Allietare mystery link-up #3

On Mondays during the Allietare mystery quilt, there is a link-up party over at Bonnie's blog. It's fun to see people all over the world, working on the same project with their own color choices.  I usually have the previous week's clue finished and just a start on the current clue.  The above picture is where I ended up after a fair amount of stitching on Friday. I'm going for a scrappy look, but somewhat restrained on the neutrals since I need to maintain a contrast with my gray constant.  I really like that gray, but it's a bit light.

On this close-up you can see that I used a different red and neutral for each of the sets of the little houses/Santa hats. Yep, I like a scrappy quilt!

I am also trying to play catch-up and finish last year's mystery top, Grand Illusion. So I needed to make at least a start on seaming the units together once they were cut.  Saturday after I kicked out the computer gamers I claimed the family room floor and laid this out.  It was obvious the pieces would need to stay there until they were joined or stacked in a way I could remember them.  I completed all but the last two columns, and those are stacked.  So the rows are mostly webbed together, and this is what my machine looks like right now:

Um, yeah. I need to get the thing tuned up, because it's not stitching beautifully at the moment. I have to pull my fabrics through, so the timing must be off. Tough noogies, machine, you'll have to wait for your tune-up until after the mystery quilt!  I can't slow down now!

And this is how much of the current clue I have pieced, as leaders/enders between the long Grand Illusion seams. After looking at some of the other quilts on the link-up, I think I will add in some of my darker golds just to increase the variety, while keeping restrained on the neutrals.  I did make a trip to the quilt store last week and found a few new blacks and neutrals and one red. That was fun!

So, setting goals for this week, finish seaming the central part of Grand Illusion together, finish the little gold 4-patches. I can (probably!) do this!  Tis the season for finishing what we can from this year and setting goals for the new one!  Excelsior!