Mystery Monday Link-up, Week Six

Welcome to Week Six of this Grand Adventure and our Mystery Monday Link-up!  As you may recall, Bonnie had a New Year's Eve surprise for the hundreds of quilters who are participating in the mystery... The GRAND FINALE!!

A while back, Bonnie designed a block called Big Bang and she wanted to play with quilt layouts that used the block.  After a trip to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan in May of 2014, Bonnie wanted this year's mystery to reflect the beauty of that place.  She wanted to give it a fresh look and modern look.  What we got, when she combined these two desires, was a quilt that was BRIGHT and BOLD, but used the colors found in the decor of the old hotel.

Here's a photo of the Big Bang block components:

Joy's block with her purple and blue substitutions.

This photo shows Joy's all stacked up and ready to stitch together:

 Clue 6 also required the cornerstone pieces to be cut for completing the quilt.  Joy used hers as leader/enders while piecing the blocks:

And she sewed the sashing pieces together using Bonnie's leader/ender method, too:

ALL of Joy's blocks were completed on New Year's Eve.  Woohoo!!  Party in the sewing room!!! :o)

Big Bang block designed by Bonnie Hunter, this block sewn by Joy!!

On New Year's Day, Joy began to play with her quilt layout:

First, with the blocks set side by side...

Then, a single block set with the sashing...

Finally, a row of blocks set with sashing.

Here is the entire (half-sized) quilt laid out with sashing (minus a wayward unit.):

It sure is busy!!

Joy, decided to make the quilt as Bonnie described.  This photo shows all of her rows stacked up and ready to be sewn:

This shot transports us to the morning of January 2nd.  Joy was on a mission!!  ALL of her rows have been sewn.  Here is her "not quite" quilt top:

Drum roll, please...

Joy completed her quilt top on Friday night!!  Would you like a look at her Mysterious Scrap Explosion???

Here it is (minus the pieced borders) for your viewing pleasure:

WOW!!!  That is one BUSY quilt!!!  :o))

In the meantime Britt was having a slightly different adventure!  She fell behind on making the angled chevron units and the green and white checkerboard so after the big reveal she had a chance to decide whether to keep working on the undone clues.  After a lot of time at the design "wall (uh, floor) she came to the conclusion that her green units were taking away from her favorite parts of the quilt. Here are some of the ideas she tried out along the way:

Bonnie's version of the block with a different center and different sashing options:

These were good options but both required more piecing of the angled chevron blocks (and she was feeling a tad lazy...)

What if the units were rearranged?

This could be cool, but for Britt the black pinwheels dominated a bit too much. So her favorite parts - the broken dishes blocks - got a chance on the design wall by themselves:

broken dishes from clue 1 and clue 5 arranged as big Xs -fun!

broken dishes clue 1 with possible pink centers

And finally this option - a setting Britt has always wanted to try.

Kind of a shocker to go this simple compared to the original - but this was more "Britt-ish" as the NT gals like to say.  :)  So stay tuned to see how it all works out for this quilt!  Black sashing and a turquoise border are anticipated being added - but we won't know till we get there!

And for those wondering what will become of the other units made but not used...there's a plan!  The clue 5 broken dishes units where transformed into more of the clue one broken dish units. The extra turquoise and white half square triangles removed from clue 5 will be added to her in-progress Jamestown Landing (another great Bonnie Hunter pattern). Score!  And there are plans for the other units too including using the chevrons as pinwheels - either on the back of the mystery quilt or as a stand-alone quilt.

Whew! That was a long post!  Thanks for going on this mysterious journey with us!  We had a great time and hope you did too. We also want to thank Bonnie Hunter for designing the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt and passing it along to the hundreds of quilters who participated in the fun... including us!!

Here's a photo, nipped from Bonnie's blog, showing how her quilt turned out:




And...

No surprise, here!  We're linking up with Bonnie and the other mystery quilters.  We're link number 35 this week.  Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects (in various stages of completion) and consider making a quilt for yourself or one to donate to your favorite quilting charity.

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!!