You read it right folks…Allietare is FINISHED!!
I loved making this mystery quilt. Â For those of you who might not know each year Bonnie Hunter hosts a mystery quilt. Â The mystery starts on the Friday after Thanksgiving and ends around New Year’s Day. Â I love it. Â The mystery always helps me get through the Christmas season providing a little bit of “me time”. Â I love it. Â I will always do the mystery.
I went with Bonnie’s suggested colors. Â Our daughter Kayla graduated from Iowa State (red and gold)…so I’ve thought about gifting this quilt her.
I am always a bit of a rebel so have to change the quilt up a little bit.I made mine an extra row wider so mine is in a 6 x 6 setting. Â I opted to not do the borders Bonnie’s suggested way either. Â I just added a 3 1/2″ border around the outside.
She had suggested a scalloped border. Â Although doing a scalloped border is on my bucket list for some reason, I picture scalloped borders on quilt that are more feminine in coloring. Â To me, this looks like it could make a great guy quilt but the scalloped border might take away from that…or at least that was my reasoning for my quilt.
I quilted it with a light brown thread. Â A while back I had shown this quilt on the frame and asked for thread color recommendations.
I went with the tan that is furtherest to the left. Â That left a few people confused….It’s a thread I often use when I con’t see an obvious choice. Â It blends in with everything and isn’t overpowering at all.
The design I used was from the book  Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting: Turn 9 Simple Shapes into 80+ Distinctive Designs Best-selling author of First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting
My quilt was a little temperamental on the frame. Â It just wouldn’t lay as flat and nice as would have liked….plus, even though I loved the thread color and am glad I picked it, it was hard to see where I was going with the busy-ness of the quilt. Â I managed though.
I love my binding fabric….
The quilt ended up being larger than the 6 yards of backing fabric allowed so I played a little. Â The strip and orphan blocks are from blog readers gifted goodies. Â Nothing fancy..but fun.
I am so glad to have this quilt finished. Â The last two mystery quilts I didn’t finish until the fall of the next year when I hosted my “Finish up a Bonnie Quilt” before the next mystery comes. Â I always host that here in the fall – Â October-November time. Â I won’t have the mystery to do this year….Hmm..I wonder what I’ll finish this year. Â Goodness knows I have a host of Bonnie quilts started.
So there you have it….Time to fold this one up.
Thanks so much for the mystery Bonnie…This one is one of my favorites..although I’ll always pick Roll, Roll Cotton Boll as my favorite. Â It got me string piecing!!
If you missed the pattern you can find it in Bonnie’s digital download store here.
Beautiful job Jo!
I LOVED this mystery! My blocks are all done, in fact sewn into to twosies. I don’t have a nice big spot to lay them out. So they are patiently waiting for a quilt retreat St. Pat’s weekend! ( I am checking in Wednesday night, tee hee!) It will be the first project that I work on that weekend. I am taking my backing and batting with, so I can drop it off at the quilters that Saturday!! My reds are more of a burnt orange, my blacks are a nice brown. I can hardly wait to see it as a top! Yours looks awesome!
You are great !! and so is this FINISH. Thanks for pointing out the whys for changes. They all make sense.
Beautiful job! Mine is still in pieces although all the units are finished. I ve gotten finished with the units but they are still in a box. I let myself sidetracked by more urgent projects. Maybe it will be my finish a Bonnie project! I just hope to get to it before then!
I agree, the straight edges look better on this quilt. I love the colors! Very nice Jo!
My Allietare is loaded on the frame but I am still trying to choose a thread color. I think I will use something similar to your thread choice. I changed the size of the borders too and I don’t plan to do the scalloped edge.
I also love Bonnie’s mystery quilts. This is the third one for me. My first two are still waiting to be quilted. I love her paint chips idea for fabric choice. I have done all my fabric shopping for these quilts in my own stash. It’s a wonderful feeling!
Just beautiful. It’s funny how some quilts just have “it” … this is definitely one of those for me. Don’t know if it’s the pattern, fabric, or colors … guess maybe it’s all three. It doesn’t really matter what makes it jump out … just that it does. Really, really pretty.
Retreat next week. . .maybe mine will go with me! Heaven only knows that I have Bonnie UFOs to tide me over forever! :) Have a great weekend!
Great job, Jo! I love it!
I like the way your triangles on the side blend into the border. I was thinking about doing the usual inner and outer border on mine, but I may just do like you and do the one border. I’m not going to scallop either.
Jo, Your quilt is beautiful. Love I.
Anne D.
What a great job and Ruby made it even more beautiful. Hope you are feeling good and taking care of yourself.
Myra
Your Allietare turned out great! I really like that original color scheme of Bonnie’s. It’s on my list to make. Actually, I think my grey fabric may be the same as yours…or very similar. I just hope there’s enough of it…haven’t measured yet.
I’ve made several of Bonnie’s quilts and so far my favorite is Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll too. Double Delight runs a close second.
I did my borders like yours–I like the notched effect it gives the outside of the piecing. Beautiful!
I, too, think the straight borders on this quilt look best. I had decided on that as soon as I saw the reveal; Love your binding fabric! Your quilt is a beautiful version. This is my first mystery quilt and also my first scrappy, and right now, since it is tax season and that is my business, not much is getting done on the quilt. Mine is still in the various blocks stage, but I am loving doing this and it was exciting waiting for the new block each week. Congrats on your finish!
Celtic Solstice, Grand Illusion, En Provence I meandered all over. But Allietare and Jamestown Landing are waiting as finished tops as I really want to custom quilt them, although I don’t have a LA and I FMQ on my DSM. I love Christina Cameli’s quilting too and have all of her books and Craftsy classes. Thanks for sharing your inspiration.
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