Quilting Linda: A Quilting Blog by Linda West

Jan

5

Grand Illusion – Reveal

Posted Monday, January 5th, 2015 in Grand Illusion | Read More

On New Year’s Day, Bonnie revealed the final clue to the mystery quilt. With this clue, she shows how to use all the parts that we have been making for the last five weeks.

This is the first block for my quilt. There will be a total of 25 blocks. The green checkerboard block is the sashing that will go between each block. When the blocks are all joined, I will make a pieced border from the blocks I made in clue 4.

Some of the quilters have finished their quilt tops. Click here to see Bonnie’s finished quilt. Stay tuned for my finished top  next week!

Dec

14

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt – Part 3

Posted Sunday, December 14th, 2014 in Grand Illusion | Read More

This week the blocks are easier to cut and  assemble. The piecing was quicker because I made strip sets, re-cut, and sewed again. I pressed each strip in opposing directions and was able to nestle all the seams and sew without pinning.

I had a large piece of solid green that was left over from the Zelda quilt I made for Tristan in 2012. I  used the  this green fabric for all of the blocks rather than making them scrappy. I used fat quarters for the other colors in this block.  I have been able to find all the fabrics I needed in my fabric stash. It feels wonderful to make a small dent in my piles of fabric!

Here are my 120 blocks for clue three.

I am linking up to Bonnie’s link up page.

Dec

11

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt – Part 2

Posted Thursday, December 11th, 2014 in Fabric Stash, Grand Illusion, Quilting, Scrap Quilts | Read More

This week we are making 200 pink, black and white rectangles and sewing two together to make 100 blocks. Bonnie gave us three different ways to assemble the rectangles. I chose to use the second method.

I printed the template for the diamond and taped it to the EZ Angle ruler to cut the diamonds. I wanted to try to make a block before cutting 200 pieces and took the template off my ruler to cut a few triangles. The pieces fit together perfectly.

I like to sew assembly line style. After sewing all 200 rectangles, I pressed them. Next I pieced all the blocks together and again did all the pressing.

To see the progress of other mystery quilters, click on this link.

Oct

20

Grand Illusion: A new mystery quilt

Posted Monday, October 20th, 2014 in Grand Illusion, Quilting | Read More

Each year, Bonnie Hunter gives her blog followers a free mystery quilt pattern. The mystery begins the day following Thanksgiving and a new clue is given each week until it is completed. She gives the fabric requirements earlier along with numbers for paint chips that are available at Lowe’s. The paint chips are the colors she used in her quilt. She posted the “Introduction” on October 9 which includes the paint chip numbers and pictures of the fabrics she used in her quilt. She chose colors that she saw in the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

Last year I made the Celtic Solstice mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter’s blog.  I was able to find all the fabric colors I needed for the quilt in my fabric stash. I enjoyed the process very much and want to follow along again this year. I was hoping to find all the fabrics from my stash again. I picked up the paint chips last week. These are the fabrics I pulled from my stash for the new quilt, “Grand Illusion”. Bonnie makes scrappy quilts, so if I need to add a bit more fabric it will still look great.

My fabrics are not a perfect match to the paint chips but are actually closer in color than they appear in the picture.

I will be blogging about my progress with the quilt as I do each step. Would you like to join me? Click the links above to see Bonnie’s blog and to get the fabric requirements.