audsgirl

Great job, Tweety! I'm so impressed with anyone who has managed to complete all of the main blocks already. It's been slow going for me, but I'm not in a rush. I've had to re-do a few components because they didn't measure up in size. That has held me back. That and my back issues.

Leslie

frustratedquilter40

Hello everyone! I have been slowly working on mine. Just finished clue 7 today and started a few on clue 8. I love seeing everyone's work come together. Not so sure about my color choices this year. But to late to go back now. I substituted yellow for aqua and orange for the raspberry. But all the other colors I kept and in the same position as Bonnie's so will be bright. I chose my colors from a list of my daughter's favorites. As soon as I have a block made I will post may be awhile working full-time nights has really cut into my sew time.

Iceblossom

I think it will be great, Frustratedquilter. If I can envision it, like suns with stars in them Since it isn't too late for you just make sure that the yellow and orange contrast with value as well as color, my Parakeet/Yellow would have been fine with a bit more contrast but yellow/green alone at the same value wasn't enough for success.

Hubby stayed home sick from work today, unfortunately for me I keep his schedule better then he does so I'm up early and although he says it doesn't bother him, my sewing room is on the other side of the wall from the headboard so I try not to work in there while he's sleeping. But I sort of have to, I didn't sew those border units yesterday so am out of pins until I do.

I have some cutting I can do, more of the darker yellows to replace the lighter/more difficult ones I culled out and the newly defined additional Parakeets that will be the center of my sashing strip. A year or so ago I moved around my various work stations, I used to sit in my chair in my sewing room and turn from machine to desk/layout to ironing board. In order to get more steps in, my ironing board is now in the living room and my cutting station is the dining room table. It helps to have a very tolerant hubby, but I get a ton more steps in now each day than I did before and typically for cutting and ironing I'm standing. I don't believe in calorie counting for weight loss but I do believe in more physical activity, we might not get a lot from quilting but I feel like I've made it as active as I can.

joe'smom

Tweety, your blocks are looking great!

Carol, I liked that first photo with the plain sashing, but I think any of those options would work well.

I'm thinking this might be my favorite Bonnie block of all the ones I've made. I found the Good Fortune chevron block frustrating because I could not figure out how to match that seam, but I'm not having an issue with any of the units this year, and I love those nesting geese.

I'm hoping to finish up my half blocks today. My plan is to then quickly (ha!) put together the main block corner and geese units and then put them aside for, I hope not too long so I can finish up an En Provence I've been avoiding.

SusieQOH

joe's mom- I looked up En Provence. It's a lovely design.

joe'smom

Looking back, it now seems like a very tame mystery compared to our wild clues this year, LOL.

Iceblossom

Well, I got my Parakeet Sashing strips and extra Yellow/Neutrals cut while hubby was sleeping. I waited as long as I could and started sewing at the point he would usually be at work.

My first replacement block went well, I had the units stacked up and put together the subunits, so had already sewn most of the block and found the last one of my Aqua/Parakeet combos was one of the worst ever Funky Monkey! So no net gain on using that block to replace another block with errors, but I like the color combo better so I guess that Monkey is staying in.

I thought when we were making the subunits with the 4-patch, that they all went the same way. But then when I was working with the corner setting units that warped my fragile little mind and I couldn't get the twisting right. So no, I didn't need to make them in mirror image sets so long as I'm making them all into the subunit. It's working ok with my mirror images, but that was basically unnecessary.

I haven't pressed the border units yet, my goal is to take them to group next Tuesday to pin together into sets of 4, so I'm going to put that off for now.

I am, however, going to take a break from the setting/replacement blocks and sew my sashing units before they get more twisted around. That was one of the clues where I made too many because I had some random number in my head. I am going to keep all the darker reds in this round of connections, then count up what I have left and take out as many of the pinks and color-shifting into yellow that I can.

I'm forgetting who posted the picture, but one I could see the reds dance around in a circle more than in the others and I rather like that, so am going to put some emphasis where/when I have the chance.

SusieQOH

I agree!!!

jmoore

I can certainly relate...I finally got my machine back from its annual maintenance and checkup and have had a hard time jumping back into my BH mystery. Yesterday I pulled it out and worked for about an hour, I think I’m Clue 7. I’ve decided to dedicate 4 hours a week on it.

So many wonderful looking blocks being posted...Janie, wildyard and Tweety included. I am still in awe of the work Iceblossom has put into this project.
Carol, thank you for sharing your sashing/layout ideas.

Iceblossom

I'm up in the middle of the night again and about to embark on an estimated 2 hours of pressing which might be enough to send me back to bed. Maybe it will be less, I can't imagine it more. I have all my sashing pieced now and those border units.

I'm using the same piece for all my sashing cornerstones, it's a darker tone of the mossy green I've redefined as my Parakeet. There is a lot of variation in it, it will fit in tonally with my medium colors I used for blue, but be slightly different because of the grayish tone of the green, I did use more forest and jade tones in my dark/medium blue group. Anyway, I'm a pinner and for many good reasons. Since I'm able to use a strip and not individual blocks, and these sashing units are so narrow I don't need pins I thought -- I sewed a red/neutral unit/space all along the length of the strip. I put on exactly the first 2 correctly and the rest (one for each block) was upside down. Argh! I would have caught it pinning.

It's why I do prefer assembly line style assembly, although it does leave me open to the very real possibility of doing every single seam or cut or whatever wrong (which does happen but not often), it also lets me catch the "ones not like the others" which do happen often by the way I consistently place and stack my units. I can tell right away if the front is correct, and then I put together about 4-5 of whatever unit I'm working on, flip them over, and then put them into the done piles. I do prefer to count them up as units as I go, again easier for me to catch a mistake when I have 6 stacks of 12 rather than a pile of 72.

I'm going to go grab that last small handful of hand dyes that need fixing, maybe I can get a picture of the completed stack later today or tomorrow. I still see the first quilt I saw in the bag, this Frolic mostly used the brighter colors. And then last night I think I saw the third quilt in the bag, some contrasting dark radiating hand dyes in a Lonestar with a dark background, there are some really great purples.

I've also chosen a correspondingly bright fabric for the back of Frolic... there will be no dark side!