Since December I’ve been following along with Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt.  She shares clues with her readers every year and it’s fun to read other quilter’s comments as we go along.

She believes in using scraps, so the pieces are very, very tiny.  Like this:

I normally don’t sew with tiny pieces, so I thought this would be a good time for me to broaden my horizons.

Yep.  That’s what I thought.

The idea of a Mystery Quilt is that the quilter follows weekly clues without knowing what the quilt will look like when it is finished.  Gulp.

The colors were gold, red, black, gray and ivory/beige.  I sewed tiny half-square triangles, four square blocks 3″ square, all sorts of little units that would be combined into a hopefully beautiful quilt.

Here are the squares finished.  I should say, some of the squares finished.

One of my friends said, after seeing these pictures, that it was not at all what she expected of my quilts.  Oh, she was so right!  Traditional blocks and little pieces and prints without large florals?  Not me at all.

The blocks are set on point and will form an intricate pattern when sewn all together.  I’ve seen the finished photos on Bonnie’s website and it’s all very dramatic and traditional and lovely.

I am going to finish this.  I am.  I don’t need an unfinished project in my closet.  This is the year of finishing things, of using things, of selling things that no longer fit my lifestyle.

This is the year of looking around and seeing what matters and what doesn’t.

It’s time.

Maybe I will love this quilt when it is finished.  Maybe it will grace a loved one’s bed and spread its traditional red and yellow joy to all who see it.

But from now on I will be creating my own quilts again, and the only mysteries will be who they are given to.