Bonnie Hunter 2020/2021 Winter Mystery: Grassy Creek
03-15-2021, 01:06 PM
#731
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,968
I've gotten the main center together. Now to see if I have enough of my fabrics to keep going with the first border before even deciding on the the colors for the outer borders. Was thinking the grays, but after seeing some of the other finishes, I may throw in some of each of the dark, medium, and light blues as well in the strip piecing. Have to get there first.
04-04-2021, 05:49 AM
#735
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,141
Hey all, I've just spent some time catching up on what you all did in your projects and I am so impressed! Especially with those with a lighter color hand than my own, some of those tops were so lovely!
I just finished my top yesterday. It is so large I'm hoping to take it to the hubby's work today to get a picture. I had kept up with the project in real time until Christmas Eve, and then it was put away for a couple of months while I dealt with various issues. When I came back to it, it was well after the reveal and I had the chance to make some choices but mostly I went with Bonnie's design in my fabrics.
I kept firm to the idea that (for me) this was to be all scrap or at least nothing bought -- I did need to beg gray fabrics from my Tuesday quilting group. The sashings -- I had enough fabric to have made them all solid and thought about that long and hard. I would have rather made them in equal width strips, all very precise and very me, but that didn't really work well with what I had which was a lot of little tiny bits and pieces and not full widths of fabric. I've found that when I try to loosen up and skew things I need to really exaggerate what I'm doing or it just looks like bad workmanship to me in the end. When you combine that with my gray fabrics went from the almost white to the almost black, well -- I find my top rather chaotic. But the hubby likes it, and I didn't make it for me anyway. Or him for that matter
I just finished my top yesterday. It is so large I'm hoping to take it to the hubby's work today to get a picture. I had kept up with the project in real time until Christmas Eve, and then it was put away for a couple of months while I dealt with various issues. When I came back to it, it was well after the reveal and I had the chance to make some choices but mostly I went with Bonnie's design in my fabrics.
I kept firm to the idea that (for me) this was to be all scrap or at least nothing bought -- I did need to beg gray fabrics from my Tuesday quilting group. The sashings -- I had enough fabric to have made them all solid and thought about that long and hard. I would have rather made them in equal width strips, all very precise and very me, but that didn't really work well with what I had which was a lot of little tiny bits and pieces and not full widths of fabric. I've found that when I try to loosen up and skew things I need to really exaggerate what I'm doing or it just looks like bad workmanship to me in the end. When you combine that with my gray fabrics went from the almost white to the almost black, well -- I find my top rather chaotic. But the hubby likes it, and I didn't make it for me anyway. Or him for that matter
04-04-2021, 10:02 AM
#737
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Ballwin, MO
Posts: 4,238
Hi, Iceblossom! I missed you during the mystery.
I've been thinking, as always, about trying to resist doing the next mystery until after the reveal, so I can see what works best with the pattern. This year, for example, the value of the gray made a huge difference in the look of the quilt.
I've been thinking, as always, about trying to resist doing the next mystery until after the reveal, so I can see what works best with the pattern. This year, for example, the value of the gray made a huge difference in the look of the quilt.
04-04-2021, 12:53 PM
#738
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,141
Happy Easter for those celebrating. The hubby had to work a bit in the morning but we ran in after his shift and got this picture of my Grassy Creek project.
I've renamed it "Silver Linings" and the narrow inner border is a lightly metallic silver gray I bought to represent Seattle January skies. While there are some lightly metallic fabrics in the bed of the quilt, in the border I brought in some very silver/heavily silvered prints. I really liked Bonnie's border overall, to emphasis the mirror image/V shapes I used a consistent fabric near the middle of each diagonal.While it is not my favorite project and last year was not my favorite year, I'm already feeling fonder towards it now that I'm done. I'm happy with the workmanship, I'm ok with my fabric selections. Glad we didn't waste a ton of fabric and effort like last year. It's just something I would never have chosen to do had I seen the outcome first. But part of the point of these mysteries for me is to do something I don't ordinarily do. Have to admit, I had a pretty good idea ahead of time just by knowing Bonnie's style and the color selections and certainly I saw the reveal before I was done with the piecing or even started the sashing.
I based my colors on the picture from my front door. My sense of green is much darker than Bonnie's. We don't have much of the scarlet fall maples, more the darker ones that are red all year 'round. If you look closely though you will see a red car and even some orange pumpkins in my neighbor's yard. My reds tended towards wine and featured black. Her yellow to gold started out as butterscotch for me and some of them probably would have been happy as orange in Bonnie's quilt. She used an orange/pumpkin color which I knew I didn't have enough of in stash so I used rust-to-brown instead (rust, it's another Seattle/rain thing). I was concerned from the beginning that my Red and Rust were too close, but like so many other things, it isn't one of my concerns now and feel the values work well together more as one unit than two.
But the other day as the blocks were done and the hubby and I were driving towards Issaquah the back way (a rural twisty 2-lane instead of multi-lane 405 to I-90), with the weather (rain of course) and colors outside it was exactly my quilt, especially with the photinia starting to put out fresh red leaves before they turn green. I always knew this project would be fall/winter in Seattle and I've captured that. As I've worked through the project and my inner winter of discontent, Spring has come along with daffodils here and there and they are in the quilt too (lol mostly the "Bonnie" colors I put in, but there you go).
Each of my quilts have a song -- this is a rain song and not a silver song but it is the song for this project
Aaron Neville/Beautiful Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWnrJun1eLY
Lyrics/apple play link:https://genius.com/Aaron-neville-beautiful-night-lyrics
I've renamed it "Silver Linings" and the narrow inner border is a lightly metallic silver gray I bought to represent Seattle January skies. While there are some lightly metallic fabrics in the bed of the quilt, in the border I brought in some very silver/heavily silvered prints. I really liked Bonnie's border overall, to emphasis the mirror image/V shapes I used a consistent fabric near the middle of each diagonal.While it is not my favorite project and last year was not my favorite year, I'm already feeling fonder towards it now that I'm done. I'm happy with the workmanship, I'm ok with my fabric selections. Glad we didn't waste a ton of fabric and effort like last year. It's just something I would never have chosen to do had I seen the outcome first. But part of the point of these mysteries for me is to do something I don't ordinarily do. Have to admit, I had a pretty good idea ahead of time just by knowing Bonnie's style and the color selections and certainly I saw the reveal before I was done with the piecing or even started the sashing.
I based my colors on the picture from my front door. My sense of green is much darker than Bonnie's. We don't have much of the scarlet fall maples, more the darker ones that are red all year 'round. If you look closely though you will see a red car and even some orange pumpkins in my neighbor's yard. My reds tended towards wine and featured black. Her yellow to gold started out as butterscotch for me and some of them probably would have been happy as orange in Bonnie's quilt. She used an orange/pumpkin color which I knew I didn't have enough of in stash so I used rust-to-brown instead (rust, it's another Seattle/rain thing). I was concerned from the beginning that my Red and Rust were too close, but like so many other things, it isn't one of my concerns now and feel the values work well together more as one unit than two.
But the other day as the blocks were done and the hubby and I were driving towards Issaquah the back way (a rural twisty 2-lane instead of multi-lane 405 to I-90), with the weather (rain of course) and colors outside it was exactly my quilt, especially with the photinia starting to put out fresh red leaves before they turn green. I always knew this project would be fall/winter in Seattle and I've captured that. As I've worked through the project and my inner winter of discontent, Spring has come along with daffodils here and there and they are in the quilt too (lol mostly the "Bonnie" colors I put in, but there you go).
Each of my quilts have a song -- this is a rain song and not a silver song but it is the song for this project
Aaron Neville/Beautiful Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWnrJun1eLY
Lyrics/apple play link:https://genius.com/Aaron-neville-beautiful-night-lyrics
