It's been a long time coming, but I'm very pleased to advise that my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt from 2018 is finally finished. It's called Good Fortune.
I like it, but I wouldn't say that I'm in love with it. I did learn some useful lessons along the way though;
- beware of mystery quilts. This isn't the first time I've said this, but I think I started this quilt before I really learnt my lesson on Jen Kingwell's Marshal mystery quilt.
- if you're going to change the colours or layout, be confident in your plans and don't let regrets creep in.
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| I hand quilted it using a range of Aurifil threads in 12wt and 28wt |
I changed the layout for this quilt because I thought that the original layout (above) was too traditional for me. Now I wonder if my white squares would have shown up better in the original layout, but it's too late to go back now, and I'm definitely not making a second version.
I can now say that I've made a Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt. I won't be tempted to start another one when I see people starting the next one in November. I've decided that mystery quilts aren't for me.
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| Anna Maria Horner on the back |
11 comments:
I very seldom participate in stitch-along mystery quilts either. I don't like to waste my time on a quilt I don't love. One of my favorite quilts is Double Delight which was one of Bonnie Hunter's original mystery quilts. I made my quilt many years after she held the mystery and I used my own color selections. Are you going to keep your Good Fortune quilt or are you going to donate it? It always feels good to have a longtime UFQ finished!
I've found I'm not a fan of mystery quilts either and that's mainly because I don't want a quilt that looks like everyone else's in blog land. Congrats on the finish and doing it your way!
I did make that quilt and it was the first and last mystery quilt I intend to make. I might make another after I see the results of the quilt when others are done. I don't want to waste my fabric and have a quilt that I don't like. I must say even though I do like Good Fortune I didn't like seeing so many done exactly the same way - too many look alike quilts - in the end though mine looked a little different than others in that I use hand dyed red fabric for a backing and it bled horribly - after numerous washings I gave up and I have a pink quilt instead of white background - the dye gave everything a pinkish color to it LOL - I still have it - I don't know what I will eventually do with it it - I don't think anyone wants a quilt this pink!
I like your vertical column layout. The secondary pattern with the white squares is interesting enough in columns. I don't do mystery quilts. I have so many "mysteries in my mind" already that need to be made. I LOVE the backing fabric. I have a half yard of it to pet.
Congrats for stickin' with it and finishing this quilt. I know I would not stick with it so I have never started one of hers, I don't care for mysteries either.
You certainly have given mystery quilts a good try! Bonnie Hunter's are always a LOT of work and a huge challenge!!! Good for you finishing the quilt YOUR WAY!!!
quilting gail
Loaded with beauty and colour this one is Wendy!
Wow, I'm in love with your BH mystery quilt!!! What a fabulous mod layout design, Wendy! I have a BH quilt stalled at the block stage. I'm going to see if I can do a similar layout to yours, if you don't mind. I do love doing her mystery quilts but prefer using different colors than everyone else. Plus, I recognize that I have to keep the momentum going, which can be difficult around Christmas time. Yours is a great solution to making it unique!
Your quilt is lovely, Wendy, but I can relate to how you feel about the mystery quilt. It's tempting to join when you see others having fun with it, but that kind of project involves near total loss of creative control and when you do try to inject something of yourself into it, it's hard to know how what you're changing will impact the finished quilt if you haven't seen what the original design is supposed to look like yet! Even with BOM quilts I now think I need to wait and start after the BOM is finished so I can read through ALL the directions up front, study the picture, decide if I really like the project enough to make it, and THEN start figuring out everything I want to change about it.
i love what you did with 'good fortune'....brings some order out of the chaos that many of bonnie's patterns are...all lovely but still chaos
Mystery quilts can be fun, but one has to be ok with adapting the quilt at the end if you don't like it. I did a Bonnie Hunter Mystery once and only once. I honestly hated how it turned out; however, I completely changed the layout using the units I had made to create something I could live with. I quilted it beautifully which made it a happy quilt for me but not a favorite. Also, one thing I learned from this mystery is to sew up fabric you have in your stash that you don't love or need to get rid of. I did that on that mystery and was not disappointed. The fabric was used and all my "favorite stash items" could still be used in quilts of my choosing.
I am currently in a different mystery right now where I am using up a background batik piece. My blocks are not as pretty as everyone else's, but I am really liking it.
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