March 16, 2016

Late in 2012 I noticed a posting online about a Mystery Quilt-Along with clues posted every hour on New Year’s Day, 2013. I had never done a mystery quilt before or a quilt-along but after I picked my fabrics I didn’t pay much attention to any of the subsequent posts. When I looked for my first clue on New Year’s Day I noticed that we were supposed to have already made 40 quarter square triangle units. Needless to say by the end of the day I was still working on those 40 units and the remaining ten clues hadn’t even been read.

I put the project away for a long time and when I was preparing for the quilting retreat in the fall of 2015 I once again dug it out. It helped that this was one of the projects I had added to my Guild Challenge list for the 2015-2016 season. I finished the top at the retreat, with the exception of the final border. The project (and cut borders) hung on a rack in my studio for several more months and, while clearing space in my sewing studios, I put it in a bin with several other projects that were needing only borders or quilting. I promised myself that whenever I had a stretch of time at home I would tackle the quilting.

The quilting took almost a week of my time. I knew from the start I would outline the pinwheels and do some stippling in the background of those blocks. I purchased some templates when Lainey closed her shop and the Leap Frog was the perfect size for the alternate blocks. Because of all the colour changes in the block none of my markers showed up enough so I had to use a paper template for the free motion quilting.

Pat has asked to have this one hung on one wall of the bedroom. I added a sleeve in case I want to put the quilt in the next show, but we’ll purchase a curtain rod with hooks when it is hung at home.

The quilt finished at approximately 56″ x 68″.