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Monday, August 18, 2008

Quiltville's Labor Day Weekend Mystery! Old Tobacco Road!







The best part of yesterday was.....I sewed on our next mystery quilt! I think you are going to like this one!(I hope so!) I'm choosing autumnal colors because of the season, but you can easily swap out my woodsy browns and reds for greens or blues or whatever.

When I moved to Wallburg NC in Feb, I never knew how fun it was going to be to watch things growing in fields all around me, and how it would connect me to the history of this land. Granted, I wish they would grow anything BUT Tobacco, but since I had never seen it done before, it has been interesting.

I love the old tobacco drying barns that I see everywhere. In NC it seems that old buildings are never taken down, they just stay there until they fall. I would love to do a whole picture portfolio on old farm houses and tumbling down barns. I just love them!

I've watched this tobacco grow from furrowed fields to the tall green plants it is today. Soon it will be harvested, it's almost ready! It's turning golden at the base, and after cutting, it will dry to a rich golden brown, the color of autumn.

The "Old Tobacco Road" quilt will also have scrap units mixed with some 'maybe not so scrap but cut from FQ's and yardage' units. I'll post the yardage requirements as soon as I get the top together which should be this week.

My main fabrics are warm and spicy reds, browns, tans, and a few blacks for depth. You can see the FQ's stacked up here! (Some new, some oldies but goodies too!)

To either side of the FQs you will notice a couple of hints! Hmmmm....could those be leader/ender 4 patches? And maybe a couple handfuls of bonus half square triangles?

It's not going to have as many steps, but will be a large "throw" size for tossing over your couch, etc. Flannels would also be VERY NICE in this quilt!

Is your interest piqued??? :cD My plan is to upload the steps as quickly as I can, allowing you to work on the quilt at your own pace. We all know when Labor Day hits that the Holidays are just around the corner and I don't want to drag it out for months for you. Besides, my October and November have me doing lots of traveling!

Oh, this is going to be FUN!!
Bonnie

24 comments:

  1. yay! Yay! YAY!!! I can't wait.

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  2. LOVE the pics.
    i'm from georgia, lived in north carolina while hubby was in service, and now we are 'home' in ohio...so seeing these pics made me feel right at home.
    i SO miss the south.
    and all those old barns!!!

    thanks for sharing.

    can't wait to see your mysetery quilt unfold.

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  3. Oh yes, I'm watching closely..... will it also work with scrappy brights or near-brights? I love your color palette, but my stash leans in another direction.

    Touched by your post yesterday but didn't have time to compose my reply. Know that you have found your niche and you need make NO apologies or excuses to ANYONE ~ how incredibly boring it would be to live in a matchy-matchy world!

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  4. I REALLY want to do this mystery quilt and I REALLY have to pack! Quilt or pack? Maybe pack a little and quilt a little!

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  5. I have never done a quilt along, but am very excited to start this one!! I moved to NC from CA 10 years ago so I know exactly what you mean about the fields of tobacco and the barns and everything. I am so excited to do this quilt!! Can't wait to begin...

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  6. I can hardly wait for the next mystery quilt to start. I just finished my Carolina Crossroads and I'm ready to start another one. I had to skip the Orange Crush since I was still working on the CC. I hope to stay caught up this time. :)

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  7. Woo-hoo!

    Love the color scheme. We were in Kentucky tobacco country (Pleasant Hill) in late summer a few years ago...the barns and the golden tobacco leaves are beautiful. It's too bad that such an aesthetically pleasing plant is so harmful to our health.

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  8. This is my color pallet to a "T". I cannot wait to start.
    I have an extensive stash that has been purchased over the last 15 years. I also inherited my sister-in-laws stash when she passed. So when I want scrappy I simply cut some off eveything! No matchy, matchy here.
    Scraps are beautiful.
    So from one frugal "Ragmuffin" to another: keep on designing for us!
    Quilty hugs Bonnie from Subee!

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  9. Can't wait for this mystery! If you ever do your photo album of derelict buidlings and barns, please post it. I LOVE old barns!

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  10. Wish you told us the sizes of your half-square triangles and the squares for ???leader enders???. LOL

    Regards, Peg

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  11. I am so excited to do this mstery quilt. The colors are right. I have never participated in a mystery project before. I have a hard time following instructions. Patterns are usually modified. A good learning opportunity. I too am from Tobacco Country, only in CT. We have fields in Ellington , Windsor, Enfield and Glastonbury. There may be more??
    I love the old barns as well.

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  12. Can not wait to start this quilt. The colors are great!

    People let their barns "fall" down because they will be taxed heavily for "improvements" if they take them down. My family has lived in Wisc. for a long time and they let their barns fall down also, I think most people do unless they figure some way around the tax issue.

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  13. I'm working on a StripTwist in patriotic colors from your website but will start gathering my fall scraps to be ready for the quilt along. Sounds like fun! I enjoyed your last post as I've become a scrappy quilt lover and save everything. I think my scrappy quilts are usually better than my planned palettes. Keep on doing what you're doing - it works!

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  14. I hear you about wishing that wasn't tobacco growing in those fields, although I saw that problem from a different point of view this weekend. I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's great book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and at one point she discusses growing up in a town where almost everyone grew tobacco. The book is so wonderful -- really worth the read, especially since you now live in tobacco country.

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  15. Anonymous1:48 AM EDT

    I will be doing this one too, have done the other two and can't miss out,big grin.

    cheers
    Christine

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  16. I better get sewing on my Ohio Stars, otherwise I will not be ready for the Labor Day mystey.

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  17. I'm glad to know it's not just me noticing that they never tear anything down here. I'm particularly fascinated by the buildings that are held up by nothing but a ring of trees. :-) And then the ones balancing on a few cinder blocks! I guess sheer strength of character keeps them standing!

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  18. Oh I can't wait to see the next mystery. :-) And thanks for the hints... I'll need to do some 4 patches but have a bagful of those bonus HTS that I can pull out ot use. Would you give us another hint? Please... What size is the bonus HTS? :o) Thank you!

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  19. Very exciting. It sounds like it ill be another winner.

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  20. Can't wait to start another of your mysteries! I still have my tops unquilted from your first two, but I'm always up for starting something new!

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  21. Ohhh, I always love your projects, I'm just dying to work on some Bonnie-goodness again.
    *big hugs from down-unda*
    Tazzie
    :-)

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  22. This brought tears to my eyes. My dad, whom I lost to cancer last spring, raised tobacco 'for farming fun'. Oh the freezing cold winter days of taking it down out of the barn and tying it in to 'hands'. Memories..bittersweet for certain. I believe I will do this quilt in his memory.

    ~Kim

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  23. YAHOO! I can't wait. I am hoping I can do this one!

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