Grand Illusion - Clue #6 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt -The Big Reveal

It's out.  The ball dropped and the clue is given.  I took a few minutes to grab some pieces and do a layout.  The corners will have teal squares in them.  I love it and can't wait to get to work on it.  But, first -- I have four Bonnie classes to do.  Hooray!

I will do more posts as progress moves along on this.  Stay tuned.

I didn't touch this again until November of this year.  Now for the rest of the story.

So, I have realized that the new mystery is almost upon me and I haven't finished the this one.  Oh my.  It is time to kick it in gear.  While preparing for retreat, I do the sashings as quick as can be.  Well, seriously -- how hard is it when they 8 patches are already made?

Next, it's into the house with a small design wall to lay out blocks.  I simply place a piece of paper between each block and build my stack.  This can then be set near my machine and I can web away to my heart's content.  Pretty sweet huh?  Annie works away and her sweet hum warms my heart as we go.  I am shocked at how well these are going together after all this time and how much I have learned since they were put together.  Whew.

The rest of the morning is spent making lovely blocks.

Now, what is left to prepare this top?  Oh yes -- the borders.  Again, webbing away -- I soon have a nice stack of doubles which then become quadruples, and so on until I have them long enough for my top.  Four lovely borders now await the next step.

Everything gets packed up as I am off to retreat tomorrow and am soooo hopeful that I will get this top set.  There is still a chance I can get it quilted before the new mystery starts.  A remote one, but a chance nevertheless.




At retreat, I finally get a chance to work on this Saturday evening.  Yes -- I've been busy with other projects too.  It's 4:20 a.m. on Sunday before I give it up and try for a couple hours of sleep.  I have managed to get it webbed and pressed -- ready for rows.

How much sleep does one require, after all?

After about 3 hours of sleep, I am refocused and ready to finish this crazy top.  Yes --- I see craziness when I look at it right now.  The rows are soon together, pressed, and ready for borders to be attached.

Yellow inner borders (also made last night) are quickly attached before adding the pieced ones.  Everything fits together like magic and I could not be more thankful right now.  We are LATE leaving the retreat but my TA-Da takes place with the last four of us.  Better late than not at all right?

Now to get her quilted.  I will update this post when that happens and YES it will be finished before the end of the year for sure.

It is now Mid December and I am finally working on this again.  I have to get the back and label completed so that I can quilt this top into something wonderful.  It takes awhile but I do manage to turn all those scraps above into a wonderful label and an interesting back.  Yes.  Now to get this onto the frame for quilting.

12/21/15  I make the decision to do some tiny quilting in the yellow border on this one.  How smart is it?  Well after the first 6 inches my arms are killing me but I am committed now as there is absolutely no way I am going to tear this out.

 The outer border has a plain stipple and the center is a loopy stipple.  Yep, I'm moving up and trying new things.  Perhaps someday I will have one with some truly cool stuff on it.

Four and a half hours and two cramping arms later -- she is off the frame.

Here is a close up of the quilting

I quickly add the binding and head into the house to start the hand work.  I REALLY want to show Bonnie this one when she is here at the end of the month.  To see if I do, watch the blog posts for just after the New Year.

Here is my finished quilt which I have renamed "The Gran Delusion" since for some reason I chose this crazy quilting thinking I knew what I was doing.  Yep, I'll remember this one for awhile.

And my final, beautiful outdoor shot.  Woohoo.  It's finished and ready to use.  Front and back.