GIMQ, CLUE 2

Another Friday, another clue.  Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville dot com sent out the second clue of her Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt (GIMQ) this morning.  I must confess that when I saw what she had in store for us this week, I groaned.  Out loud.

These were the units that we were instructed to make:

Using these neutral strips...

=

And these black and "pink" squares...

Combined to form these units.

 What's that?  You can't SEE the units??

Oops!  Sorry...

Silly readers!  Did you REALLY think that I'd show you the units before Grand Illumination Day, Week TWO?!?!?!?

Umm... NO.

Anyway...

Bonnie, being Bonnie, gave us 3 different methods to create these units.  That was quite thoughtful of her.  So far, I have tried 2 of ways (with minimal to moderate success with either.)  One batch was made with the square and rectangle method that Bonnie suggested.  The other was made using the recommendations of my friend, Needleb, who sent a link to roseprairiequilts.blogspot.com.  The industrious quilter there came up with a strip-pieced technique to arrive at the desired unit.  (Don't look until the Magical Monday Linkup or you'll spoil the surprise!)

Hours later...

This unit just doesn't like me!!!  I haven't been able to find the "sweet spot" for attaching them together properly, resulting in size variations and mismatched points.  I'm not well pleased.  :o((

After completing 1/10 of the required units for the half sized quilt, I gave up.  I'm heading off for a rest and will actually consider (the dreaded) paper-piecing method tomorrow.  YIKES!!!

I haven't paper-pieced in ages (and really don't care for it very much.)  get me wrong!  Don't It definitely has it's place in the quilting world.  Just NOT in my studio, if it can be avoided!

We'll see what happens tomorrow...

Until then,
Happy Quilting!