Allietare Mystery TOP DONE!!

All last week Bonnie Hunter has been hosting a link up for quilters to share photos of their versions of her Allietare mystery quilt. It has been so much fun to check out all the different variations and color combinations. Some people even have their quilts totally quilted and finished!

I finished assembling the top of my Allietare quilt a couple days ago, but today was my first chance to get any decent photos of it. The poorly-lit, through-the-doorway shots just wouldn't do for this beauty! I managed to rig up a way to hang the quilt top off the railing of our deck in order to get some outdoor photos.

My version of Allietare was planned as a Quilt of Valor. Changing the color scheme was easy, just a switch of Bonnie's grey and black to light blue and dark blue. Instead of making the full size of the original quilt (82" x 96"), I made 2/3 - 3/4 of each unit in the directions. Bonnie's quilt has 30 of the star blocks and 20 of the alternate blocks, mine has 20 stars and 12 alternates. The numbers worked out very well, and I ended up with very few extra parts. My quilt top measures  67" x 81".

This closer photo will give you a better look at my fabric choices. One of my few regrets is that I wish I had used more brighter blues and fewer navy blues, but that is a minor point. My quilt was made entirely from stash fabrics including many shirt scraps in the lights and the light blues. I even mitered the corners on the striped outer border!

I had so much fun making this quilt, and it may be my most successful mystery quilt ever! There is a very strong chance that I will decide to keep this quilt and make something else for Quilts of Valor. (I don't feel too guilty about that because I just delivered three other QOV tops and backs today.)

I am sharing with the Allietare mystery link-up over at Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. I am also linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework and Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA