Hang in there Susie! This was your first every mystery I think? And your first Bonnie Hunter project? You are doing great to be as far along as you are. Not my first mystery and I'm familiar with Bonnie's style but this is the first time of me doing this in real time. But yeah, I thought I'd be done with this top (and finished with my work-in-progress that just needs border) all by the end of January and now I'm just hoping for Valentine's Day.
If you are really not wanting to do it, put it all in a box, with the directions, and write notes to yourself on why you stopped and what you were having problems with. I think most of the problems most of are having are not with the design or instructions but the mystery aspect, in her finished non-mystery directions the process will be changed to reflect some of the realities. Well that and those darn geese!
The thread will still be here when/if you are ready to resume or next year's mystery even. I'm going to great lengths of silliness to use up my fabric by using more fabric so I don't end up with unused fabric... but I am doing it to myself and I could have been done now if I just followed directions, I just would not have been happy and we want to do what we have to do to be happy and have fun. Despite my grouchiness I'm going to be happier at the end.
Today in my small group I am pinning the second set of border units. Should be half the connections so I should have pins left this time, but it is a motivator for me to work on that part of the project. When I get home, I'm usually motivated to sew so maybe will get those extra blocks finished to see what I have. Not looking forward to another round of 4-patches and neutral cutting but I have plenty of scraps left for the blue/red and probably enough strips that just need to be subcut.
I have never bought a kit (although I have finished many UFOs started by others) and rarely follow a pattern even from a magazine, been designing my own projects most of the time I've been quilting. I'm inspired by things I see certainly, but usually design them to fit my style, vision issues, and size of fabric. Certainly there are things I would do differently or wouldn't do at all (like I rarely cut smaller than 2.5" for a bed sized quilt), but that's the point for me to do this, to learn something and be able to play along in a group setting. I knew in advance that I'd have my usual OCD-style issues, but again, I didn't expect quite so many from just my fabric.
So from the beginning, I knew I could be unhappy with the end result (which I'm not really, it just could have easily been better with my fabric on hand), but the outcome for me was always that someone would have a quilt out of it at the end -- and that it would be bright! I certainly have that, well the bright I have and the quilt is just ahead.