, I don't know which I would take. The second is really an original, and you did a fantastic job. Wow! The yellow makes a great pattern. And those arrows!! You may find a lot of people stealing that idea for a border.

Joe'smom, I agree with your comments on these big mystery quilts. I loved this one and did it mainly because of the subject and the good memories that the Grand Hotel holds for me. But it was so labor intensive it really wore me out. The main reason I do mysteries is because of the comradery and anticipation. But it does interfere with other quilting. There are only so many hours in the day. LOL

pjnesler, Thanks for posting that picture. The setting looks like it's out of a magazine.

I love this quilt!
I need this quilt!
I guess I better start making this quilt!!!:)
i want everything just like in the picture!!!!!

justflyingin how on earth did you find time to make two such stunning quilts!!!!!!!!!!!!! I must admit to be absolutely in love with your second quilt, it's amazing.

I also saw this one on Facebook. I have been trying to find a similar yellow backing on line, but so far no luck. I'm one of those who LOVED the reveal and am eager to start putting my blocks and sashings together now. Kind of amazing with all the different reactions with this design.
Justflyingin, your two versions are gorgeous! :-)