joe'smom

toverly, Bonnie specified in clue 1 that she was not using her special fabric for that clue, but just various of her navy fabrics.

Regarding the special fabric, Bonnie shows her piece early on in the intro. She said it was about 1/2 yd. It looked to me like a piece of navy heavily overlaid with white lace or embroidery. I think we will have to see how she uses hers in order to choose, but she also said a special fabric isn't needed.

Rff1010

Oh Bonnie - you temptress.

For years I have cheered your mystery participants on from the sidelines "too many small pieces". "not my colors". "not skilled enough "

But you cleverly lured me in. Navy with a hit of red. Oooh... And then the first clue of simple HSTs. I use the easy angle method and have precut...a lot.. in only 15 min.

And if it UFOs, I have a bunch of HSTs. Never a bad thing.

Oh and Bonnie- I don't square anything. The quilt police can clutch their pearls.

Teen

Looks like everyone is off and running. HST’s look great!

Macybaby…. When I think of 1992, I think of calico…lol..

I finished my clue#1 and promptly discarded a couple of neutrals and pulled another blue for some more variety. I just finished a blue and gray EPP quilt so many of these fabrics just got transferred to this project box without restashing.

I do not have any of the rulers recommended…seriously, I do not need more rulers.. May take me longer as a result, but in Winter, I have more sewing time available. We’ll see how I do.

RFF1010….you crack me up!!

Iceblossom

LOL, welcome aboard RFF1010. One of the great things about this sew along is we each get to do it our way! And there are plenty of Bonnie Hunter related UFOs, mystery or not.

It never occurred to me in my early days of quilting to trim my subunits... I will make them fit!! Now it is part of my way of doing things. There are definitely parts of the things that I do that I don't really appreciate, but appreciate the final outcome. So, I have friends who pretty much never pin -- I always pin, every 2 inches or open seam whether I need to or not, I get better results. Oh yeah, quilt police take note that I press open. Each year I think -- Bonnie gives very good directions, maybe I should press to the side. Each year I do it my way which also includes cutting large and trimming down. Boring yes, a good time for a rotary cutting board (I haven't found mine in the move stuff yet). But ultimately, this isn't typically a speed process for me and I usually have plenty of time per clue.

Teen, I don't use any special rulers. With my vision issues, however, I will often put a tape line(s) to help me be as accurate as I want and/or to help with special cuts.

JeanieG

I have been catching up on all the chatter! I somehow got logged out, so was not getting notifications! Been busy, so have not checked back in days! I love all the many great selections of fabric you all have chosen! I am only doing half of the units this year again. I have so many of Bonnie's Mysteries in full size that I do not need any more large ones! Here is a sample of Clue 1! I am only using one dark blue, so this unit is not scrappy!

joe'smom

This is the busy neutral I'll be using. For clue #1 I've picked my six quietest navies. First attempt at the GO! Cutter. It does seem like a lot of fuss to cut a few shapes. My hope is that I can get my back in shape to do more rotary cutting as we go forward.

Iceblossom

Welcome back JeannieG, glad you found us again. I think that is a great dark blue for the project, love the little bits of colors in it, plus I'm pretty much always a fan of Paisley.

Joe'smom -- that is a strong neutral, I think you are just using the one? I like the effect something like that can give, so that other colors sort of look laid over the background. Not sure how to express the thought, but like when you drape a necklace of beads over the fabric instead of being more sewn in.

I have my Clue 1 finished and pressed. Today the contractor building the closets in my basement sewing room is coming. Hooray! Started trying to find a contractor back in August, was hoping to get the closets built before we moved in (end of October). Didn't think it would take so long, this guy is a friend of our fencing contractor and will be able to help with a number of projects. Husband isn't very handy and my vision issues (along with a lack of tools) make things harder -- plus we simply don't work well together. But I was about to go out and buy me a table saw etc. to get these projects done, glad I didn't have to. My mom's second husband was a general contractor for custom homes, I would clean up after the crews as a side gig. And after 40 years or so of This Old House and other home shows, I have a pretty good idea of what is required for each of my projects but not the skills to do it right the first time.

Today I will be working on my Christmas string quilt borders on the dining room table (upstairs). Just going to be cutting some various thickness single strips of fabric. I am expecting to have group tomorrow and be able to sew. With the contractor coming I have stacked up and dust clothed my sewing table etc. downstairs.

toverly

Thanks Joe's mom, I am hanging onto my special fabric. I haven't gotten many done so far. But I do have the 8 HST method blocks cut. Now the Christmas Decorating has begun. Happy Sewing everyone .

happylab

Hello everyone. I finally found my essential tool. Tomorrow I can cut all of my needed block sets. I’m thinking of adding a row or two to make it king size. I plan to just sew the queen size and add after the reveal if I like the pattern. But in reality I usually like her finishes. I just need to make sure I have enough fabric to add extra at the end. I will post pics after I’m done with a few sets.
Tomorrow is sew and cut day. Today is quilt 2 baby quilts for a friend and load a twin top on the LA for her. Then I have 3 days to sew my square sets. In the mean time I need to find my large ruler of the Tri-rec ruler too. I found the small piece, but forgot where I put the other piece. It’s been a year or so since I last used the ruler and I have moved everything around since then. After the NY I will dig into the boxed up items and look for everything and find a permanent place for the items. I’m just excited all the furniture and boxes has been moved to the right rooms. I

sewingpup

The GO works best for me when I have multiples of the same shape to cut from the same fabric . What I have done is buy a fair number of the dies that make muliples of the same shape. For example my 21/2 inch unfinished die has 9 squares on it. So I have marked with a marker 1/4 inch out from all sides of those shapes. The cutting part on this die is 7.5 inches and when I marked that 1/4 of an inch it brings the marked area to 8 X 8 This is the size I cut my fabric. I can now layer up to six layers of 8 X 8 inch squares of fabric on this die. That will give me 9 X 6 = 36 2.5 inch squares cut with one pass. It goes pretty well and there really isn't that much waste. I find I can skimp on the 1/4 inch allowance but I find I get a cleaner gut with that 1/4 inch extra. I usually also only layer 4 fabrics which gives me 9 X 4 or 24 squares with one pass. It is easier to turn the crank and I get a bit more accurate cuts as sometimes when I use 6 layers, they will slide a bit. Hope this hint helps. I really don't like the cubes very much because they only usually have one or two shapes on the sides.

Oh and on the mysteries, I usually look at the total number of shapes needed, then look at the number of different fabrics, divide the total by that number and then cut the number of each I need to get the total. If I have smaller scraps, I just cut them first and then start on the bigger scraps. I do layer smaller scraps too and I have sometimes marked additional lines that go all the way to the edge of the die so I know that scrap will cover how many individual cuts they will make.