Mystery Quilting

Like so many other quilters, I love mystery quilts. There seems to be two definite camps out there about mystery quilts. Some people never do them and don't like the idea of not knowing what the finished quilt will look like; their philosophy is, "Why put perfectly good fabric (and time) into something that may not turn out to be something I like?" The other camp loves mysteries and enjoys the challenge of making something on blind faith. I am one of the ones who loves the surprise of a not knowing how the finished product will turn out. Sure, I have made a few I didn't like that well, but those can always be donated to a favorite charity or gifted to someone else who loves it. It's pretty exciting for me to see how so many quilters can turn out the same finished quilt top and have them look so different because of the different fabrics they started out with.

Two mysteries that I have been working on this month are the Christmas Eve Mystery from pocketfullofmysteries and the Double Delight Mystery from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. It's been a slow-go this month, and I still haven't got finished tops, but I'm still plugging away at it. I'm hoping to get both finished as soon as possible so I don't have to add them to my UFO list!

Here's a pic of the fabrics for the Christmas Eve mystery:

And, here's a pic of the fabrics for the Double Delight:

I will have more pictures (hopefully soon) to post on my progress. The Double Delight quilt is turning out to be really time consuming with lots of little pieces, but I think that once I get steps one and two completed and the patches all trimmed and squared up, things should start progressing nicely.

January BOM #2

Here’s another BOM for January. It’s called Broken Arrows, and I have attached a link to the quilterscache instructions:

http://www.quilterscache.com/B/BrokenArrowsBlock.html

If you did the first January block, you won’t have any trouble with this one—the piecing is exactly the same. In fact, it’s the same block! The only difference is the way the colors are arranged to emphasize different shapes.

Once again, I used the red (my focus fabric) in the center of the block. I used a dark indigo blue for the darkest patches and mixed my lighter colors a little. If you give it a try, leave me a comment and let me know how yours turned out.

Swapping Nine Patch Blocks

Here's a pic of the nine patch blocks I sent to Teresa in Boise. We did blue and white blocks for December.












And, here's the three sets I got in the mail today from Teresa.

These blocks are just so cute and work up really fast. We're swapping 4-1/2" blocks for January done in red and white. The swap is still open; if you'd like to join us, click on the link to our Yahoo group in the right sidebar.


Carolyn

2009 Block of the Month

I am hosting a block of the month for an on-line quilt group and wanted to share it here for anyone who wants to follow along via my blog. I have chosen ten-inch blocks from the Quilterscache website and will be doing about two a month. My colors will be red and navy Civil War Reproduction fabrics with dark cream or shirtings for the backgrounds. Over the years, I have collected lots of these fabrics and there are some older ones that need to be put to use.

The first block for January is the Alaska Homestead block. Here's a link to the instructions on Quilterscache:

http://www.quilterscache.com/A/AlaskaHomesteadBlock.html

This is such a cute, simple block. Notice that I reversed the colors in mine. The reason I did that is because I wanted the red in the middle. I have picked out blocks with two-inch squares in the centers and I wanted to use that same red (I have a lot of it which needs to get used up) in all the centers and in the sashing cornerstones.

If you'd like to play along on this block of the month, please leave a comment and let me know how it's going! And stay tuned, there will be another one posted in the middle of the month.

Carolyn

A Quilter's Prayer

Take the pieces of my life
And stitch them together
According to Your will.

May I yield to the pricks of Your needle
so that Your stitches
may surround me with the pattern of Your love.

May I allow You to order the squares
any way You want,
To pattern me by Your design
So that all will know
You quilted me.

from Quilted with Love, by Debbie Salter Goodwin

Happy 2009

Happy New Year! One of my goals for 2009 was to create a blog to (1) Track my progress on UFO's, (2) Stay organized on on-going projects, and (3) Get to know other bloggers. So far, so good on creating the blog; now I just need to get the UFO's sorted and learn to upload images to the blog. Wish me luck--I'll need it! Carolyn