Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Bonnie Hunter

A Few More Pieces and Planning a Road Trip

February 7, 2018 9:55 pm ⋅

Today I mixed it up. Did a few combination triangle units from Part 6 of On Ringo Lake and stitched a few geese together from Part 7.  I’m 3/4 of the way through Part 7, so when I finish those I guess I’ll circle back to Part 3, which turned out to be the sashing.

In the meantime, I’ve started thinking about my Memorial Day week road trip to Jackson, Mississippi and the Mississippi Quilt Association June Gathering. Over the years we’ve taken several different routes:

  • Kansas City – St Louis – Memphis – Jackson
  • Kansas City – Fayetteville – Little Rock – Jackson
  • Kansas City – Springfield – Jonesboro – Memphis – Jackson

The route depended on the weather, where exactly in Mississippi we were going and when we needed to be there. Stopping at quilt shops has always been hit or miss. Frequently we pass by the shops outside of business hours, but you can bet your rotary cutter I knew where the shops on our route were and stopped at them if they were open.

On this trip I have the luxury 4 or 5 days off before I need to be in Jackson, so I can plan my trip around quilt shop hours. Earlier today I asked on Facebook if there were any MUST SEE shops along the route and was reminded that Paducah is not that far off the first route.

So the first route is the one I’m going to investigate first. I’ve always wanted to go Paducah – ideally during Quilt Week – but it’s never worked out. I’ve been through Paducah twice. Once when I was still in college and before I started quilting. The only thing I can remember about the second time was it was Saturday just after business hours.

 

Posted in: On Ringo Lake, Road Trip

Slow and Steady

February 6, 2018 10:51 pm ⋅

Since I picked up the extra peach/coral FQ for On Ringo Lake, I thought I would go ahead and cut it up – not that I’m finished sewing the geese together.  I’m just past halfway on that clue, but stopped to sew a few of the corner pieces together so I could see a whole block.  Tomorrow it will be back to stitching geese together.

 

Posted in: On Ringo Lake, Uncategorized

First Post of 2018

February 4, 2018 3:18 pm ⋅

Well, here it is February and I’m just now making my first post of the year.  I hope to do better this year with my blogging than I did last year, but I’m making no promises.

Since I last posted, I got about halfway through the quilting on the 2016 Bonnie Hunter mystery, En Provence. I had allowed 4 hours to for quilting, but that didn’t take into consideration, stabbing my self with my nips resulting in lots of blood, or the fact that my quilt is 115 ” square — significantly larger that most of my quilts.  Soon, I will have to schedule more time on the long arm to finish quilting it.

I’m working on the 2017 mystery, On Ringo Lake, and making progress. As each clue came out, I cut the fabric and sewed at least one clue – at least up through clue # 6. Technically I had enough fabric, but it would be predominately just two fabrics and that would require knowing where in the quilt those pieces were going. In the meantime, I kept sewing the pieces for the clues, skipping # 2. I think I’m halfway through clue #7.

The LQS had a sale on FQs – $2 a piece. I really wanted 5 peachy/coral FQs to round out what I had, but was only able to find the 4 pictured above. I’m considering changing my setting squares, so picked up a couple of turquoise FQ and of course a couple of neutrals on general principles.

Also while out and about, I found 101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts by Judy Hopkins & Nancy J. Martin at Half-Price Books. There are six quilts in the book that I want to make, so it came home with me.

 

 

Posted in: On Ringo Lake

What’s On My Design Wall

January 16, 2017 11:40 am ⋅

eptophalf

Yes, it’s En Provence, the Bonnie Hunter mystery. The pattern is still available HERE.

For two weeks I’ve been telling myself that over the 3 day weekend I would pull out the Blue Disappearing 9-Patch and quilt it. But, I just can’t move away from En Provence. I can’t decide if it is because I’m afraid it will be months before I get back to it or because I’m so close to finishing it.  Although “so close” in this instance is realistically close to 10 hours.  At least for the first couple of blocks they were taking me about an hour each to make.

There are two more up on the design wall.

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Of course they may go faster now that I have gone through and pulled all of the pieces for each block so I don’t have to make that decision before starting to sew a block.

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I’ve also swapped out my leader/ender project for the border.  For a brief time, I was sewing 1-1/2″ squares together for the postage stamp quilt.

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Then I switched back to pieces for En Provence. I’m now sewing 4-patches together for the borders.  I hope that by the time I have the center finished, I’ll have the extra border pieced together.

dwleep0116

I’ve tried webbing blocks together in the past, but have not had much luck. It’s working this time, and I’m convinced that it is making these blocks go together quicker than my usual assembly process. This is the bottom left corner block, so I have the bottom sashing attached.

DWep5-0116

As for the Blue Disappearing 9-patch? Perhaps next weekend.

See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence

What’s On My Design Wall – En Provence – Final Link Up

January 9, 2017 8:19 am ⋅

enprovencecompletedunits

Today is the final link up for the Bonnie Hunter’s Free En Provence Mystery Quilt. The pattern is still available HERE until the end of the month.

I had great hopes of finishing the top, or at least getting all of the units completed, but this cold/crud that showed up after Christmas has kept me sitting at the sewing machine for very long.  The picture above is all of the units I’ve completed — except for the ones up on the design wall.

Once the reveal was made, I finished cutting the fabric for the remaining units.  I stitch some on each unit, then press, and trim. Up next are the parts for 10 hourglass units, 10 hour glasses and 10 4-patches.

enprovencenextunits

I still have the hourglass units from the last batch left to trim.

enprovenceunits2trim

In theory this keeps me from sitting for hours, getting tired of just trimming and keeps the quilt moving forward. I have a few more rounds to go.

enprovenceunitswaiting

In the meantime, I’ve put up some of the pieces on the design wall, along with my border fabric.  I’d like the quilt to fit my king size mattress, so I need to have the quilt finish around 95″ x 106″ without a pillow tuck. Needless to say the final layout is up in the air. enprovenceonthewall

Making the quilt 5 x 5 blocks then adding the nutcracker fabric  brings the quilt size up to 117″ square, which is really larger than I’d like. On the other hand this might work:

borderdrawing

 

This design will require another 124 neutral 4-patches and the quilt will finish at 106″ square, which will allow for a pillow tuck. As much as I’d like to push through and finish the top, I need to quilt the Blue Disappearing 9-Patch before the end of the month. Once I stitch up what I currently have cut, I’ll box it up, along with nutcracker, blue and neutral fabrics for a decision later in the year.

Check out the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

 

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s On My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 5

December 26, 2016 11:07 am ⋅

clue5Part five of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out late Thursday night. It’s still not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

Even with the hustle and bustle surrounding Christmas, I finished the clue – admittedly early Monday morning – but it’s the first clue I’ve finished between the release of the instructions and the link-up.

More progress was made on clue # 1. If I’ve counted correctly, I have enough pairs of 2-patches to complete the clue. I’ve been sewing a single pair of 2-patches into a 4-patch as my leader/ender.

clue1week5

I sewed 8 of the half square triangle units followed by 20 dark/light green (remember my colors have been swapped out) 2-patches for Clue # 3 then got up to press and trim.

clue3week5

So now, I have Clues # 2, #4, and #5 complete.

clue2done

part4I don’t go back to work until Wednesday, so I have 2 more days to sew. I have 2 projects I need to work on — getting last year’s mystery off the design wall and quilting a top that I finished in January. Who knows which one I’ll work on this week.

In the meantime, I’m linking up to Design Wall Monday and the Mystery Link-up.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 4

December 19, 2016 1:19 pm ⋅

clue2donePart three four of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday.  It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

No, the first picture is not of part 4, but rather the completed Clue # 2! I swapped the magenta out and used royal blue for my Christmas colored quilt. That’s not to say that I didn’t make progress on Clue # 4.

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Friday evening all I got done was cutting Clue # 4.  That’s the dark green in the picture above. I’m subbing dark and light green for purple and lavender. When I took this picture I thought the pile of neutral squares was short compared to the greens, but since I had already stitched a few 2-patches as my leader and enders, I thought that explained the difference. It wasn’t until I had the 2-patches paired up that I realized I don’t  have enough neutral squares cut.

week4part1

But that’s OK — It’s not a race, I’m on PTO this week and I need a leader/ender project to finish up a couple of projects.

This morning I stitched up 10 of Clue #4.

part4

I see more sewing in my future this week between decorating and baking.

I’m linking up to the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 3

December 12, 2016 10:27 am ⋅

part3

Part three of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday.  It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

It’s more 4-patches this time with the dark and light purple, or in my case dark and light green. I’ve only got these three patches made — and only so I’d have something to post this morning.

I’m linking up with both the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition Part 2

December 5, 2016 8:55 am ⋅

part2

 

Part two of Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt came out on Friday.  It’s not too late to join. The instructions can be found HERE.

This clue has us making triangle in a square blocks. My plan was to use the Quilt in a Day rulers as I’ve had more luck with that method than the Tri-Recs, but I found the correct size strips in my bins, so I cut the first few with the Tri-Recs. Since they came out so much better than they have in the past, I’ve decided to stick with the Tri-Recs. I’m still cutting fabric, but that’s OK. Slow and steady will eventually get the quilt complete.

I’m linking up to both the Mystery Link Up and Design Wall Monday.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts

What’s on My Design Wall – En Provence Edition

November 28, 2016 11:22 am ⋅

Bonnie Hunter is hosting her annual mystery quilt. This year it is En Provence in purple, lavender, green, yellow, magenta and of course neutrals. Information about the mystery quilt can be found HERE.

Since I haven’t spent much time quilting this year, I’m hoping the mystery will get me going again. But as with most mystery quilts I do, I’m pulling from my stash. Although I love the mystery colors, I didn’t find enough for the quilt in my stash. Shopping is not an option, so I thought I would have to sit this one out (and I still need to finish Aletaire).  While I was contemplating alternative color schemes, someone on Facebook said they were going to use Christmas colors.

mysteryfinal

Yes, I can do this. Dark/kelly green for Purple, light green for lavender, red instead of green, lean my yellows toward dark/gold. Neutrals should stay the same.  But what to use for magenta? Taking a que from the Nutcracker fabric my sister gave me for Christmas last year, I chose Royal Blue. It’s the only thing not from my stash — I used a gift certificate I was given in late January, and bought extra for binding and pillowcases – $0.89 with shipping.

enprovenceclue1

This weekend I started by cutting strips, then squares. I know, Bonnie said sew strips together then cut, but I need some leader/enders to finish up Alietare.  Two 4-patches are made. I have a way to go to get all my 4-patches done.  Let’s hope they aren’t need for Clue 2 on Friday.

Head over to the Mystery Link Up to see how others are doing on their quilt — and remember it’s not to late to join.

I’ve also linked to Judy’s Design Wall Monday. I’m guessing there will be lots of 4-patches.

Posted in: Bonnie Hunter, designwall, En Provence, mystery quilts