Greeting quilty friends!

For those of you who follow Bonnie Hunter, you may know that she released the first clue in her latest mystery quilt, Grand Illusion. These clues will only be available for a short while, and Bonnie will retire them from her blog next spring for inclusion in a future book.

This quilt is named for the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan and draws its color inspiration from the hotel’s interior and grounds. I hope to visit it one day!

In October, Bonnie posted color recommendations in the form of paint chips. Although you can choose your own color scheme, I decided to stick with Bonnie’s choices as she has fabulous color sense, and I really wanted to see how these rich hues will play together in the quilt.

Here are my paint chips and fabric pulls. I’m using mostly Moda Grunge fabrics for the neutrals, black, turquoise, and pink. The yellow is Moda Marble Dot. I couldn’t find one grassy green that I really liked in a single fabric so I pulled a few fat quarter pieces into my pile.

Grand Illusion Mystery fabrics

We sewed broken dishes for part 1 this week. I’m making one-half of the normal amount of blocks so I can make a smaller sized quilt. I did buy enough fabric to make the full quantity of blocks so if I later decide to expand the quilt once the mystery is revealed, I can do so.

Here are my broken dishes units:

Grand Illusion Mystery, part 1

The colors really do pop, although my camera faded the intensity of the fabrics, particularly the turquoise. I really like how the turquoise Grunge fabric has yellow accents in it to play well with the Marble Dots.

The next clue will be released this Friday, December 5th on Bonnie’s blog so go check it out!

Happy stitching!
~Jennifer