2016 Quiltville Mystery Quilt - En Provence

The only thing I like about Black Friday is that it is the day Bonnie Hunter releases the first clue in her annual winter mystery.

I was on a Mediterranean cruise with Bonnie in August 2016.  Before we left I remember reading in one of her blog or facebook posts that she had basically nailed down the details of the mystery.  Because of that comment I figured that the inspiration for the mystery came from somewhere else.

I wasn't planning on doing this mystery just because I didn't want that feeling of being overwhelmed at Christmas with yet 'another' project on the go. Lord knows I have a few (ahem) UFOs languishing in my closet, enough PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) to keep me going for a decade, and even more ideas on my 'one day' list.  But who could resist a name like "En Provence" when you've actually been on the trip that inspired the quilt!?  Not me, that's for sure.  I'm guessing that Bonnie had the blocks for the mystery designed not not the colours.  That makes sense.

Anyway, I'm  delighted to be playing along with 50,000 others who are busy learning new techniques while they create beautiful quilts.  I've decided that to keep the stress at bay (because I'm kind of known for being driven and have actually been accused of trying to do 2 mystery quilts in tandem!) that I will do a half size.  We don't need anymore bed quilts now that we don't have a B&B anymore.  And donation quilt requests tends to be for smaller sizes so I'm scaling down the size of all of my quilts now.

Let's talk about fabric!  I was digging through my batik bin looking for something and discovered some gorgeous purples, magenta and gold/yellows.  In that instant I knew that these wold be my mystery quilt colours.

The lavender/lilac colour was purchased to augment the stash as was the neutral and the green (light green instead of olive).  I couldn't find any light lavender batik while shopping so I did the unpardonable...I added a non-batik which fit with the other colours.  I'm good with it and hopefully the quilt police will find someone else to harass.

Step 1 was four patches in neutral.  Here are mine:

I used my Accuquilt GO cutter and the 2" strip die to cut the strips.  Once sewn together I fanfolded them across the strip die carefully watching that they were perpendicular, and cross cut them into twos.  I placed them right sides together nested before this step.  They went together amazingly well and came out to the perfect 3 1/2" square when sewn together.  Nothing beats the Accuquilt GO for accuracy.

The second step was released yesterday.  It was a work day for me but I did get up a bit earlier than normal to cut a sample.  It was a tri-recs unit in magenta and neutral.  Oh my!  I remember this colour combo!

This photo was taken in Montenegro, our first port on the Mediterranean cruise in August.  I'm not sure if this is where Bonnie got her inspiration but I sure was thrilled to see these colours playing together in step 2.

I'm once again using my Accuquilt GO with die #55027 to make my tri-recs units.  I also have the ruler but find the GO just gives me more accuracy.

I got 1 unit finished before work and didn't sew last night so this will be today's fun.  Again, I'm only doing half the units required so I'm hoping to get them done before my office Christmas party this evening.

See you on step 3!  In the meantime, enjoy Bonnie's mystery link-up http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2016/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html


Mavis