Thursday, January 13, 2022

Mystery Quilt Dropout

 I've been doing Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail mystery quilt, and I'm sure the reveal is coming up quickly, but I've decided to go off in my own direction from here. I'm sure the reveal will be spectacular as usual, but I've just got my mind set on other plans for these blocks and units. 


After playing with the blocks a bit, I've decided I really want to straight set them, so even if Bonnie does an on point setting, I'm not going that direction with them (literally, not that direction!) I am debating sashing and cornerstones, and I haven't come to any firm conclusions on that. I'll have to make a few more block B's, and I'll have two leftover block A's, but that's fine. 

So what am I going to do with all the flying geese units from clue 2?


I'm going to make these blocks, which is likely why I'm going off on my own now. I've been wanting to make a quilt with this block for a while now, and since I've got all these flying geese made, I may as well go for it. Of course, half the blocks will spin to the left, and half to the right, but that's OK too. I'm thinking I'll frame these blocks with the burgundy, then alternate those with a different block, probably a 16 or 25 patch, depending on how wide I make the framing strips.  These will just go in a different quilt, so I'm taking the mystery quilt and making two separate quilts from the parts. 

Besides working on the mystery quilt, I spent some time working on problem areas in the sewing room. I don't know about you, but I like a LOT of stuff with arms reach when I'm sewing, which leads to this...


What a mess! I've been watching quilt studio tours on YouTube, and I saw an idea that got me to thinking. If I had a raised shelf here, I could store things underneath it, and still have the top available. 


I store my studio dies in a set of used kitchen cabinets I bought from Habitat for Humanity. My strip dies are so tall, I had to take the shelf out, so I had an extra shelf sitting around.I had a shallow bin to store all my bobbins and bits underneath the shelf, so now the bin acts as a drawer. 


The bin doesn't go all the way back, so I stuck some smaller bins behind that. Notice what's holding up my shelf? Thread cones! I didn't have to build anything, I can take it all apart anytime I want, but the shelf is heavy enough that it's not likely to move (my coffee is safe), and the thread cones are plenty sturdy enough to hold up the shelf! I've had it like this a couple days already, and I'm really liking the change. 

Do you have any great sewing room organizing tips for me?





2 comments:

Katie Z. said...

Erg. Since the reveal today, I don’t know what to feel about the mystery. I made all the pieces thus far, but I really, really do not want to do 1” sashing. I love your dark background; my quilt is much too light. I love your adaptations.

Julie in GA said...

Your mystery blocks are so striking with that burgundy background! I've done Bonnie's mystery some years, but didn't join in this year. Can't wait to see your two quilts!