Grand Illusion Summary

I am gathering all of my Grand Illusion (Bonnie Hunter 2014 Mystery Quilt) posts and placing them here so that you can link up and find what you want easily.  They will each open in a new page, leaving you access to this post. (The date on this post will change as I work on it but will always include the most recent postings and you can easily find it by clicking on the tab at the top of the blog.)   Please become a follower and you will always know when the new post is up.  Welcome to you all and comments are ALWAYS appreciated.

Post 1:  Colors and Yardage - Let's Get Started
Post 2:  Clue #1 Aqua and Pink Broken Dishes
Post 3:  Clue #2 How About Some Double Diamonds?
Post 4:  Clue #3 Two by Four 8-Patches
Post 5:  Clue #4 - More Broken Dishes
Post 5:  Clue #5 - Four Patches
Post 6:  Clue #6 - Cornerstones and the Big Reveal

Grand Illusion Clue #1 - Bonnie Hunter - Mystery Quilt

The day has finally arrived!  My house is full of family for the holiday weekend and there is even a bed set up in the office so I creep quietly in and peek at my computer oh so early in the morning.  There it is!  The first clue.  Drumroll please . . . Broken Dishes!  I read it quick and then go back to bed to dream of getting started on it.  An hour or so later, I can't stand it anymore so I get up once again and sneak out to the studio (where there are also people sleeping) and quietly get my fabric and rulers.  Back to the office cutting table -- quietly.  I only get a few triangles cut before people wake up and the day starts.  Oh well.


My next opportunity to work on this clue makes it appearance on Sunday evening.  Yes!  A couple of hours later, I am cut and ready to sew first thing in the morning.  Let the fun begin!

Today (Monday) is devoted to Grand Illusion -- oh and washing bedding, towels, etc. from having company all weekend.  First up:  HST's buy the boatload.  Let's get going.

I settle in to watch White Christmas -- ah yes, that will help the mood as I zip these together especially since it is dang cold outside today.

Once I have my ginormous string finished, I figure I should do a little decorating.  After all, tis the season.  Yes, yes I am having a good time today.  Mister teases that I take over every flat spot in the house.  Since I am working in my little mini studio in the office today --- he may be right.  Hence the fabric stacked on the books.

November Quilt Update

I have moved the previous posts to the end of the entry.  I hope that you make it that far.

Goals:  I have retreat this month --- YAY! -----  AND Black Friday with the start of the mystery quilt -- WOOT!!  ---PLUS time with family for Thanksgiving so scheduling is interesting but we'll give it a shot.

Home
Roll Quilt - nope -- should take this off list until Jan
UFO - Ceramic Tea Set - nope -- dang, really need to get this one done or it is going to become a birthday gift instead
Sandwich, quilt, and bind My Favorite Things (MFT) quilt - yes
Wanderlust (W) Blocks (28 full plus half blocks) - yes
Mark, sandwich, quilt, and bind Sew Squared (SS) quilt  - no but Mister did get the templates done
Sandwich, quilt, bind, and make label for Scrappy Bargello (SB) quilt - yes
Sandwich, quilt, and bind Virginia Bound (VB) quilt - yes
Quilt, and bind Lazy Sunday (LS) quilt - yes
Mark, sandwich, quilt, and bind Peaceful Paisley (PP) quilt - yes
Bookmarks finished - on hold til Jan
Round Robin (RR) blocks (14) pattern and fabrics selected
Clue #1 Grand Illusion (GI) Mystery Quilt worked on - yes, all cut and ready to sew
Wedding Quilt (WQ) blocks prepared, sashings cut, backing/label made, borders cut, binding made - yes
Finish sewing mats - yes
Retreat

Finish any remaining Wanderlust (W) half blocks, do border blocks, and set yes
Set, sandwich, quilt and bind Wedding Quilt (WQ) yes
Make sewing mats - 4 finished, 2 close
Any bindings that need to be hand-stitched as well - worked on PP
Debone all remaining shirts in basket - yes - 12 completed

1st -  OMG It's November!  Hang on for one heck of a month.  I give myself a HUGE talking to this morning when I realize just how long my list is and how little time I have.  There is just no room for lazing around.  Get with it girl.  It's Saturday, which means I am devoted to my sweetie for today and tomorrow.  I won't change that as I have learned the hard way in life where my priorities need to be.  Mister and I go shopping for the materials to refinish my Featherweight table.  I appreciate so much that he is working on this for me.  He is also making me a Big Board!  I am one lucky girl.  Matt sent me a picture from Hyrum's birthday party of him with his quilt.  Makes my heart feel good.

Brazos House Retreat - Nov. 2014

After returning from retreat last May, it took me all of about one week to decide that I wanted to go back.  I called the center and found out that the soonest I could get in was the weekend before Thanksgiving. I jumped on it and started putting the word out.  I could not have been more pleased with the responses and the retreat was filled in no time.  A new group of friends to be made.  Yay!

Preparations started and excitement built.  Finally the day arrives and I am so ready.  In a heavily loaded car, I drop Mister off at work - leaving him to find his own way home by DART - yep loving wife - and zip down the new tollway right to the center.  It is just as I remember and the peaceful feeling of being in the country sets in right away.  Last trip, I forgot to take some pictures of the rooms and so that is my first task.  Before I even unload the car, I make a trip through the house, assigning rooms and snapping a few pre-mess shots.  Kay has set it up wonderfully as usual and I know we are going to have a blast.

Refinishing my Featherweight Table

So some of you may remember that back in January I was able to pick up a Featherweight table at a local auction.  Here she is in all her "Oh my goodness, someone painted me white." glory.  Ick.

Learning to Transfer Photos to Fabric

I have a project that I am working on and I got it into my head that I want to try photo transfer to fabric for it.  I have absolutely no idea what I am doing but watched a couple of you tube videos and am willing to give it a try.  A quick trip to the grocery store for a roll of freezer paper gets me started.  I have chosen a bleach white Kona cotton to use as the base for my photos and am ready to start.

Step one:  Cut a piece of freezer paper the same size as a sheet of printer paper.  I simply used a pencil and drew around an 8 1/2" x 11" letter I had gotten in the mail.  Repeat step with fabric.

Step two:  Iron the wrong side of fabric to the shiny side of freezer paper using a pretty hot iron.  Make dang sure that the edges have sealed.

Step 3:  Place the fabric/paper into the printer so that it will print on the fabric side.  You must have an ink jet printer for this to work and will most likely have to use the manual feed as the trays don't always like the feel of the freezer paper or fabric.  I thought that I knew my printer well, but the first attempt came out on the freezer paper.  Dang, try again.

My second attempt works beautifully and I can barely tell the difference between the two.  In the picture, the one on the left is the one on the paper and the one on the right is my fabric.  They both look vibrant and beautiful.  I could not be happier.

Enough for today as I don't want to push my luck, but tomorrow the real printing begins.  Feeling confident now.

A New Big Board

Oct. 29 -- I return home from Colorado and spot these items in the garage.  Mister has started to build me a Big Board.  Oh happy day.  He is also refinishing a Featherweight table and you can find out more about that here.

Nov. 1  After a shopping trip, Mister starts working on my Big Board.  While I was in Colorado he cut the top and added strips to the bottom all around the edges, plus sanded it all smooth.  He is now ready to add the little blocks that will keep it from sliding when it is placed on my ironing board.  Using the ironing board itself as a pattern, he marks where he wants to blocks to go.