Picking Colors for Bonnie Hunter Mystery "Frolic"

This is such a fun time of the year.  I love the colors Bonnie chose for her mystery  https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/frolic-mystery.html

But, I've used fuscia and aqua in my last two quilts so I wanted to change things.

Instead of aqua I am going to use the very light green (pear grunge) that I already had in my stash.  I found the darker green polka dot on the sale rack and it will be my green.  Instead of fuscia I am going to use orange..  Bonnie's photos of Texas wildfllowers was her inspiration and when I think of the Bluebells I always thinking of the orange Indian Paintbrush flowers too.  The last 2 years of mysteries On Ringo Lake and Good Fortune both had orange in the quilt and I went with a different combination so now I have this:

I am ready for the fun to begin!

Last Saturday I went shopping with a friend and snagged some neutrals

I finished the quilt I was quilting for my friend.  I decided on no background fill...The big blocks are stitched in the ditch and the pinwheels have continuous curves.

Background fill

This is a friend's quilt.  It has large negative space.  I have been putting framed squares in and I am happy with the look, but I am not sure how I will do the background around the frames.

I opened the pic in Microsoft Paint to try out some ideas.  - very rough sketches with a mouse, but I am still undecided.  Off to consult with a friend....

Choosing Colors For Quilts - Good Fortune

Someone recently posted on Quiltingboard Forum asking how people choose colors for their quilts.  I thought I would share my response here.  Of course there are many ways to select colors and at one time I thought about making a few videos on the subject. 

What I used for the Good Fortune quilt (Bonnie Hunter Mystery 2018) was a focus fabric but not used in the quilt.  Bonnie's scrappy quilts use color families - several shades of one color.  She gives out the colors for the next mystery around the end of Oct.   She chose red, orange, blue, green and neutrals.  I didn't want to use orange so I went shopping for a fabric that combined 4 fabrics that I liked because I couldn't think of what I wanted.

This had several colors

I took this fat quarter around the shop and picked out fat quarters in 4 colors from it until I found four I liked together. then I pulled fabric from stash and shopping that went with my color choices.

 The final quilt didn't use the focus fabric.

Free Motion quilting on tshirt quilt

I quilted a friend's tshirt quilt.  Free motion - flowers, hearts, curls.  Sometimes on the shirts the thread sinks in so much it looks like there are skipped stitches.

Allen Quilt Guild Silent Auction

This is a small guild in a town northeast of Dallas. http://allenquilters.org/   There are very friendly and welcoming. 

Last Thursday was their silent auction and sale.  The fat quarters were on sale for $.50.  I restrained myself because I really have lots of fabric.  They sold preowned notions and panels also.  Then there were items in the auction. 

Here are my treasures:

I am going to save one of the desktop organizers for a gift.  The boxed pouch will be used for EPP notions - needle threader, scissors, etc.

I am almost embarrassed to say I only spent $35 on my loot

Rally Day 2019 - Pam Holland

This post is late!  Rally Day is in July.  It is put on by TAQG (Texas Association of Quilt Guilds) It's an annual event with a guest speaker.  If you are a member of one of the associated guilds entry is only $5.  There are lots of door prizes, raffles, silent auction. Most of the guilds bring their raffle quilt to sell tickets. 

There are two lectures/trunk shows from the guest speaker.  This year the speaker was Pam Holland.  She is a wonderful artist and speaker.  It was so fun and inspiring.  After speaking she had her quilts out for us to get closer looks.  Some of her quilts:

these were laid out on the steps of the stage.  The elephant is one of my very favorites:

The speaker was selling things and I picked up this print of a sketch she'd made.  It was $6 and just a lovely reminder or her art and a great day spent with friends.

Also the first 500 people get goody bags with donations from all the guilds.

Small Landscape finished

This quilt was also at the quilt show.  A non-judged exhibit where members show projects they made from guild workshops the previous year.

This was from Ann Loveless' workshop in January.  I like it.  I never finished my poppies quilt from her other workshop.  I am not happy with it.  It is sitting in a drawer having a bit of a time out

Bethane Nemesh's class The Devil is in the Details.

I have been a fan of her work since I first saw it a few years ago.  She spoke at our guild Thursday night and it was an excellent lecture.

Today I had the pleasure of taking a class.  Someday I would like to take another class from her.  She is a great teacher.

Some of her quilts hanging in the classroom:

some of her samples:

she supplied us with small quilted samples to try techniques. Below is some of my work.  It was so much fun.

Good Fortune Bonnie Hunter Mystery Finished.

This was the other quilt I finished for the quilt show.  I helps me to have a deadline otherwise my projects languish.

Caveat, I love doing Bonnie's mysteries but I start rushing in my piecing and points aren't perfect much of the time.

Play Modern from a workshop with Gyleen Fitzgerald

Recently I had two quilts in the Plano Guild Show. They were not of a quality to be competitive but I wanted to participate and use the opportunity to finish a couple quilts. Of course the Judges gave some compliments and critiques. I was explaining how judging works to my granddaughter France. She gave me a double edged compliment saying, " I don't care what they say - in our house it's a masterpiece!"

One of the judge's critiques was that it wasn't quilted modern - valid-I had entered it under modern.  I did wavy lines, moving into leaves and then flowers in the big cubes.  I debated straight line quilting in the background which I think I would have preferred but once I started quilting wavy I stayed with that rather than rip out.  I have no issue with the judges comments.  It is simply information to file away if I wish to be more competative.

Here is a closer view of the quilting.

Two Workshops With Ann Loveless

Ann Loveless http://www.quiltsbyann.com/  spoke at Plano guild on Thursday night.  She is an entertaining speaker and a lovely lady.  I attend two workshops with her.  We learned techniques and it was especially gratifying that we were able to mostly finish both projects in class.

Lots Of Fun Sewing With Friends - Good Fortune

This mystery season I sewed on 5 Saturdays with old and new friends working on Bonnie Hunter's mystery.  I want to sew this way next year.  It was lots of fun and I kept up my momentum better than when I sew by myself.  We sewed at a day retreat center in Dallas (Best Little Retreat Center) and plan to do it again next year.

For info on the mystery and to see others' progress click here