First 2015 Finish!!

I have my first 2015 finish! Happy Dance.

Snoopy's dance always looks so happy! That's how I feel when I achieve a finish. My daughter was here from Ohio this week end, and I got her approval on Grand Illusion too.

Snow is good for something. The colors look so vibrant next to the pure whiteness of the snow.

I made swirly "flowers" all over this quilt. It's so busy, I didn't think quilting would show.

Here's the backing: (the colors match the front so well)

In all its crinkly goodness. This one was quilted with Quilters' Dream. First time using that. Haven't tried sleeping under it yet, so I haven't fully tested it yet.

Thanks,
Lin

New Flimsy!

I finished a flimsy!! Yay me!

Grand Illusion is together! I can't believe how many stupid mistakes I made in putting this thing together tho. Just crazy stuff, like putting patches together with wrong edges matching--or not matching.

The two in the middle, I oopsed. Mr. Jack D. Ripper was very busy in the last few days.

Here is my first block:

At this point I wasn't sure I liked this. Quite busy I thought, and jaggedy. Boy was I worried. With all the time and fabric I "wasted" on this, and not like it???

Then I put together more blocks.

(The red is another quilt peeking out.)

Now here is the flimsy:

Still looks jaggedy to me, but I like it a lot more.

Thanks, Bonnie Hunter, for the Mystery Quilt.

Thanks,
Lin

Grand Illusion--1

Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt is based on the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Mackinac Island is an island (duh!) above Michigan's lower peninsular. They don't allow motorized vehicles on the island.--Not exactly true. They do have some fire engines, and in the winter, snowmobiles are the way to go.You have to take a ferry to get to the island. The town is filled with tons of touristy things--shopping, fudge shops, restaurants, many hotels. The shops hire a lot of college-age kids to work there, so there are also residences for the kids.

Some people live on the island year-round, but most are summer people. There is a small school for the year-rounders. Everything used on the island has to come over by boat as well. Construction on the island is quite expensive because every piece of timber comes across, every load of topsoil.

Many ferries to the island leave from Mackinaw City. Notice the spelling difference. Mackinac Island, Mackinaw City. Just in case you didn't notice. The two names are pronounced the same. This is one way you can tell if someone's not from Michigan.

The Grand Hotel is the grand lady of the island. The Michigan Governor has a summer house on the island too. On the road around the island are these huge, old. wonderful mansions that they call "cottages."

Grand Illusion is in honor of the Grand Hotel this year. Bonnie taught some classes there this spring and fell in love with the colors presented there. The decor is very colorful, as you would see in Bonnie's choices.

The turquoise of the ceilings, the green of the chairs, the yellow of the curtains, pink of the geraniums and some couches, and black from the floors. Bonnie is the queen of scrappy quilts, but I chose to use yardage on this one. Made my Celtic Solstice (renamed My Happy Quilt) scrappy, wanted to try planned.

Here's Clue One:

 I just had a big scare. My subsequent pictures all have the wrong block as the center. I mixed up the baggies with Clue #1 and Clue #4, and thought I had made a huge mistake. Whew! I don't have to rip and rip and redo. I did manage to get it right the first time.

Here's Clue number 2:

Clue #2 was a little tricky to piece.

Here's Clue #3:

Pretty straightforward piecing on this one. I bet this will be a border.

Clue #4:

 OK, now you can see how similar it is to Clue #1.

We will know at the end of the mystery how to put these all together. I played around a little and came up with this:

I'm sure Bonnie will come up with a better idea than this!

Thanks,
Lin

Part One of Bonnie's Mystery Quilt

I finished part one of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt, Grand Illusion. These are my fabrics:

And above are the color cards she sent us to.


Here are my first 100 blocks: (well, really only a small sampling)

I played with them in alternate settings, wondering how Bonnie will have us put them into the quilt. I do like how the aqua star magically appears. It will probably be some completely different setting. I'll be surprised.

I chose not to do this mystery in scraps. Bonnie is the queen of scrappy quilts, but I wanted to do it with planned fabrics.

Thanks,
Lin

Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Mystery Quilt

I made Celtic Solstice My Happy Quilt last year with Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt, and ended up loving it. I felt rushed tho because of travelling. I debated, do I want to make this year's? Decided I just can't pass it up. So checked out her first entry, where she tells us what colors and how much fabric we need. Bonnie is the Queen of scrappy, and I decided I want to work not scrappy this time.

Bonnie sets her colors with paint chip cards from Lowe's, so off I went to pick up the paint chips. Her color choices are built on the colors at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. So I felt like I had to join.

Maybe you can just see--the color name of the yellow is---ta da----Grand Hotel Awning Yellow! She said she didn't know its name when she chose it.

Now here are my fabrics:

The print that looks orange-y in this pic, is really a great pink y color.The green is really closer than it looks here too.Gotta wait until she starts posting her directions. 

For more information about the mystery, see her blog at Quiltville. 

Thanks,

Lin