Clue 5- Allietare Mystery vs Rambo

Busy holidays plus head cold equals zero energy for sewing.

I spent all my energy on visiting with family and babysitting the adorable rambunctious Rambo.

This is clue 5 for the Allietare Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter.

After making a few blocks this could be the "alternate block" which there will be 20 of.

I still like this for the "primary block" which there will be 30 of.

They look nice together.

This is Rambo holding a bone as big as he is.

This is Rambo taunting Sasha with a tennis ball.

Finally some down time as they sleep on the couch together.

Oops! This block has a mouth!

Done.

Sasha is 50 pounds. Rambo is 7 pounds.

This makes for an uneven walk although they both try to pull me along.

This is my guess for the layout. This is 9 main blocks and 4 alternate blocks.

I think the final quilt will be set 5 x 6 main and 4 x 5 alternate in between.

I like how the yellow forms a chain.

I can't wait to see what Bonnie Hunter does with the centers of these blocks! 

Back to Monday Link-Up for Clue 5.

Clue 4 and Christmas/Get Well Quilt

The mystery quilt I'm working on is the Bonnie Hunter 2015 Allietare mystery quilt that she gives clues for on her blog every Friday from the end of November until the final reveal. This week the clue had quite a bit of piecing and TONS of pieces! I have NOT finished the clue yet but I will.

This MIGHT be how these pieces are used but just a guess.

This one set of clue 4.

I'm busy chain piecing.

I've pieced all these reds and now I've got to do the white!

But I did finish this Christmas/Get Well quilt.

The back looks like Christmas lights and presents!

Monday Link Up for Allietare Clue 4.

Clue 3 Allietare--Making Lemonade From Lemons

The 3rd clue for the Allietare Quiltville Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter uses yellow and neutral.

You know the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." This week I'm making lemonade! Having a loved one in ICU is difficult on the entire family BUT the silver lining is quality time spent with family.

I'm sending a HUGE thank you to all the staff working at the Duke Heart Center.

I met many wonderful nurses and specialists during the week I visited there. Awesome! They all are very competent, compassionate and friendly. Thank you! (And continue the good work, please.)

The 3rd clue for the Allietare Quiltville Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter uses yellow and neutral.

My yellow is also Lemonade. I wasn't completely happy with my other yellow but it was the best available in my local quilt shop. So as I drove home to MD from Duke (Durham, NC) I decided to stop at The Crazy Cousin in Fredericksburg, VA. It's about a mile off Rt 95. I like this yellow better because it's strong!

All cut and ready to sew.

Clue 3 has us making 4 patch units.

This is my lemonade 4 patch. 

See the lemons? See the ice cubes in the white?

Perfect!!

By using only one fabric for each color it makes cutting SO FAST!

Clue 3 is now ready to go in the baggie.

I love looking forward to a new clue each Friday!!

Back to the Mystery Monday Link-Up at Quiltville.

Back to the Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Clue 2: Allietare

For clue 2 of the Mystery Quilt Allietare by Bonnie Hunter this week we get to use red, white and grey. Since my red fabric is directional I made an equal number of sets with the bees going up, down, left and right. Since I don't know which will look better in the final quilt I chose to do every combination.

Pieces ALL cut and ready to sew.

I left my sets hooked together by thread. That's easier than clips!

Pressing and refolding the chains.

This is clue 2 finished and ready for the baggies.

Monday Link Party for Clue 2 at Quiltville.

2016 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt--"Allietare"

The day after Thanksgiving brings a new mystery quilt to Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  This year it's called Allietare. She posts the colors she is using and the amounts needed of each color. Then each Friday there will be clues to make a quilt using the assembled fabrics. This will be the 3rd Bonnie mystery quilt I've done.

This year I wanted to use the colors of the Maryland flag for my quilt (Red, White, Yellow, Black) so I was hoping she chose a 4 color quilt. I thought it would be fun to do a DIFFERENT color way than what Bonnie chose. Well! Bonnie's colors this year are: Red, White, Yellow, Black.....and Grey. So OK fine I'll use her colors because they are MY colors. But I've chosen to use only ONE fabric of each color instead of making a scrappy quilt. These are my fabrics and I think they all play nicely together.

The first clue had us making lots of HST (half square triangles).

Remember the trouble I had with the HST border of the last quilt I worked on?

I was very accurate in the piecing of these units.

I put a bunch of them on my design wall to admire and photograph.

Now they are all packed into a baggie as I await the next clue.

For this week Clue 1 is done!

Linking to Finish It Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Back to Quiltville Monday Link Up.

Holiday Lights---From UFO to Quilt Top!

I purchased this "Holiday Lights" quilt kit from the Quilt Vine in Trappe, MD last November. This was my Black Friday splurge and I did it over the phone! They mailed it and I started putting it together until I had problems...... Then it sat in a UFO (UnFinished Object) box for most of the year.

"Holiday Lights" (48" x 52") was designed by Alex Anderson.

The Quilt Vine tweaked it and sold the kit and pattern along with their changes.

The kit came in a clear box with a color photo. 

I LOVE the neutrals they chose for the background in this quilt.

I would never have been so daring to choose the red and green dot fabric as a neutral.

This was my problem. My half square triangle border didn't fit.

It was too short because my seam allowance was a hair too wide.

PLUS I pieced all the green triangles pointing the same way.

The top and bottom borders need to have them point the other direction. OOPS!

There was NO WAY I was going to use a seam ripper and undo all that sewing.

So I thought about using a tan fabric for the inner border instead of the triangles.

But I do like the triangles so I just added extra bits of fabric until it fit.

This is the original pattern and all the little lights ready for appliqué.

To make appliqué easier I sewed the green fabric to all the colors and then cut the bulbs as one piece.

One border at a time gets ironed and appliquéd while the rest is rolled up.

One cute Sponge Bob bulb!

And I've got "Whos" from Whoville on a tree or two.

Yay!! No longer a UFO!

I may try to machine quilt some snowflakes on this quilt. It already isn't perfect because I messed up the triangle border and therefore the outside border didn't match up with the inner border but really who cares? Right? I still love this quilt. GREAT fabric choices from the Quilt Vine! Thanks!!

Linking to Finish It Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

2015 License Plate Quilt finished

My 2015 License Plate Quilt is done. I collected one license plate from each of the 50 US states and 8 plates from Canadian provinces that were participating in the Row By Row this summer. Plus I added 2 special plates to make a total of 60.

It measures 67" x 95".  

To learn HOW to make it see my previous post titled Beginning of 2015 License Plate Quilt.
Briefly here is a recap:
Make 60 Fussy Square blocks.
The Fussy Square 4" block template can be found HERE.
Cut selvages off lots of fabric 1 1/2" wide.
Lay selvages on side edges of Fussy Square blocks (overlap it 1/4") and topstitch along edge of selvage.
Trim even with the Fussy Square block.
Sew selvages along top and bottom too.
Trim this unit to 6 1/2" square.---Make 60.
For the license plates sew selvages on the top and bottom first then sides.
Trim this block to 6 1/2" x 10". --Make 60.
Sew 2 of each block into a larger 4 patch like this:

Sew the vertical seams first. Then join the 2 sections.

Make 28 of this unit.

Make 4 like this for the bottom row of the quilt.

Each "block" has 2 license plates and 2 Fussy Square blocks.

I put the blocks together in a random order BUT I did put the Halloween blocks with the license plate from MD--where I live--because I love Halloween.

And the plate from Las Vegas had to be near the Busy Strippin plate.

I had already used the AZ Desert Stripper plate in another block but that would have been fun to put with the Las Vegas plate too.

I was trying to decide if I wanted to use the medium batik or the light beach fabric as a border but instead chose the Kaffe Fasset fabric.

Sew the blocks together into 4 long rows first.

Each row has 7 block units plus one half block unit.

Sew these rows together and add a border.

I cut the border 3" wide.

The border fabric is Kaffe Fasset and I love how it echoes the Fussy Square blocks.

This ROW x ROW H2O plate was only sold at the Quilt Odyssey show in late July.

(Of course I was at my son's wedding and couldn't go but thanks to friends I got it.)

Everything is machine sewn, including the binding.

I sew the binding to the back of the quilt then flip it around to the front and use a decorative stitch to sew it down.

Next summer there will be another Row By Row Experience happening and the shops will have license plates again. I purchased these plates online, on the phone, through friends, family, and Facebook group swaps. 

Happy collecting and happy quilting!

See Finish It Friday.