Getting there

Finally all the blocks sewn, have run out of space on the design wall to put them all on but this is the overall effect. Oh and I was one teeny weeny 9 patch short by the time I got to the last block, I did look in the dogs bed and everywhere else they carry things off to but no it couldnt be found . Nothing else for it but to make one.

I do like the colours in the quilt, and i do like my quilt. The one thing about a mystery quilt is that sometimes if only you had known you would have chosen differently.

With hindsight I would have made my Ohio star stronger and the 9 patches more muted. I feel its a very busy quilt almost too busy. I think this would have been really nice totally scrappy with no common colour I used blue and green and cream. I'm sure this would look really good in 1930's fabrics.

I have considered sashing it to quieten it down a bit but the size of the small pieces would lean towards a very narrow sashing and I feel it might look odd. To bring in another colour at this stage would make it look too bitty. So the only sashing alternative would be the cream or a pale green.

I haven't deided about the borders yet, at the minute Im toying with a one very narrow border, possibly the green, then a blue border (using different blues all around) and then bound in green. Or maybe blue, then green inbetween then bound in blue. But first it has to be put together.

I wonder how many wrongly placed 9 patch Im going to find !!

Split 9 patch

I had a few split 9 patches to make into lap size charity quilts. The pic on the left is the one we associate most with the split 9 patch. As I was putting them up on the design wall so that when i come to sew I get the pattern right. As fast as I was putting the blocks up the pups were taking them down so Istarted looking at other patterns to get with the same blocks

I quite like the one on the left. The stripes above are a little boring but if it was a full size quilt a nice diamond shape could work well.

The one above I don't like but its another pattern, nor do i particulary like the chevron pattern, maybe if the blocks were smaller it would work.

The last one is nice. These are just a basic 3" block with a HST's, to make the HST cut a square (its supposed to be 7/8" larger than what you want if your splitting a sqaure in two) so for a finished HST you need to cut a 3 7/8 square well i'm not going to lose sleep over fiddling with 1/8" so I cut the squares 1" bigger. I can always trim of the 1/8".

Step 6 Bonnies Mystery

Firstly I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my work in the blog.

I am hoarse shouting at the pups, one of them managed to 'steal' a spool of aurifil thread, by the time I wondered why they were so quiet well the damage was done as you see

which one is guilty ??

I sewed all day and finished step 6. Had a problem with the 16 half triangles the size given in the instructions was too 'neat' I had to do a bit of experimenting to get the right size .

The strip needed to be cut 2 3/4" wide and then with companion angle cut on the 2 3/4" mark.

Works a treat. Im not sure if my blocks were slightly larger or if was an error. But sorted now.

With hindsight I wish I had a stronger contrast between the blue and the green. The Ohio Star doesn't stand out enough for my liking. It will be interesting to see how it will turn out.... I have to admit I put it on the design wall with the pieces that aren't sewn yet... !!! No I'm not showing you lol.

Step 5 Bonnies Mystery

Step 5 done, relatively easy to do using the companion ruler, I've never used it before. Now to wait till the next step.

Meanwhile I have started another mystery found on fabricholics can be done in a day but so far life is taking over at times and im doing leader and ender system to get through it, once Bonnies mystery is done I'll concentrate on the second mystery and i have a dug out some cat fabric, which will make my granddaughter a cute quilt and I have a few ideas on that too... you wil just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile my sweet Poppy got chased by a strange dog that came into the garden, she doesn't go far from the garden tending to amuse herself by teasing Bailey and Sapphire. She managed to escape up a tree and I thought it was going to be a rescue service to get her down. She was up the tree for an hour. This ontop of Bailey swallowing a little plastic tube that got stuck in the roof of his mouth, I thought he was choking and was trying various manouvres to release what I thought was an obstruction in his throat. When he finally let me look down his throat , my hand having already been done and could find nothing , i saw the tube and had a terrible time dislodging it as he was distressing more and more. But out it came and he just collapsed in an exhausted stressed state, with me equally exhausted. Will it stop him ? not ever !!

Bonnies Mystery

I managed eventually to get back to Bonnies mystery, I did my usual thing of getting waylaid in another project. the pictures are here as well, I now have steps 3 and 4 done and am working on step 5.

We had some snow which was kind of novel for us, the dogs loved it, after the shock of the first few steps. It never lies long turns to mush very quick, we tend to get black ice on the roads more than snow.

As I was doing steps 3 and 4 of the mystery I came across some spirrals I did at a workshop in Spain ( yes how cool was that) last year. To be honest I didn't like them , more they weren't my thing. It was fun learning how to do it but I wont ever make any more. couldn't face yet another UFO, I already have more than my quota for a lifetime, so i decided just to make these up very simply.

Everytime I came to the end of a sewing session, I whipped the spirrals through as an ender and now all I have to do is sew the rows together.

A simple border will finish it of.