Sunday, January 10, 2016

Allietare Reveal



Bonnie Hunter posted the Big Reveal of her 2015 Winter Mystery Quilt late on New Years Eve. She said it was midnight already in Italy and since her quilt, Allietare, was inspired by her travels in that country, it seemed appropriate to push the reveal up a bit. I was able to keep up with all the clues, so was in good shape when the reveal was posted. All 30 of the stars blocks are sewn together as well as 10 of the alternate blocks. The photo above just shows a portion of what has been completed.  Yeah, it's messy as the blocks are just lightly pinned on the design wall.


My local quilt shop is having an anniversary sale this weekend, and I went on the hunt for a border fabric for Allietare. I was kind of despairing of finding anything until I spied this fabric in a bin on the floor. It is black with widely spaced dots of an irregular nature. If you look closely you will see that every so often the dot is a skull! The owner pointed that out to me, thinking I wouldn't like it but it had the opposite effect. Quirky is good in my book. The dots are mostly chalk white with an occasional silver metallic one thrown in . I like!

This mystery was much easier for me than past ones. I took my time since there was fewer pieces involved and I really tried to do a quality job. I succeeded in that goal for the most part. The effort sure paid off in the end as I pieced everything together. It's going really well with few places where any fudging is required. I have not made any of the setting triangle pieces yet, but I have read over the directions several times and don't see any big issues. To see what others have done with this pattern, click here.

There is another project niggling at me that I am eager to start. It is Octo by Brigitte Heitland. You can see the pattern here. I know if I start Octo that Allietare will get put aside and who knows when I will get back to it. So, pedal to the metal to quote Eleanor Burns. 

Our guild hosted Rebecca Bryan of Bryan House Quilts Friday evening. I had already met Becca at a book signing at my LQS, so her book, "Modern Rainbow", is already in my library of quilting books. She also has a quilt in "Modern Medallion", a book I didn't have, but which is now in my collection as of Friday. There are quilts in both of these books that tempt me. I need another lifetime or two!

Here is a taste of her quilts.


         

    



Saturday, January 2, 2016

First Finish of 2016


My first finish of 2016! The pattern is Peppermint Pinwheels from Sujata Shah's book, "Cultural Fusion." It's the third one I made from her book; the first two were Rail Fence quilts. A fourth has been barely started - Winter.

Today would have been my father's 99th birthday. He loved bowling, ice skating, and pie. Happy birthday, Dad! I miss you.


Bonnie Hunter posted the big reveal of her 2015 Winter Mystery quilt, Allietare, on New Years Eve. It's a stunner. I was able to keep up with all the clues, so next up will be assembling the pieces into a quilt top. I made myself finish the Pinwheels quilt before tackling Allietare, knowing that if I didn't the Pinwheels quilt could easily become a UFO!