Bonnie Hunter released her color requirements for this year's mystery quilt over the weekend. I have not yet finished last year's Grassy Creek mystery, though I'm fairly close. My goal for November is to have all units sewn. Here's how it currently looks after spending a little time trimming units over the weekend.
Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal November Link-up
Trimming all these was rather tedious.
I used the Antler Quilt Design Mini Simple Folded Corners ruler {affiliate link} method from Bonnie's directions because I could match my piece and the correct line on the ruler to her instruction images. I was hung up on this step forever until I broke down and bought the ruler.
She also recommends this ruler for this year's mystery, along with her Essential triangle tool {affiliate link}. I have a similar ruler that I can work with, but Bonnie's would probably be easier since she tells you which mark to use for each step.
I also discovered that I'd cut all eleventy-billion rectangles a half inch too big, so I trimmed those to the correct size too.
I started working on my fabric pull for this year's mystery. This is my initial attempt, though I have changed a bit it since then. I decided to stick more to her color scheme for this year. I need to order a few more low volume pieces and will wait til later to purchase the aqua, per her recommendation.
Besides messing a bit with the mystery quilts, I worked on a few quilts. This first one is another of Toni's memory quilts. The backing fabric she used had really great colors. Quilted with In the Swirls and Glide Peacock (a pinky-purple) thread.
I completed two of Sonja's as well. First is the heart quilt, quilted with Ginger Heart and Glide Cotton Candy thread (pale pink). Sonja's been sending me Pellon Bamboo batting for her quilts recently. It is a really nice batting. I love how it quilts.
And her teal triangles quilt, quilted with Mike's Swoosh. She did another masterful job of lining up the pattern in the backing fabric.
I also quilted one of mine. I purchased the top several months ago in an Instagram destash with the intent of finishing it and donating it to the Community Quilts program our guild runs. I finally made time in my schedule to quilt it. My client Ann let me have all the trimmings from her king battings and I was able to seam them and use them for this project. I purchased some wide back fabric from Hancock's of Paducah, quilted it with the Calder pattern and bright green Glide Limerick thread, and bound it with what appeared to be trimmings from a quilt back from my stash. I donated it last night. 😊
Last year I had my husband buy me a laser square {similar one at this affil. link}. It is perfect for checking square on your completed quilt tops and also for cutting straight lines in batting by the yard.
I'll be honest, I left the edge alone after verifying that it wasn't square because it would have been glaringly obvious in the batik strip if I had squared it properly. It's a quilt that's meant to be used and loved, not a show quilt, so really, who cares if it isn't perfectly square?
Speaking of show quilts, the big quilt show was held over the weekend and it was fantastic! We had record attendance and the Treasure Shop and the raffle baskets were a rousing success. I even won one of the baskets, a whole bunch of different first aid products that my friend Amber had donated. Sorry, didn't get a picture. Here are the three quilts I had hanging. First, my Frolic mystery, finally bound just last month.
Next, my cute little Highland Cow, last month's OMG, completely made, start to finish, in October.
And finally, my 365 Challenge quilt that I made in 2016 and finished in 2019. You can see my guild mate Natalie's amazing rainbow version next to it. She wanted me to enter mine so they could hang together. I actually caught a woman completely manhandling my quilt during the show. Ummm...are you new? We have white glove volunteers for a reason. My husband confronted the woman. And to top that off, I got to hear some women near her completely ripping apart my quilt and my color choices. 🙄 
One Halloween filled with awful middle school boys, a new water heater, one repaired range hood, and one so far unresolved furnace fault code later, here we are. I'm hoping for less calamity and more uninterrupted sewing and quilting time for this week. Check back next week to see if it happens.
PS--goodies from the show: a purchased quilt kit and a few Treasure Shop gems.
Linking with For the Love of Geese and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
