Fabric Pull ~ Old Town Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Hello Happy Quilters!  Come along with me as I play around with choosing fabrics for a mystery quilt.  

The Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt along is an annual event.  Yes, it's an event like no other in quilting!  Quilters from all over the world follow Bonnie all year, waiting for end of the year quilt along. The fabric requirements are released on or around Halloween.  The first cutting clue is released around Thanksgiving.  Click here to go to her blog where you can find the fabric requirements.

 Over the last week hundreds, possibly thousands of quilters have been posting their fabric pulls in Bonnies Facebook Group called 

Quiltville's Open Studio (Official) ⬅️Click to go group.  

To view the group, you must join by answering some questions and agreeing to follow some rules.

Bonnie's quilts are generally controlled scrappy.  Sometimes she may use some yardage but it's rare.

 I'm always impressed with quilters changing the suggested fabric colors.  

Here's the suggested colors for the Old Town Mystery.  I like them!

As soon as I saw them, I thought "This is the easiest fabric pull ever".  Just a quick walk across the room and TADA!  I'm ready if I change salmon/coral color to pink and the other two colors to lighter shades of red and blue/aqua.

A few days passed, all the while Bonnies Facebook group is a sea of beautiful fabric pulls.  Reproduction fabrics, batiks, Lori Holt, so many different color combinations.  

I've made three Bonnie mystery quilts. Choosing different colors than the ones suggested in the patterns.  This is the first time that I sort of like the suggested colors, but I feel the need to go rogue.  What on earth is wrong with me? 

 I toyed with the idea of using three different prints/yardage instead of working from the scrap bins.  Thankfully the idea faded after a few hours.  

The whole point of this mystery quilt along is to use those ever-growing scraps.  I need to find a different color palette in my scrap bins.

How did I find a new palette?  I took a look at my scrap bins to see which color had the most scraps then start building a palette around that color.  Blue was the winner.  There are three blue bins, light, medium and dark.  I could make a monochromatic quilt (same color different shades).  Nah, boring. 

Dark blue, yellow and green?  Nah, too predictable.  Let's see if google can help. 

In the search bar...blue color palette 3 colors.

 It helped but not in the way you might think.  The color swatches triggered a memory of a Camille Roskelley line of fabric.  Another google search for Camille Roskelley quilt patterns, and this is my inspirational piece.  The quilt is called Edelweiss by Thimble Blossoms.

My scrap bins are lacking in sage green, so I pulled the bin with brighter greens.  The brighter greens would blend better with a brighter light blue, right?

The only way to know how they will look together is to pull of few of each color.  Bonnie suggests different shades but don't too dark or too light.

And just a few more.  Yep, this will be my colors and there's plenty more in the bins.

For now, they are tucked away waiting for me to decide whether or not I'll take part in the mystery.  That's right, all this work and I'm not completely committed to the project.  You see I typically build a scrappy quilt in the other direction.  Picking a pattern first then find the perfect fabrics.  Choosing the fabrics without knowing the pattern is scary.  The what if I choose poorly?  

Bonnie's quilts are labor intensive because you're working from scraps.  Do I want to take the risk of making a color fail quilt?  Only time will tell.  

How about you?  Are you joining in this fun quilt along with Bonnie?

Here's the three Bonnie Mystery Quilts I've made over the last few years.

The first one was En Provence.  You can see more up-close detail here.

On Ringo Lake.  You can see close ups here. 

Good Fortune.  You can see the close ups here.