Stitches23

I also love project boxes! Whenever the kids come home for a few days or we have company, I can throw all the fabrics and pieces in the box, snap on the lid, and put it away til they leave and I can get it all out again. No hunting for where did I (or one of the kids) put this or that. Since I often sew at the dining room table, this is a project saver for sure.

Tweety2911

Thank you Joe's Mom for managing this thread. Excited to be a part of another Bonnie's Beauties. No planning on going scrappy this year, going straight yardage.

leheath8

This may be a silly questions, but since I have to buy fabric, is it better and/or easier to just buy one piece of one fabric for each color, or to buy a few smaller pieces of a few different fabrics for each color? Seems like most people do the latter, but I have so much trouble picking fabrics and understanding the color and value issues is new to me, so I am thinking it would be best to just focus on finding 6 fabrics I really like with the correct colors and the correct values. But will it make the quilt too boring?

Barb in Louisiana

leheath8, it may not look like as much fun after it is finished, but it still can be beautiful. Using just 6 fabrics will make you much comfortable knowing what fabric goes where and you will be more likely to finish the project. Some people, me-very much, are not comfortable with multi-fabrics in the same color range for a project. I am just not a scrappy quilter. If you like the pattern, go back and do it again in scrappy tones and see how it works for you.

Edited to add: Bonnie's projects have a lot of small parts, so a bigger pattern won't really work, think small patterns in your fabrics. In other words, what will you see if the part finishes at 2 inches or less. And, unless you want a lot of confusion, don't pick any stripes. You won't know which way is up or sideways and the finished quilt may be a bit jarring. lol

joe'smom

leheath8, there are no silly questions. Personally, I think that Bonnie quilts made from single yardage look about the same as scrappy when viewed from a distance (as, in the photos people post), and are just as beautiful. I think the pleasure of scrappy is for the person making the quilt, and for the person who has a chance to view the quilt close-up.

My experience is, it is quite a bit easier to work with single fabric per color (which I did one year when foolishly trying to make two versions of the mystery -- never finished either one), because there is less to press, and because you do not then have to make decisions about what fabric to put with what fabric for each unit. If such decision-making doesn't come easily to you, I think you might be better off with single fabrics for your first mystery.

Most years, I've thought about trying to find a really interesting group of fabrics to do a mystery in single yardage, but as I am restricted to shopping for fabric on line, and because it takes so darned long to browse on-line, I've never followed up. It seems that each year, there is at least one person on Bonnie's Facebook page who wows me with their single yardage choices, and I always hope to get a look at that particular quilt in progress.

Quiltylikeafox

Alright ladies and gents - I pretty much have my sewing room organized, I have bins of fabric pulled for Bonnie's colorway, and I currently have 14+ yards of fabric in the washer to scour off the sizings and brighteners before dyeing. Tomorrow, I'll throw together a few samples to compare colors, but unfortunately, I won't be able tonactually dye my fabric until Thanksgiving is over. While I'm excited to take my little bit to my mom's house for the holiday, I'll desperately miss my super deep stainless steel sink!

I realized that I never showed y'all the color palette for my hand dyed version, so I'm attaching it below. (Picture and Palette from DesignSeeds). I'm also sharing a few of my new "neutrals" for Bonnie's colorway. I'm going to try to avoid using my white on white fabrics this year- I feel like my frolic lacked a punch last year when I mostly used them.

leheath8

Thank you Joe's mom and Barb - putting different fabrics together is not my forte, so I am going to go with single fabrics. Will head to the local quilt stores this weekend to find the right fabrics. I picked up the paint chips tonight and played with finding a purple in the same value as the grey and it was enlightening. I kept taking photos with my phone and then turning it to monochrome until I found one that matched...it was harder than I thought, but I learned something new today just doing that! Now I have to find fabric with small patterns (and not stripes!) to match the paint chips.

origamigoldfish

leheath, frolic was my first mystery quilt last year and i loved it, but standing on this side of it I would have gone with a single fabric in each color. I used a kit of fat quarters instead, so I had anywhere from 6 to a dozen different fabrics in each of the colors. It was hard to keep everything straight, and to make design decisions without knowing what the next step was going to be. I love the results on my frolic, but I debated long and hard about actually going with a single solid fabric or tonal for this year's grassy creek.

Has anyone ever tried one of bonnie's mysteries with ombre fabrics? Or is that too large of a color range, given how small her units usually are?

SusieQOH

Quiltylikeafox- Are you using the colors on the left (with the bird pic)?
They are fabulous!!!

I'm going to search my stash today. It's rainy and gloomy- perfect day to be in my sewing room.

TX325

This will be my first mystery quilt. I’m going with bright colors... should be interesting!