Design Wall Monday 12/18/2023

It's that "Bonnie Hunter mystery" time of year again. The latest version is called "Indigo Way." As usual, the mystery clues started appearing over Thanksgiving weekend and will continue until sometime in early January. You can find links for all the information at Bonnie's blog HERE.

I was very tempted to join this year's mystery, especially after seeing that Bonnie was using red, white and blue for hers. I generally try to come up with my own set of colors for a mystery just to make my quilt different than the others, but you can't go wrong with RW&B. I also considered switching out the blues to greens for a Christmas quilt.

Thinking about making the mystery in Christmas colors reminded me that I had used similar colors for Bonnie's 2022 mystery, Chilhowie (now available as a PDF pattern.)  I started late on that mystery, made a reduced number of the different parts, then decided I didn't really like how mine was turning out. Maybe it's time to give it another chance.

The photo above shows some of what was finished on Chilhowie earlier this year--one large block plus three smaller blocks waiting to be turned into large blocks. There were also many other units made, plus more pieces cut out. Last week I continued making blocks, ending up with a total of eight small plus the one large block.

The next step in Bonnie's version would be to turn all of those small blocks into large blocks, then add a pieced sashing. These blocks already have more gold in them than I would like. Instead, I removed the large block and played with a new layout using already-made red/light HSTs.

I'm still not sure where I'm going with this design. I wish there was more green in there, plus the diagonals don't really work for me. It feels like it's time to move away from the design wall and play with some ideas on the computer instead. Maybe I can come up with a better plan that way. Or maybe it's time to throw in the towel and give these blocks to someone else for finishing.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and at Monday Musings at Songbird Designs. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Design Wall Monday 1/2/2023

My first Design Wall Monday post of the new year features a new project that hasn't appeared here before. I made a late start on Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt Chilhowie. She announced the fabric requirements on Halloween, then started giving weekly clues on the day after Thanksgiving. I was focused on another project at that time and didn't start on the mystery until a week before Christmas, and I decided to use Christmas colors for my version.

The first few weeks were all about making different units. Since I was so far behind, I started by making only a few of each. We made four-patches (and nine-patches too, but I've already used those up), half-square triangles, and quarter-square hourglass units. Then there are the ones across the bottom that look like a picket fence to me--I'm guessing that they will become a border.

The next step was to put units together into blocks. I like how the design is looking, although I'm not sure about the pale red points in the bottom block.

After that more units were added to make the blocks even bigger. I've only got one together so far.

Here's my one big block along with the three center blocks. Bonnie's pattern calls for a total of 16 of the big blocks. I'm shooting for 8-9 at this point. I'm looking forward to getting the next step on Friday.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA