I was introduced to Bonnie Hunter back in 2011. I was following a few blogs at the time, and all of a sudden, in December, they all seemed to be showing the same project. A few colour variations, but basically the same little blocks on all of these blogs. I followed some linked and landed on Quiltville.com, where Bonnie was running her latest mystery quilt. Never one to balk at a challenge, I jumped in mid-stream and got started. And I've never looked back. I love Bonnie's quilts - they are not my usual style, but the challenge, and the camaraderie, make them a fantastic project. This year (2024) is apparently Bonnie's 20th year of doing these mysteries, so I obviously missed a few, but I have made every single one since 2011, and I've dragged a number of friends with me into the adventures.
2011 - Orca Bay
This was my very first Bonnie Hunter quilt. I had no idea who she was, and if you had asked I would have said that her quilts were not my style. But I used to follow a blog that did a collective "design wall Monday" where everyone posted what they were working on. And suddenly, at the end of November, it seemed like every single person was working on the same thing! So after a couple of weeks, I had to check it out. And then, I had to jump right in!
My very first quilt was a mystery quilt, and I loved the process. I trolled around for free mysteries every year, and had done a few 1-day mysteries around the holidays in previous years. So another mystery? I was in.
I followed Bonnie's recommendation and only made 1/2 of the units, because I didn't really want a great big quilt in this style that I wasn't too sure about. And I changed up her colours, to more sunset-like colours (or my version of sunset, anyway).
I ended up short a few, of course. And apparently I had no interest in making more of those nasty little cat's cradle blocks, so I switched up the border and used up more of the strings I ended up with from this quilt.
A few more strings on the back of the quilt, and they were pretty much gone.
This quilt is also the reason I own a longarm. I started quilting it on my domestic machine, as I had been doing for 8 years at this point. and it was just a little lap quilt, so how hard could it be? Well, it's Bonnie. It as a million and a half seams in there, and seams are hidden weight. This thing weighed a TON! (It probably didn't help that I used Quilter's Dream cotton batting - that stuff isn't light either). So halfway through, when I thought my shoulders would fall off, I went out and bought a longarm. And then finished this on the domestic anyway, because I couldn't bring myself to change the quilting halfway through.
2012 - Celtic Solstice
Another pass at Bonnie Hunter. This time, I tried to use her colour chart closely. But rather than try to find a point store that carried the brand she used, I just took the colours from my phone off her blog. The colours were all very dark, and I was really never happy with this quilt. It is the one and only Bonnie Hunter that I no longer own and remnants of. I also gave up on some of the units, and again having made only 1/2 of the majority of them I rearranged the blocks and borders to come up with my own version of Celtic Solstice. And then I promptly donated it.
2013 - Easy Street
Phew. After Celtic Solstice, I was thrilled when Bonnie said this year would be "easy". Bigger blocks, fewer pieces, and straight forward piecing. She was true to her word.
From what I see on the internet, I used Bonnie's colours this year again, pulling my favourite turquoise from my stash and using a fun grey with ginko leaves on it for the background. Bonnie said "movement" in the background so I went with it. This is one of my very favourite Bonnie quilts. Again, a smaller version (interesting, I didn't think I did so many "1/2 unit" quilts).
2014 - Grand Illusion
And now we were back to typical Bonnie Hunter. Busy, busy and lots of little pieces. This was the first time I tried to go a little bit scrappy with my fabrics for Bonnie. Well, Orca Bay was scrappy with all the string piecing, but this one was more of a choice I forced on myself. I had 3-4 different pinks and greens in this quilt. But I kept very close to the same value & tone for each colour family, so it is only semi-scrappy.
This one seemed to upset a lot of Bonnie Hunter fans, and it does make me go a bit cross-eyed looking at the center in this photo. But it is a really nice quilt in person.
2015 - Allietare
I think this is one of my very favourite Bonnie Hunter quilts. I picked my own colours this year, based mostly on what I had enough of in my stash (I was staying away from scrappy for a while, after Grand Illusion). As I was making it, I had regrets because my purple and black are a bit too close in tone, but in the end I really like the overall look it created. Much more square than Bonnie's looks (the diamonds stand out more, if the purple & black don't blend), but I really like the tile effect.
2016 - En Provence
This year, I found a group of friends to sew with! Bonnie Hunter is always better with friends - lots of encouragement and support to get you through those big piecing days.
I made the full set of units this year, and split the results. A mid-size quilt for me, and a smaller one to donate to Victoria's Quilts Canada .
2017 - Christmas On Ringo Lake
Another Bonnie that I absolutely love! This time, I found a focus fabric that had colours I liked (I wanted a Christmas quilt, but not "in your face" Christmas). When I picked my colours, I was sure that grey was going to be the focus/majority of this quilt - that turned out not to be the case overall - the majority in the center is green, and the large chunk of grey was mostly used in the final borders. But I am very happy overall with how it turned out, and I keep my Christmas quilt - and pillows (see below) on hand for the season.
I made some pillows to go with this quilt. When I picked the fabrics, I found a Christmas print that I liked, and pulled all of my colours from that fabric line. I purchased a fat quarter of 1 piece of that line, and enough of the inspiration fabric to make the backing. When the quilts were done, I had 2 blocks leftover, so I decided to make pillows. First, I made a sample, to check my process for the hidden zipper on the back. I used the inspiration fabric for this:
2018 - Good Fortune
Good Fortune was based on Bonnie's travels to China, and the colours she found there - red, orange, green & blue. I switched it up a bit, and went with red orange green and purple. And then we got to step five, and it put red and green together (here). It was not good! And then the reveal was more of the bad. I couldn't do it, so I went back, took out all the greens and remade the green/red blocks and green strings with purple. Much better, if I do say so myself! But just a little quilt, because I wasn't up for making more of those borders and strings.
Then I took all the leftovers that I had pulled out of the original plan, and set them aside. A couple of years later, I finally got them out and create this quilt, which I call Christmas Fortune.
2019 - Frolic
Good old Frolic. Early in 2019 I was on a shop hop with a friend, and I found a line of fabric that I loved. I was a deep green - not quite olive, not quite emerald, but I fell in love. I picked a bunch of FQs up at every stop we made (when I could find the right shade) and said to my friend that my Bonnie Hunter quilt this year would use that green! When the mystery started, it did indeed use green - but nothing like what I had picked up. But, a little adjustment to the colour families, and I had blue, green & gold as my base. It seemed like a perfect choice, until assembly started. My blue and green are kinda close in tone :( So I lost a bit of Bonnie's pattern, but I pushed on and overall really like this quilt.
2020 - Unity
Unity was a surprise for all of us. A Covid quilt, to keep people busy while we isolated at home in early 2020. I had a lot of fabric left from Frolic, so I went with mostly the same set of colours. I tried to pull some lighter blues this time, to help distinguish blue & green - this was partly successful. I also downsized this one, since I wanted a charity quilt. Bonnie was doing a medallion, so as the quilt grew I reduced and/or eliminated some borders to keep the size where I needed it.
2020 - Midnight on Grassy Creek
When Bonnie released Grassy Creek, I did not want to use her colours. Mostly because my last experiment with red, orange, and green did NOT go well. I thought I'd like to use a sunset pallet - I had seen, and tried to take a photo of, a gorgeous sunset earlier that month. My photo was pale and washed out, but a friend had a perfect one, so I asked her permission to steal the colour pallette from there. Pink, purple, yellow, cream and deep grey became my pallette.
I went with yardage this year, which caused problems when it came to final assembly. Bonnie had lovely bright sashing made from grey strings. I had dark blotches of my grey. I went ahead and made a donation quilt with the standard setting (with some border mods because again, grey strings). This confirmed that it was just too dark.
So I put together the rest of my units with some changes. Some bright cream chevrons to break up the dark sashing also had the effect of highlighting the stars in some of the blocks. I played with the borders - keeping Bonnie's narrow border and using some of the leftover HSTs to complete the pattern out to the edges.
2021 - Rhododendron Trail
I stuck pretty close to Bonnie's colours for Rhododendron Trail. I like this one, because it seems a bit calmer than many of the previous. The turquoise sashing is a nice highlight, so I used that same fabric for the binding.
2022 - Chilhowie (at Midnight)
For Chilhowie, I decided to do a dark background, and lighter versions of Bonnie's colours. This one is done with yardage that I had in my stash.
I used my leftover fabric on the back. I made a double-size block, and built it out, using the border as inspiration for the extension. I didn't have enough pink, but found a pink/turquoise batik that matched well and used that.
2023 - Indigo Way
And last but not least (and not last, but latest as I write this), Indigo way. I got carried away this year. I have 2 groups now who work on Bonnie Hunter. And I know that I generally get most of the week's clue finished at our weekly get together. So, given one group Friday nights and one online on Saturday, what would I do? I decided each session would get its own Bonnie quilt. But I *really* don't need more big quilts.
So, Saturday got a mini version - each block is 1/2 the original size. I made all the required blocks, but decided on a rectangular quilt rather than square, so I had a couple leftover. This quilt finished about 40x60", and the pieces are generally about 1 1/2" finished, because Bonnie was nice this year and made most of her units 3".
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