On the day after Thanksgiving every year, Bonnie Hunter starts a massive mystery quilt project on her Quiltville blog. I’ve made 2.5 of her quilts. They are major undertakings. Each step is something like, “Make 300 half-square triangles.”
Some years I don’t remember that the mystery is happening until a few weeks after it starts. Then I tell myself that it is way too late to get started. I remind myself of the 0.5 of a previous mystery quilt that is still in pieces in the closet that I could put together if I was so inclined. But last year I remembered on the day. I cussed myself and my decent memory and went and looked.
The mystery was Indigo Way. Here is the link to the completed quilt but I didn’t know at the time what I was making. I decided, in a fit of rationality, to make half the units. The quilts are queen sized or larger and I don’t need that in my life. I’d figure out how to make it work when I saw what the pattern ended up being.
Around the time I was finishing up the units, I got a bridal shower invitation. Now, I knew this person was getting married. I mean, I knew for over a year. Somehow the need for a gift had never occurred to me. I had already made her a quilt for a baby shower. (My mother had words to say about doing things backwards….) I happened to be holding a quilt block in my hand when the shower invitation came. I said, “I guess she can have this then.” I also may have muttered, “It’s red, white, and blue and that fits for a @!$#%ing Trump fan” but then I remembered that I’m trying to set a good example or something.
I didn’t like the pieced border that the mystery quilt called for but I had made all the pieces. So I made simple borders and used the pieced elements on the back. It isn’t huge but it works for a throw.
The quilting is just a simple meander which is lucky because the machine I use to quilt on my Grace Cutie frame was possessed by demons had to go the repair shop. I had to finish off the frame with my little Brother machine which did a wonderful job unlike the expensive machine that can’t get out of its own way in order to be able to sew for more than a few inches at a time isn’t as reliable.
