I had never done a mystery quilt before. I had seen them all over the internet, but never was intrigued enough to participate. Until last year. Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame runs mystery quilt alongs every year apparently. For some mysterious reason, I decided to jump in and join up for the Good Fortune Mystery Quilt Along. According to my photos, we must have started last year in November. That is the date stamp on the first pictures of part one.
I kept up with the first three parts. This quilt was made from nothing but scraps and I did enjoy that aspect of the project immensely. When we got to the fourth part, I couldn't quite wrap my head around it for some reason and I became quite frustrated. So I quit. I put all the finished pieces in a project box and walked away from it. I did mountains of sewing and other projects for awhile after that.
In August, something tugged at me. I decided to pull it all out and give it another go. I had downloaded all the instructions to do the rest of the quilt and so I had that ready to go. I worked on it for a bit. I finished all of the components of the quilt finally. Then, I began to assemble the quilt.
I made it this far by the fall. I had the center of the quilt finished. It hung on my design wall for weeks, as I tried to get energized about it. I had some Christmas sewing to do, so I took it down and hung it over a hanger on the sewing room door. And there it stayed. Until this past week. I finally decided to get it finished. I had made my list of 2020 projects and it was near the top of the list.
Now, I think that if I had known there were four borders on this thing, I might not have started it in the first place. I am not a fan of borders, which is one reason I like the modern quilt movement so much. Borders are not mandatory. But there was nothing for it but to plow forward.
So this week I began sewing the borders on to the quilt top. To me, it seems a tedious process and each side seems longer than the last.
But finally all the borders were on all the sides. This is a pretty large quilt too! I love the look of the design when I stand back and take it all in. Up close, I worried about some of my fabric scrap choices, but looking from a distance it all works.
In these two photos, you can see the four borders a bit closer. Two of them are quite narrow. The green and white HSTs are trimmings from the pinwheels. Bonnie calls them bonus blocks. It's not the type of thing I usually save to use.
One last picture of the whole beauty, hanging on the clothesline. I am so glad it is done, but seriously, I don't see me ever making another mystery quilt. I plan to quilt it in an all over swirl pattern, since there are so many small pieces and seams that I feel a need to secure. I may be back to show when that part gets done, but it may take a bit to get to it. The project list is long.
Happy new year my friends. May your year be filled with Good Fortune.
