Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt by auntietk
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Description
I've been a member here since January 3, 2007. That's nine years! Amazing. So ... happy anniversary to me! :)
..........
This is a quilt I was involved in making last winter with several of my friends in Texas. The top image is the front of the quilt, and the bottom image is the back.
I don't know why I didn't think to show it to you before, but a few days ago one of the women in the group asked me to get a couple pictures, and I thought as long as I'd gone to the trouble, I'd share them with you. I had to stand on a ladder and use my cell phone in order to get the whole thing in the frame, so this isn't about the photography, but about showing you something I've been up to.
This is why it's called a mystery quilt:
There's a woman named Bonnie Hunter who designs quilts, and every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve she publishes weekly instructions for a quilt pattern. If you do everything she says to do, in the end you'll have a quilt! However, when you begin, you have no idea what it will look like in the end. It's an act of faith. I'm not actually crazy about her style ... it tends to be too busy for my taste ... but for me, it's about the fun of making a project with friends, not about the finished quilt.
She provides color swatch information and yardage for each color. At the beginning, this is ALL we know. Just the colors. The colors in this quilt were inspired by a trip Ms. Hunter took to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Really. There's a famous hotel decorated in these colors.
Every week she publishes instructions for a small part of the quilt, but we still don't have any idea what the finished product will look like. Some of the steps are easy, some are more difficult. There were days when we thought maybe we'd just make a few potholders instead of a quilt!
On New Year's Eve Ms. Hunter publishes a photograph of the finished quilt and we see how we're supposed to put all the pieces together to form the quilt design she has been leading us toward.
I wish you'd been there the day we saw how the quilt was supposed to look! Every single one of us absolutely hated it! So we fiddled and fussed and changed things and came up with this design using the blocks we'd been making. We decided unanimously that we would NOT make another mystery quilt ever again!
After we put the top together we had a lot of pieces left over, and decided we'd make a fancy back for the quilt with the leftovers.
This is the result! A quilt based on Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt instructions, revised at the end into something we could live with.
We had a local woman quilt it with her long-arm machine. One of the women in our group put on the border, and when we all got back to Texas this fall we got to see how it turned out. We're having a raffle for the people who live here in the park, with proceeds going to the entertainment committee. So far sales have been brisk!
So when we met for the first time again this fall we had to decide what project we were going to do this winter. Guess what! We're making this year's Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt again!
*sigh*
Everyone says next year we'll do something different.
I'm not making any bets on that at this point! LOL!
.....
FULL VIEW!!! I left it big.
Comments (14)
wysiwig
Some of the most famous and beloved classical pieces are 'variations on a theme', so why not quilts? I don't see anything wrong with signing up for Ms. Hunter's next project as long as you feel empowered to improve upon it. Sounds like your group has a lot of fun working together.
This quilt turned out wonderfully well. I like the slightly off-symmetry of the pairs of black squares and the diagonal pattern on the back.
durleybeachbum
What fun you had!
I can't stand working to anyone else's design, revealed or not. However, I love taking an existing image and modifying it!
See this http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/03/like-a-beautiful-painting-image-of-new-years-mayhem-in-manchester-goes-viral?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Juliette.Gribnau
dazzling quilt ! happy " anniversary
awjay
beautiful
Faemike55
This is a very beautiful quilt - the colours are 'there'
As Mark pointed out the instructions are not set in stone so have fun! it's like following a recipe for spaghetti sauce - you find out the basics then go from there...
MrsRatbag
Impressive! I have a cousin who does intricate and involved quilting projects; I've never had the patience for it. It's good your have a group to do it with. It turned out beautifully (although like you, it's a bit busy for me), maybe next year's quilt will be more to your liking?
X-PaX
That is a very nice quilt Tara. I like it very much.
kgb224
Amazing work Tara. God bless.
junge1
Looks really good, but I am glad I am sober or I would be freaked out. Nine years huh. Mine is coming up in September. Happy New Year Tara!
emmecielle
Congratulations on your anniversary! Beautiful images! :-)
blondeblurr
First of all congratulations on the 9 year itch !
(thanks for the reminder, I am almost there myself - towards the end of the year)
What an incredible lot of work, time and patience went into this creation. I remember fondly, how Lynell (tennesseecowgirl) used to post here US 'Country Barns' with same or similar patterns painted on them, there were unforgettable beautiful...
When you turned it over to take another photo of the back, for a split-second there, I thought it was the design of a board-game, eg Droughts or Checkers ? (not a bad thought - methinks, being practicable)
It looks more like wall-hanging to me for a log-cabin or a yurt (for example). Having been a former window-dresser (and called visual merchandising nowadays ;) I find the colour green a bit much here, because colour combinations can make or break a thing of such proportions, but it will always be an individuals choice... and I am really looking forward to another creation, from all involved.
Cheers BB
RodS
Hehe So it's a case of "I hate it! I hate it! I HATE it!...... Let's do it again!"
Actually, I kinda like it - fun and colorful geometric patterns, and of course the fun of putting it together with friends.
My aunt Esther is into quilt-making - she has one of those long arm machines, and showed Jo and me how it worked once. truly amazing...
Perhaps you should provide Ms, Hunter with a link to Apophysis or Mandelbulb..... No telling what you'd be be putting together next time!
anahata.c
wow, I really like Rod's idea of introducing fractals into quilt making---that could change the art forever. They really do go together in a strange way (though i'd imagine that quilting a complex fractal could be miserably exacting work). Well, when you post something like this, you get stories about people's experience with quilting and similar activities. So I wanna say upfront that I have NEVER made a quilt, never sat anywhere NEAR someone who made a quilt, never knew anyone who MADE a quilt---until I met you and Lucinda---and, though I went out with a quilt once years back (it'll be in my memoir), I've not had much experience with quilts except the handful I've actually used. That being said, it's a really intense pattern; and while it would be very heavy to look at every night, it makes a striking visual, an abstract of sorts. The zoomed version really brings out the strident contrasts and clashes. I agree with Brigitte about the greens. And the bottom image looks a bit Native American, at least in the corners. Great to actually see something you guys have worked on. Quilting is a very old communal art, and even if you didn't get something you liked, it's a great thing to do with people. Thanks for posting this, it gives flesh and bones to hearing about it so many times. It's striking, even if it isn't what you guys wanted. And btw, "Grand Illusion" is the name of one of the great films (just in case you hadn't heard of it), so you linked it with a real beauty.
And congratulations on 9 years! You've amassed an amazing body of work, some great friends, and a husband. (And a set of clamp wrenches, a 42 Ford, and a small Asian duck. I don't know why I said that, it just sounded funny.) Great to see this, thanks for letting everyone get a glimpse into what this is all about.
Wolfenshire
I love quilts, mine never looked this good though.