Iceblossom

We are a bit earlier than usual this year with the mystery. Bonnie has some real life issues and the holiday dates are just sort of late this year. So -- we begin with the colors, yardage, and backstory (and some schedule):
https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2025...ry-lupine.html

The actual cutting/sewing/first clue will also be early -- November 21 (week before US Thanksgiving)

You can go directly to Bonnie's site. In this thread I will be using the printer friendly links.
https://quiltville.com/pdf/Lupine_La..._IntroFull.pdf

About the Mystery: Bonnie is a nationally recognized quilter and offers a mystery every year as a gift back to the quilting community. It is completely free, we do not swap blocks so there are no participation requirements or mailing deadlines.. You can sign up to receive emails on Bonnie's site if you wish, or follow the links that will be posted here. I will post the PDF links, so if we refer to "page 3 of the instructions" that is the PDF. I really recommend printing the clues. There will be a fresh clue usually every Friday until probably some time in January. There is also typically a light day or or two for catching up. Everything is free until about Valentine's Day, then you can buy a non-mystery set of instructions. To keep up with the sewing can be grueling depending on what else you have going on. Remember, this is not a race but a support group.

Mysteries are not for everyone. This time of the year is not for everyone. I have a lot of time and a lot of fabric and can accept in advance that I don't always appreciate the final product. If I was buying full price fabric, this mystery wouldn't be for me either! For those that just want to join the fun of this thread as a "non-sewing participant" you are welcome! As are the lurkers out there. For those considering joining for the first time, I'd say you need to have at least average skills, a lot of tenancity/endurance, and the willingness to follow directions. Bonnie gives wonderfully detailed directions and pictures.

Rules:

Bonnie asks very little of us, but we are guests in her project so we try to observe her requests. As she is the ultimate person responsible we are asked NOT to share numbers, measurements, or "spoilers" for people who really enjoy the mystery aspect. She will post any corrections needed on the website. It can be frustrating to be looking for something simple and easy like what Accuquilt die is/can be used -- but if Bonnie isn't telling we shouldn't either! We are able and willing to point each other to key points in the directions or communicate in private.

Counts should be avoided because they can be used as spoilers or might have an error (that is, it is better to say something like "I got about half my units done today" as opposed to "16 out of 34 done"). While we love seeing each other's fabric selections and work in progress, we should avoid showing what we we think is the final layout before that is released. Besides, she usually puts in some things to preserve the mystery for as long as possible.

She also asks that we don't take all the paint chips from our local stores. I think we can handle that. If anyone is having problems with color selections, let me know in a private message if you want a set of chips.

As "host" I see my biggest participation as being a cheerleader and in reminding everyone that this is their own project. They will all be wonderful and amazingly both the same yet different and we can get through the long slogs and we all make mistakes at some point. There are a lot of Bonnie Hunter UFOs (mystery or otherwise) out there and that's ok. Again, your project and your time schedule -- we are doing this for fun. I will try to be quick on posting each clue link or if there is a correction, but if any of you come on before me -- feel free to post! You never know when my power might be out or real life has come to take me away from the computer or the sewing machine but I promise to keep up until the end. If you are more of a lurker, I can guarantee if you have questions someone else does to so go ahead and post but if you'd rather send a private message that works too.

joe'smom

Wow, what a fun surprise!

Thank you for hosting, Iceblossom, and for the excellent introductory post.

I had pegged some batiks for the mystery this year, but in the meantime, Bonnie came out with another pattern recently, based on her trip to Ireland, called Lahinch. That had the right number of colors, so unless the mystery also has five colors (that includes the neutrals), I'm back to the starting line. My plan is not to abandon Indigo Way, but possibly to cut the clues and use as a leader ender project. We'll see.

Now to catch up things at Bonnie's blog.

KalamaQuilts

pretty pretty colors, I figured she'd make some adjustments if the mystery went on, life events don't go by schedulules.

We'd offered to put our new 5th wheel in a park down by vancouver for her (it has a sewing room after all!) but she thought the 4 steps to the bathroom might be a problem for her son. He seems to be coming along though and I'm so glad the doctor finally listened to him. It was too late for my sister, after 3 visits to emergency the finally listened, liftflighted her to Seattle, but it was too late.

CraftyBecksa

I’ve never participated in a Bonnie Hunter mystery, or completed any of her patterns, but I’m going to attempt the mystery this year. I’d consider myself a confident beginner, am I going to be okay completing this quilt? I’ve done HSTs, flying geese, snowball corners and set a quilt on point before…

I’m going to have to go to the shop to buy some fabric to stick to her colour way… I don’t really have any purple in my stash. I have plenty of pink, so maybe I’ll sub in a different colour for the purple, maybe green. Or I go to the fabric shop and buy some fabric. That doesn’t sound like a hardship.

I’m excited for this adventure, and participating with you all!

happylab

Thank-you Iceblossom for hosting this year again. You do such a great job hosting.

Yes I was happily happy, jumping up and Down when I read Bonnie’s post this morning with fabric requirements out already. Yea!!!!!!! This has always been one of my holiday highlights. So I’m on cloud 9 right now. In anticipation this year, I had already pulled out my FQ’s fabric colors. My selection are blue, purple, pink to burgundy or green prior to Bonnie’s post. So I only have to tweak my colors a little. I will be making a twin size top ~ 80” by 90” before quilting. I plan to keep up this year, but we will be getting a few large projects done to our place upstairs, so I’m not making promises. Now back to tweaking my color selections, Then I will post pic.

toverly

Thank you for hosting Iceblossom. I was excited to see the colors were out already. Not certain if I am going with them. It looks like this one is another great one to adapt to three favorite colors and a neutral. I loved the way it turned out last year.

Iceblossom

Hello everyone, and especially CraftyBecksa with a first post! I think you will be able to do this with your skill set, she usually doesn't have much trickier stuff than HST. Just figure the thousands of pieces will be on the small side, but by the time you are done you will be well practiced! You might want to start out with a goal of half the pieces, a lot of the regular participants make half-sized projects. If that doesn't seem too overwhelming, you can always go full sized. And we are here to cheer you on!

I forgot in the rules part that she also asks us not to give too much away in our pictures. That is, instead of our neat sets of (easily countable) pieces, we offer a more partial but representative picture.

I do know that I will be out of town for part of the project -- in the first part of December I will be visiting my friend Barb in Arizona who is a lurker here She started doing the Bonnie Hunter tops a couple of years ago, enjoys the weekly process, but Bonnie's work is so very different than her own she hasn't quilted down any of the tops yet. Barb works mostly in batiks and loves purples and pinks and will probably go more turquoise than light blue, it will be fun to see her selections. I will have my laptop and she is a fully computer ready anyway, maybe she can teach me how to take pictures with my cell phone instead of my aging faster than me digital camera.

Bonnie put it in my head last year about using black as a neutral... I'm going to pull some more neon/acid tones to try them with black, as well as more conventional colors to go with my white on whites. I think I will be going with pretty pure White on Whites... I have them restocked and ready to go. I have another tub that used to be called "white with colors" which I now call "Bonnie Neutrals". I used her style of busier fabrics for the Indigo Way, but it is one of the ways where my scrappy style and her scrappy style are different.

But what fun! I've been timing my current project so my schedule and table would be clear in time to start the mystery. I have a guild retreat weekend the first part of November where I will put those blocks together into a top. But in order to do that, I need to get off the computer and back to the sewing desk! So close to being done now, just a few more blocks/decisions to make.

If anyone wants to share a finished Bonnie Project from other years, here's a good time to share those You can also share your UFO/horror stories if that is more appropriate...

Gemm

While I'm going to lurk here as usual and not actually participate, I just wanted to say how excited I am to watch the project unfold and see your progress again. This is such a fun thread and Bonnie's projects are so creative. :-)

Also, a little PSA: When you're sharing pictures of units, use a plain, unmarked background (not a cutting mat because even if you haven't said anything, the lines can become "spoilers"). :-)

joe'smom

Welcome, CraftsyBecksa! So glad you decided to join us, and I have no doubt you'll be able to complete the quilt. It's more a matter of will than anything else, and the enthusiasm and camaraderie of the group are a big help.

I have personal experience with the new ruler Bonnie is introducing this year. I bought it for a mystery last year, found it very tedious to use, swore I would never use it again, misplaced it somewhere in the house and had to buy a second one to complete that quilt! I think I may opt for the paper piecing (depending on how many of that unit there are; it took me so long to do the cat's cradle block of Indigo Way by paper piecing, although I do really enjoy the process). I don't want to dissuade people from purchasing that ruler, though; I do have extreme difficulties with cutting, and that's probably the biggest part of my reaction to the ruler. There's a good YouTube tutorial about it, to help people assess whether they might like using it.

I have some of all the colors; it might be enough for a full size, it will certainly be enough for a smaller size. I dug out a bag of a light gray print that I had purchased for a mystery another year and didn't use, and will pair that with some left over light gray I had from a backing, for my neutrals. Between this pattern and Bonnie's recently released Azalea pattern, which I pulled fabrics for, the pink piles on my shelf are a lot smaller than they were.

LI_diva

Do we know what the finished quilt size will be? I may be mistaken, but I thought she usually gives that that information in the intro.