Marshal Mystery Quilt revisited

Today I decided to revisit my Marshal Mystery Quilt.  The Marshal quilt was designed by Jen Kingwell and released in Quiltmania magazine throughout 2019.

 

I made most of the blocks during 2019, but when the final quilt was revealed at Houston in November, I lost motivation to continue.  I didn't like the final design, so I've spent some months thinking about how I could use all the blocks I spent hours making.

The full reveal of the Marshal mystery quilt

I decided to buy yardage of Jen Kingwell's Lollies fabric and planned to applique the feature blocks onto it like my good friend Racheldaisy did in a quilt that she designed.

My plan this morning

However, I still had the issue of how to use all the 4" square blocks.  So I started playing with them this afternoon.

Now I've decided that it's either going to be the hand pieced blocks OR the 4" square blocks.  I don't think I can incorporate them both into the same quilt.

So it's back to the drawing board as I consider how to make the most of what I've got in front of me.

Thanks for all the comments in support of shopping local.  I've added a new tab with a list of NZ quilt shops.  I haven't quite worked through all my emails yet, but I promise to do that tomorrow morning and will add any more mentioned in those emails.  I'll also add more details about where each shop is.  

How's your quilting going? Are you getting lots done?  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.

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Marshal Mystery Quilt (and the Peacock Party)

It's a long time since I've talked about the Marshal Mystery Quilt, designed by Jen Kingwell.  The final layout has just been revealed at Houston (as shown below) and in Quiltmania magazine, so it's a good time to revisit my blocks and think about how I will proceed.

At this stage I think I'm going to come up with a different layout.  I can't say that I'm in love with the final layout, and I haven't come this far to join my blocks in a way that I don't love.   I very much doubt that Jen Kingwell has time to read blogs, but if you are reading Jen - I'm sorry! This one just doesn't grab me in the way that some of your other designs do. 

I like the giant X effect, but I don't like how it dissects the semicircle blocks.  I can't see how I can have both features in the same quilt, so something is going to have to give. 

I stalled on part 4 because by the time I had cut all the pieces out, something else exciting had come along - I can't even remember what that was now! I also struggled to hand piece that centre semicircle and wanted to ask for advice from my hand piecing tutor at Symposium.  Wendy Whellum said that she would just applique the semicircle on, so that's what I'm going to do for the next 7 blocks.

Also, shortly after I received the instruction for part 4, part 5 was released in Europe and I started seeing photos of how part 5 looked.  I didn't like how the fabrics in the external arcs in part 5 alternated, so I decided to wait and see the full quilt layout before I stitched parts 4 and 5.

Gosh I'm sounding picky, but this is the downside of doing a mystery quilt.  It's easy to get swept up in the initial stages and join in making blocks, but when you see the final quilt it might be quite different to what you were expecting. 

Sadly seeing the final result hasn't spurred me in to action - it's left me with a load of small blocks, yards of Jen's Lollies fabric, and no clear plan of what I'm going to do with it all.

A number of people in the Facebook group have said that they are going to devise a different layout too, so I'm interested to see what they come up with.

I'm not going to abandon this because I do like the centre block and I spent hours and hours making it and the blocks for parts 2 and 3.  I think I'll still made parts 4 and 5, and by the time I've done that maybe other people will have presented some different layouts.

Let me know if you've got any suggestions please.

Now it's time for the Peacock Party.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post and let us know what you've been up to.

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Marshal Mystery quilt plus the Peacock Party

I've been working on the Marshal mystery quilt this week.  Suddenly I'm overwhelmed with WIPs, so my solution is to pick one and work on it exclusively for a week. 

This is the Marshal mystery quilt by Jen Kingwell, published in QuiltMania magazine.  I picked up the latest issue of the QuiltMania magazine when I was in Sydney, so now I'm making the court house steps blocks. 

I've chosen to foundation paper piece my court house steps blocks to ensure they are accurate.  I designed my own paper piecing template on the computer.

There are a lot of blocks to make, but hopefully I'll be able to finish them next week.

I hope you've all time for a bit of sewing this past week.  Feel free to link up a recent blog post below.  Thank you for continuing to join in the Peacock Party.

PS - tomorrow I'm going to do a blog post about my six monthly check in against my 2019 quilting priorities.  Stay tuned to see how distracted I have become!

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Marshal Mystery quilt - and the Peacock Party

This weekend my husband and I are off to Auckland because my eldest son is graduating on Tuesday. He is has completed a Bachelor of Software Engineering, majoring in Game Programming.  He has a job already and is putting all his skills to work as an Interactive Developer.

Our younger son is also studying for a Bachelor of Engineering, majoring in Software Engineering, but he is studying at a different university.

My kids don't like me talking about them on my blog, but we are very proud of both of them.

Graduation in New Zealand tends to start with a parade down the main street of the major cities, and then the graduates and their families file into the Town Hall for the ceremony. This is repeated three or four times over a week, until all of the faculties have held their ceremonies. Not everyone can fit into the town halls at once.

I've been working on Month 2 of Jen Kingwell's Marshal Mystery quilt from QuiltMania magazine.  This week I've been appliquing circles and donuts onto background fabrics.  I've still got a long way to go, but I'm doing a few each night.  Some are turning out more symmetrical than others.  The one on the yellow background below has some issues and may need to be redone.  One side is thicker than the other.

I've just realised that I never shared Month 1 of the Marshal Mystery quilt, so here's my centre block.  I'll write a full blog post when I've finished all of the Month 2 blocks.  I chose to hand piece this, and I probably sewed every seam about 4 times, but hey, it's finished and it lies reasonably flat.

It's time for another Peacock Party.  I'm always interested to see what other people are working on.  I hope you enjoy finding new quilters through the Peacock Party.

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