Conundrum at Cocktail Hour - A Conundrum no more!

No blog for a long time - what with the Shop Hop and the Mystery Quilt it has been a very busy time at Quilters' Lane. I've also enjoyed meeting lots of people who have popped in while on their holidays either from other parts of NZ or from around the world. It seems the Wairarapa is getting on the tourist map!

Over the past year, quilters have been working on my Mystery Quilt, which I called 'Conundrum at Cocktail Hour'. Each of the seven colourways was named after a cocktail - or at least loosely. The colours were:

Black Russian - Black and White with a touch of Red

Chatham Island Iced Tea - yes that's Chatham Island, not Long Island! - Chatham Island Forget me nots and other kiwiana

Blue Hawaiian - blue/green batiks

Kiwi Grasshopper - Kiwiana with greens

Shirley Temple - sweet and pink and floral

Champagne Cocktail - purples, blues and ivory with gold highlights

and Sundowner - rich browns, oranges and golds

Here are some of the colour charts that people chose from:

Black Russian:

Champagne Cocktail:

I had the mad idea of pre-cutting all the pieces for the quilts, so that each month the 'mystery detectives' would receive a pack of fabrics all ready to sew. My Accuquilt Studio cutter was put to some serious work!

Well I was amazed at the response - lots of people signed up for the quilt, and have been busy sewing bits together. None of the 'blocks' were blocks in the sense that we as quilters think of. This was not a sampler quilt, so it was more like making the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. As each month went by more sections were created and carefully packed away ready for the final month.

Last Saturday we had the big 'reveal'. Many of the people doing the quilt came along to the reveal day and stayed to sew their quilts together. Some of the participants live as far away as Christchurch and Rotorua, so unfortunately were not able to come, but they will be putting their quilts together at home. There are even groups of quilters doing the Mystery together, Hi Dannevirke ladies :)

So here are some photos of the quilts from Saturday:

This was the Chatham Island Iced Tea quilt that Noeline Day of the Quilting Shed made and quilted ready for the reveal day. Noeline was in on the 'secret' and had her blocks made ahead of time so that we could show the finished quilt. She is also quilting many of the quilts on her longarm machine.

I put the sections up on the display board to show how it all fits together. These are from the Black Russian quilt:

Here's Adele busy putting her 'Blue Hawaiian' quilt together, and Robyn is working on a 'Shirley Temple'

And here is the completed 'Blue Hawaiian'

Daphne was the first to finish with her 'Champagne Cocktail' - this one has already been quilted by Noeline and is going to a worthy cause.

This is Sue's 'Sundowner' before the borders went on:

Sarah and Leonie are holding up Sarah's 'Shirley Temple'

Yvonne's Kiwi Grasshopper

And here are a couple of quilts that have been turned into queen size with the addition of extra borders

Sue added the kowhai print and more of the paua to her Chatham Island Iced Tea:

And Leonie carried on with more of the Michael Miller floral print in her Black Russian:

Don't they look great?

As you can see, all the quilts were the same apart from the fabric choices.Just shows you how much difference our colour and pattern choices make to the quilts we create.

Next year's Mystery is already well into the planning stages. I will be posting the colour choices soon and will also have a launch event. The first 'block' will be in early February (we do ten blocks in all). If you'd like to do the Mystery but don't yet get my emails do drop me a line at [email protected], I'll be sure to send you the colour choices and other details.

Have you been doing the Mystery? I would love to see your pictures - you can email them or post them on the Quilters' Lane facebook page.

Till next time

Sheila