New Year's Day 2020 Mystery Quilting Project

I have been participating in this Mystery Quilting project with Longarm University and Cindy Roth for about eight years now. In those eight years, I've totally misread the directions (the first year) and am too embarrassed to tell you what I did. Suffice it to say, that mistake has never been made again and I didn't finish the project. The only other year that I didn't participate was 2019--the project included applique. In my dictionary, applique is a four letter word!!

So...onto the basics and then the pics. Each year, Cindy posts a pattern with instruction. The idea is to have the top completed and loaded so that on New Year's Day when the instruction starts coming, you're ready to go. I had mine loaded and ready, but I sure didn't start at 8 a.m. with the first post! I girl has to eat!!!

So this is the completed top:

Although it looks yellow, the fabric is a brilliant white and the black is polka-dot Grunge (I'm in love with the entire Grunge line). One of the really nice things about this project is that Cindy creates a FB page and is there to answer questions. When I realized that we wouldn't be quilting this block by block, allowing me to match thread/fabric color, I was stumped. I generally like my quilting to show up as texture and not be the main event. Cindy suggested variegated green and I went with it.

Below are some closeups of the front. 

And now pics of the back...the best part! (Double click on this first pic for a better view of the entire back)

 A bit pic heavy, but the back of this quilt is just FUN!!! And, again, its truly white fabric...I think I need a new camera!!

Thanks for looking!
Dory

Joan's Row-by Row Quilt

This is such a fun quilt. I made one myself and gave it to some folks that let us stay in their cabin on Orcas Island. Then Karen hired me to quilt the winning quilt from all the ones her students had made. And finally, Joan and I traded. She put the binding on my Row by Row and I quilted hers.

This was a fun quilt to make...well, most of it was. I'm not a huge fan of the "A" word, so I changed mine a bit. Joan made hers according to direction and her applique was gorgeous! My favorite quilts to quilt and make are ones with lots of different blocks; that's why this pattern really appeals to me.

Joan's applique flowers were perfect. I did the flowers on mine, as well, but when I got to the row with the butterflies, I was done with applique!

A closer view to show the inside of the churn dash blocks and the quilting in their sashing

And the houses.  My favorite items to quilt are houses!!

Maybe if my practice butterflies would have turned out like this, I might have done them...maybe! Joan's are beautiful.

And no post is complete without a few pics of the back. If I remember correctly, this may have been flannel on the back. If you click on the pic, a larger view will open for a closer inspection.

By only quilting in every other square in the checkerboard rows, the non-quilted squares really puffed out. It gave the quilt some nice texture.

And a few more, just because I have them:

Thanks for looking!

Dory

Leslie's Bear Paws Panel

Leslie got on a roll with several panels during 2019. It was really fun for me to come up with ideas to quilt them. I really wanted to do some specific "bear" quilting on this one, but if you look at his "backside," you'll see that wouldn't work.  Instead, I opted for some diagonal cross-hatching and played a bunch in the surrounding paws and borders.

You can see that I did some of Angela's Dot-to Dot quilting in the paws, a checkerboard in those outer squares and swags in the outside border. I may have gotten a tad carried away!

 Below are a couple of shots of the back. You can see the swags coming to gether in the corner on this one.

And here you can see the "Dot-to-Dot" in the paws.

Thanks for looking!

Dory

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone...is anyone still there??

I'm starting up again and plan to be posting at least twice a month. Hopefully, by staying more current, I can post more regularly. (Hard to believe I haven't posted since last June!)

I will be mixing in some of last year's quilts with this year's as they are finished.

Today, for your viewing pleasure is Carol's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt. I'm not sure which one this is, but it, as most of the BH Mystery Quilts are, was HUGE! This pic was taken in my living room, which has high ceilings--it still touched the floor.

Here are a couple of close-ups. Because of the design I chose, this quilt was quilting block by block...it was slow going!

And a couple shots of the back. It was a plain, muslin type backing, so the quilting showed up nicely.

Best part was that Carol loved it when it finally made it back to California.

More to come...in way less than six months!

Dory

Charlene's Gridlock Quilt

Another of Charlene's beautiful quilts. This pattern is called Gridlock.

This quilt was a challenge for me, design wise.  Am I supposed to admit that? Some quilts just throw me for a loop! First the outside had single blocks, then three in a "V" formation, and then the middle had four blocks making a large square. Once I had those figured out, staying simple, I had to do something in those setting triangles to balance out the center, but it couldn't be overly dense. A whole quilt of simple designs, not something I normally do.

I started off doing a large continuous curve in the big blocks and then echoing it for more definition.

In the "V" and single blocks, I went with more CCs, just smaller. And the setting triangles got a CC design with wishbones filling the middle.

This one shows more of the setting triangle and the geometric border.

And finally, a couple shots of the back.

I dropped this quilt off for Charlene in Port Townsend the other day. She had already put the binding on the first quilt and planned to finish this one and enter them both in our local fair. And she trusted me with another one of her beauties!

Thanks for stopping by

Dory