As I have done the past few years, I began working on Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery quilt back in November. If you are unfamiliar with this, let me fill you in. Every year, Bonnie Hunter, who is an amazing quilt designer and teacher offers a mystery quilt pattern that releases on Black Friday and usually goes into January. What is a mystery quilt? A mystery quilt is made little by little as “clues” are released once a week. You have a week to complete each step and once all the pieces are made, then the big reveal at the end shows you how it all goes together. The mystery is that you won’t know what the full quilt pattern will be until the very end. That’s the fun of it. Bonnie does this out of the goodness of her heart and makes the pattern available for free during the time when the clues are being released. It’s a way for those who maybe struggle with the Holiday season to have something fun to look forward to and keep them occupied during what might be a lonely or difficult time for them. Thousands of quilters from all around the world join in every year and it is really fun to see the excitement and the posts of each clue on Bonnie’s Facebook page.

This year’s mystery was called “Grassy Creek”. I went completely rogue with the colors this year. She mentioned in the directions which of the colors from her palette would be the most dominant color. I knew I wanted a different color to be my dominant color, so I chose what I wanted and went from there. I turned Bonnie’s palette to a black and white photo and then chose my colors based on the amount of yardage that was listed and the tonal value that that particular color had. In the end, it allowed me to use much more of what I already had in my stash and colors that spoke more to me and who I am as a quilter. I just love bright clear colors. I’m so thrilled with how my top turned out. I made a smaller number of units than Bonnie’s original plan. I just did not need, nor did I want to make, a quilt that large. Mine is plenty big enough for my needs.

I’m pretty sure Aeris loves it, too.