Allietare

Allietare means "to delight, gladden". 

It can also mean "to be delighted, rejoice."

It is also the name of Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery quilt.

Which, I am delighted to report, I have finally (almost) completed!

I am rejoicing, truly!!

This quilt was my first mystery quilt, and it was great fun.  Just after Halloween Bonnie posted paint chip numbers, and yardage requirements for the quilt. 

Lowe's had a run on paint chips!

Then, on Black Friday, the games cutting and sewing began. I posted about the first week of Allietare here. Each week we received new instructions, with the final reveal just after Christmas. I did as much as I could before we "flew" south for the winter, we being snowbirds. When we returned, I continued snipping, and sewing, and trimming, and sewing some more, until I finished the "flimsy". 

Then, Mr. Dreamy talked me into buying a longarm sewing machine. Oh. What. Fun! My Allietare quilt found its way onto the longarm after a few table runners and a small throw. It sure beats trying to push a quilt around my regular sewing machine!

I also had the opportunity to attend a HandiQuilter workshop, where our instructor demonstrated sewing the binding on with the longarm machine. Oh. My. Gosh! How easy is this?!! 

Sew, now I have to finish the binding. I haven't mastered doing that by machine! Time to pick up my needle and thread!

Unseeming Seams

I'm not talking about ripping out seams, although I've done plenty of that! In fact, this spring I put up a blog post about my first quilted table runner, which I had to totally undo. And last week I put a little poem on Facebook expressing my frustration over not being able to find my seam ripper, when I desperately needed it!

Ode to a Seam Ripper

Dear little seam ripper, where have you gone?

I’ve hunted, I’ve searched. I’ve been looking so long.

You are bright pink. You should stand out.

You should be easy to see laying about.

But no, you are missing, and can’t be found.

Not on the table, by the machine, under my foot, on the ground.

If I’m to find you I better stop typing this ditty.

It’s time to clean up and stop trying to be witty!

This post is about my big "AH HA"! for the week!  This is Week #3 of the Allietare mystery quilt. Bonnie posted her instructions and I began my task for the week... 

and... 

I learned something new! 

(I so love it when I learn something new... and useful!)

Thank you, Bonnie!

This week we were to make "four patches". We cut 2" strips of our neutral fabrics, and 2" strips of our gold fabrics and sewed the strips together. Then, we cut the sewn strips into 2" pieces, after first pressing the seams toward the gold side. 

Then (here is where I learned something new!) we sewed two of the pairs together, to make small checkerboards. (OK, so that wasn't exactly where my new learning came in!) Bonnie cautioned us (HERE is the new learning) that when we sew pairs together, the top seam must be pointing toward the needle. The reason being, that as the fabric gets pulled through the machine by the feed dogs, the two opposing seams will be pushed together so they are nested, and the end result will be perfectly aligned seams with no gaps! Now, I am really new at quilting, but I've sewn my share of pieces where I tried to nest the seams. More often than not I was successful, but there were times when I wasn't pleased with the end results. 

Here are four of my four-patch squares. The color is a little off, but I think you can see that all four fabrics join together very neatly. 

How wonderful to learn something so practical, and something I can use from here on out!

Il Mistero

I decided to try a mystery quilt this year. As if I don't have a gazillion things to do at this time of year!
Bonnie Hunter posts clues to creating a quilt every year. Some time after Halloween Bonnie introduces this year's mystery. For 2015 we are putting together a quilt inspired by a visit to Allietare, Italy. If you are at all interested in quilting, or travel, or connecting travel to fiber arts, you must visit Bonnie's blog and check out the intro.

Bonnie provides readers with paint chip numbers to help them collect the right sort of colors for their quilts. She tells us how much fabric we will need.

Here are my fabric choices:

I chose the green on the bottom as my "constant". Bonnie suggest a gray, and I'm just not a gray person. The middle swatch will be the backing for my quilt. It is called Renaissance Books, and I thought it was not only perfect because of its rich colors, but it goes with the Italian theme!

Then, we wait for the first clue. I "penned" this poem just before the big reveal on black Friday:

'Twas the eve of Thanksgiving and all through the house

Folks were groaning, clutching full tummies and laying about.

Except for me! I was downstairs in my lair,

Doing the sort of things I love to do there!

I was admiring all of the colors in the stash I collected,

Something other quilters are doing, I kinda suspected.

I have my black, and my gold, I think I'll use green and not gray.

Will my neutrals be neutral enough and not stand out in some way?

I love my reds. They are my favorite. They are warm, not too bold,

Some were bought recently and some are quite old. 

And my backing, a Renaissance print just begged to be bought.

It was a bit pricey, I wasn’t sure if I ought.

But it looked wonderful with the colors. It matches the theme.

It was the prettiest backing I had recently seen.

Tomorrow is the day we thought would never be here;

Give a hoot! Give a holler! Give a big cheer!

Bonnie is posting Clue Number One.

This year’s mystery quilt has finally begun!

Allietare, we are ready. We can’t wait to start.

So, Rejoice! Let the challenge gladden your hearts!

Bonnie posted the first clue. We were to use our constant fabric and neutrals to make two hundred ninety-four HST (half-square triangles). Hey, I love sounding like I know what I'm doing! But, lucky for me, and other quilters out there who may be new, or not into the lingo, Bonnie explains step-by-step what to do, and even has links to videos for us visual learners!

Here are a bunch of my HST's ready to be snipped apart and pressed open.

Who would think that 294 HST's would fit in a baggie and look so inconsequential!

And now....

Oh, Bonnie, that was easy! We snipped and we sewed.

Many of us have 294 two-inch blocks ready to go!

My triangle blocks are bundled in groups of ten,

Stored in a baggie and fastened by pins.

Are you the type to get it finished all in one day?

Or would your rather spread it out, having more time to play?

I have little triangle bits on the floor, everywhere,

But what the heck, they blend in well with all my dogs’ hair.

I haven’t time to vacuum with Christmas ‘round the bend,

And combined with this project, my sewing never ends!

What’s next? We quilters in Quiltville all want to know,

We are ready, Allietare, on with the show!

Let the banners wave across Quiltville land

Press on thread warriors, Clue #2 is at hand.

To recap: (sing along…)

On the first week of the mystery quilt,

Dear Bonnie gave to me,

Two hundred ninety-four HSTs.