This is my 1,000th quilt on my longarm!!! It's also my 2022 Bonnie Hunter Chilhowie mystery quilt!!!
We got a couple more inches of snow last Sunday. You can see our forsythia blooming in the background!⤴️
Pattern: Chilhowie Mystery Quilt from Bonnie Hunter
Size: 88" x 88"
Batting: Quilters Dream 80/20
Thread: Glide--Sky
Pantograph: Baptist Fan ⤵️ from Three Sisters Fabric
Bonnie's original color choice was: low volume, orange, aqua and purple. Gudrun @ GE Designs recommended a couple of alternative colorways. I followed Gudrun's colorway below: off-white, terra cotta, taupe and indigo, using fabrics from my collection, many bought in Japan.
In case you're wondering what "Chilhowie" means, Bonnie often uses names of towns for her mystery quilts. Chilhowie is the name of a small town in Virginia near her Quiltville Inn. The name means "Valley of Many Deer" in Cherokee. That is not related to the quilt design though--she just liked the unusual name.
One of Bonnie's tips for making a fresh looking scrap quilt is this: use up older, dated scraps, but mix in new fabrics as well, to give your quilt a current look!
Bonnie's pattern makes a 78" square quilt. That seems a bit small for a bed, so I added a 5" border of a Japanese print featuring origami cranes!⤵️ That makes my quilt 88" square.
I love the back of this quilt!!! I followed a pattern from Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation's new book, Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs, which is being released in June. This book is amazing!!! Come back mid-June when Kelly's book is released for the reveal of my Chilhowie quilt back!
You can see many variations of color and layout of this quilt at #chilhowiequilt on Instagram!
Interesting Info: I've had my longarm for 10 1/2 years now. This is my 1,000th quilt on my longarm! That doesn't equal quilting 100 quilts a year though--there is definitely a steep learning curve to longarm quilting! The first few years I was quilting 50 to 60 quilts per year. More recently I quilt about 125 quilts per year. I do enjoy and appreciate having a longarm!!!
Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy
Congrats on your big mile stone! And what a fun quilt for number 1.000. xo
ReplyDeleteI like your quilt! It doesn't look as busy as most of the quilts do from Bonnie's mystery sew along. Love the quilting, happy stitching!
ReplyDeleteOh Nancy, what a pretty quilt! Congrats on reaching 1000!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your 1000th!! I totally get how awesome it is to have our own longarms. You did awesome with your Chillhowie quilt.
ReplyDeletePerfect quilt for your 100th! Congratulations. Love your colorway, and your quilting choice! Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.
ReplyDeleteWow, 1000? That's amazing! Congratulations on such an incredible milestone. Beautiful as always!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I made a Chillhowie using Bonnie's colorway and was surprised how much I like it. Great to see it in other colors...and I may be using your baptist fan idea to quilt mine. Thank you for the weekly inspirations.
ReplyDeleteI'm especially impressed that you kept track of those 1,000 quilts! Congratulations on this milestone. Your Chilhowie quilt is simply gorgeous with those fabrics!
ReplyDelete1000 quilts is awesome! You are so prolific on yours. This version of the Chilhowie quilt is so gorgeous and the baptist fan is perfect on it! Your colors are rich and I think you did fabulous adding in fabrics. You have a great eye for color and it shows in this!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your milestone, Nancy! Your quilting is always amazing. Chilhowie is beautiful - I love your color choices!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I often wonder about place names in the USA. Some seem such a mouthful but they are a good introduction to the native languages and cultures.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing your 1000th long arm quilt project. It is a beautiful quilt and the Baptist Fan design enforces that link between the old and new fabrics.
Congratulations on your 1000th long arm quilt! It is an amazing milestone. What a beautiful 1000th quilt to top it off! Here's to your next 1000 quilts!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt, love your colors. Nancy Angerer: SewingGranda@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteGreat finish! Thanks for sharing what the title of the quilt means! Your version is beautiful and is a great one for your 1000 milestone! Wow! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is an amazing milestone. Congratulations. :)
ReplyDeleteWow , Nancy!!! That is an amazing accomplishment and milestone! Chilhowie is a stunner. The terra cotta fabrics and the beautiful indigos pop in this beauty. Well done.
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!!!! Your quilt is beautiful - love the colors. I love the baptist fan especially when the quilt is a busy one! Again - you do some great work on that long arm! Hugs
ReplyDeleteNancy, I have tried to put my name on my comments but google won’t let me. So just to let you know that I always sign “Hugs” at the end. But will start putting my name in the comment. Stupid Blogger!!!! Nanette
ReplyDeleteIt’s Nanette again - You put a lot into this quilt. I love the colors you used! This is one of the prettiest from Hunter that I have seen!
ReplyDelete.wow! That’s very impressive - 1,000 quilts on your long arm. I wish I lived closer and could send some of my quilt tops to you. Your latest finish is beautiful. The Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts are a lot of fun to make.
ReplyDeleteOoo, I love the colors you used in Chilhowie. I save Bonnie's clues each year in case I decide to do it. Your beautiful quilt might push me over the edge..LOL (I've only ever done Easy Street and used Bonnie's colors). Nice job on hitting that great milestone!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a milestone for sure. I thought you were going to say it was your 1000th quilt! Congratulations on the great finish on Chilhowie. I love the color palette, and it gives the quilt a great feel. Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on this amazing milestone! I love the colourway you chose for Chilhowie. It gives the quilt a country air. Well done! ;^)
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy, congrats on your quilt and 1000 quilts on your longarm. Your quilt is really lovely with the border in that gorgeous Japanese fabric! Looking forward to seeing the back :-) Take care.
ReplyDeleteWow! You have been a pro at all that quilting! Kudos to you and your amazing accomplishment. Love your Quiltville mystery and the choice of colors you made. It turned out so amazing!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a great Milestone! Congratulations, you did mastered your longarm so well, your quilting is wonderful. Love this quilt too, well done mixing Japanese fabrics with older ones!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this great news, and linking up!
Beautiful finish! My Chilhowie is with the quilter. I like your fabric colors/prints. It is a looker! Congratulations on such a milestone. . .1000 quilts. WOWOW!!!!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects
ReplyDeleteWoot, woot! One thousand! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteWow! Congratulations on 1000 quilts on the long arm! And congratulation on finishing off your Chilhowie mystery. Love the color palette you selected.
ReplyDeleteExcellent quilting pattern choice. And, wow! Blue thread. I would not have thought of that but it shows in the pictures and looks so darn good. And, your color choices are wonderful. I'm still waiting for my long arm to return. Sigh. Let's just say I'm adding a lot of tops that will need quilting. have a quilty week.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on meeting that BIG milestone of 1,000 - wow!! Your quilt is stunning in those colors. Love it!!
ReplyDeleteI love the quilting motif you chose- very effective. The Japanese fabrics are also lovely. I admire all quilters who complete Bonnie’s wonderful mystery projects. And your 1000 milestone is impressive and admirable. Well done!
ReplyDeleteI add my congratulations on your milestone -- thanks for documenting and sharing your journey on your blog. Your Chilhowie colorway is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYay!
ReplyDeleteNancy, your Chilhowie quilt is gorgeous!! And congratulations on your 1,000 quilt milestone! I love quilting my own quilts, and used to quilt for others, but I prefer to just do mine! I love the blue Glide thread you used.
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!!!!!!!!! Both the number of quilts and also the beautiful quilt you've just finished. I'm not sure how many I've quilted over the years, but don't do customer ones any more, just my own. Long arm quilting is as much of a learning curve as anything else we humans tackle. Thanks for sharing, take care & hugs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful quilt! And 1000 quilts quilted is quite a number! I think the Baptist fan is a perfect quilting pattern for this quilt. I can't wait to see what you did with the back. I'm a fan of the pieced backing. It makes almost a two-fer quilt, in a way since you have the quilt pattern on the front and whatever improv you've done on the back. I've been doing pieced backs on my quilts for a while and like how it looks, but also like that I don't have to buy huge pieces of fabric for the back. I usually piece together scraps from the front with some new fabrics for the back if I don't have enough scraps to finish the back.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laurie!!! You can see the pieced back, plus 5 other pieced backs, at my following blog post that features the book, Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs by Kelly Young:
Deletehttps://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/2023/06/perfectly-pieced-quilt-backs.html
I'm replying here since your email comes up as noreply-comment at blogger dot com.
I'm a little late to the "congratulations" party but wanted to extend them anyway. Love your finish and am gobsmacked at the LA achievement! My MIL purchased an entry level one last year and earlier this year was the first time I got to use one other than at a quilt show demo. You are so right, definite learning curve to finishing a whole quilt!
ReplyDeleteI found your post as I was looking around for ideas for alternative "Chilhowie" colorways and like what you did. Funny, I purchased some fabric from GE Designs at this year's Quilt Con so recognized those bands around the fabrics right away. I've got to remember to visit her site when the new mystery is announced later this year and see what Gudrun recommends. I really want to try doing one with an alternate colorway.