Being I just finished up this year’s mystery quilt I thought I would do a little recap of all the mystery quilts I’ve made to date.
Carolina Christmas was the ’09 quilt.
I didn’t know how to blog then and my pictures were terrible. This quilt lives at Kayla’s house. I loved the whole mystery aspect and was sold on making them after I did this first mystery.
Roll Roll Cotton Boll  (read the original post here)
I did this as the mystery. I wasn’t a string girl at all at the time. I remember dreading when I heard the words string. I almost gave up on the mystery right then. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I moved on beyond that. Strings honestly opened a whole new world for me.
Of all of the quilts, I would definitely make this one again. Of all the quilts I’ve made for mysteries, this is my favorite. I think the reason I love it so much was that this quilt sold me a scraps. Before this quilt I did scraps…but this one showed me I loved scraps.
Mine was all Civil War fabrics and it looked good in those. This quilt is a keeper. I won’t gift it.
Orka Bay (more about the quilt HERE)
I did this as a mystery.
I loved this as a mystery…one of my favorite ones. The border had me really loving the quilt.
I had some UFO blocks and was doing a UFO challenge at the same time I was working on this. I ended up putting the blocks on the back of the quilt.
This is by far one of my favorite mysteries. I love everything about it.
Easy Street #1Â (read more about it HERE)
Mine is made with primarily Civil War Reproduction fabrics.  I didn’t have purples so I replaced pink for purple.
That year I made TWO mysteries. Yep, never again for sure.
Here is my Easy Street #2…
(read about it HERE)Â This one I added blocks and made it without a border.
Oh my. It was HUGE. I couldn’t do it on my quilting machine it was so large.
Celtic Solstice (Read more about it HERE)
This quilt is the regular quilt in my spare bedroom.
Here it is from the day it was finished. This one, finished after the next year’s mystery started. I twisted my blocks and was frustrated with the quilt. No, mine doesn’t look like Bonnie’s but now, 4 years later, I don’t care at all.
To tell the truth, I have not idea how the block was supposed to go. Isn’t that just like life. Things we think were a big deal at the time, now make no difference.
Grand Illusion (read about it HERE)
Of all the mysteries, this was my least favorite. In the design, 2″ units butt up to 2 1/2″ units and to me, my eye didn’t like it.
I did mine in Civil War prints which in the past, I had often done and liked it. I think I would have liked this better in batiks so it had more of a watercolor look. I think I would have liked the quilt better.
Allietare! (Read about it HERE)
En Provence (read about it HERE)
This quilt…was an epic fail for me.
Mine is mystery inspired…not the real mystery.  I goofed up the colors…ugh.  It happens and in the end, I think it was salvaged into a pretty good quilt.
I was supposed to have pink where the light purple was….I screwed up.  I didn’t want to remake those pieces so then my secondary stars didn’t look right because they were red.  Oh no!
I was beyond the point of caring. It was a quilt that I shouldn’t have used Civil War prints on…One never knows.
After not liking Grand Illusion and screwing up on En Provence I almost gave up doing the mystery quilt. Not because of Bonnie…just because I didn’t know if I was “into it” anymore. But I continued on…
On Ringo Lake (read about it HERE)
I liked this mystery and really like the colors…the thing I didn’t like, it didn’t is that it didn’t seem finished to me. I felt like it needed a border. If I had been able to find more fabric, I would have made an outer border on it. I took it to a couple different quilt shops and could come up with something I liked so I passed the quilt on.
This went to Cheryl in Dallas and Cheryl finished it.
It was donated on to a charity that helped women coming out of prison.
I’m happy it could go on and do good.
 Good Fortune (read about it HERE)
This is probably my more favorite of recent mysteries. I did mine in Civil War colors and ended up really liking that.
I’ve kept this one and likely will. That’s always a sign that the quilt is a favorite.
Frolic (read about it HERE)
I liked the 2019 mystery just fine. I do wish I would have had a different green….
It’s hard to distinguish the dark green and the dark blue. You can see it close up, but further off, not really.
I so appreciate Bonnie putting so much work into the designs of these quilts. Making them is a great pass time over Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Next year I’m tempted to not do the mystery and instead go back and do one of the previous mysteries that I haven’t done yet. In general, I have tried to avoid looking at them and studying them thinking that one day, I would do them as a mystery on my own. I’ve glimpsed them all enough to know that I like them. We’ll see. For now, I’m still on a roll of cleaning the sewing room and tackling old projects. I really want a fun fresher start and to do that, I have to bypass some temptations. It’s the life of a quilter….
What is a “flimsy”? Keep up the good work you are doing on your sewing room. Bet you have found a few things that had gone missing.
Betty a “flimsy” is a finished quilt top that is not yet quilted and completely finished.
Enjoyed seeing all your mystery quilts. I have not done any BH mysteries but have done others and enjoyed them.
Great looking quilts! Even though you may have some faults w with the colors or sch, they turned out beautiful and you did a great job.
I am passing on fabric to your sites that you have listed. I am trying to purge and clean up also. Thanks for your blog. I love to read it.
Jo-I love all your mystery quilts. I have made all the same ones. I usually follow Bonnie’s suggested colors using up all kinds of scraps. My favorite was Roll Cotton Boll. I like them all, but I thought Frolic was the hardest……had to keep track of all those sets. I too appreciate all the hard work Bonnie puts into them.
Loved seeing how your mystery quilts were a bit different than others. I have followed her mysteries and even started one. Never finished it though. Passed on those pieces to others.
Love and prayers
Jo – those quilts are quite amazing and represent a lot of work for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Loved your BH mysteries! What a show! I believe my favorites are Good Fortune and Frolic. I’ve only finished Carolina Christmas and I only made 1/4th of it. Made a great lap quilt. What I discovered is that for me between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a very bad time for me to do a mystery as most of big events in our family happen then.
It was fun looking at your Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts! I did several of them and like you, Grand Illusion was my least favorite although after I quilted it, I liked it better. My sister fell in love with it so I gifted it to her.
Jo, I always check to see how you do the mystery quilts because I know I will like your color choices. I am a Civil War fabrics lover and only do baby quilts or requested sports throws in other fabric types. I haven’t done one of the mystery ones yet but have considered making the Cotton Boll or Carolina Christmas as they are my favorites. You have amazed me with the number of quilts you do! Thanks for sharing them!
Very impressed with your parade!!!!!! Thanks for showing us all……..
Enoyed viewing the parade of your BH mystery quilts. Admire your fortitude in sticking with the ‘mystery’ to the end. I have tried a couple of QAL and have yet to finish either. Of all of the quilts shown i most admire – On Ringo Lake and Frolic – and that is because I really like the colours, particularly the turquoises, teals, aquamarines and purples (all shades of). Happy quilting Jo.
Roll Roll Cotton Boll was my first Bonnie mystery quilt and I’ve only missed a couple since then. I agree with you, Grand Illusion was my least favourite.