Extra Rhododendron Trail blocks

When I decided to join in with the quilt mystery, my first, I gathered up my scraps in the colours that were needed.  It was fun and a nice distraction from all the Christmas hustle and bustle.  Every time the new clue was posted, I would disappear down to my studio to cut and sew.  You have to have faith when doing a mystery quilt, that you are going to like it...  I had faith!  To start off with, I loved the colours!!!

This is the first NICU quilt I did using four left over blocks from the original Rhododendron Trail quilt mystery held by Bonnie Hunter.  These were her colour choices and since I loved the colour combination, I did mine the same.  The light turquoise is also part of the original quilt.  So cute!!!

I had one more block left over.  What to do, what to do....  This block sat around for a while.  I didn't know yet what I wanted to make with it, so I just let it marinate in my mind.  Nothing came to me, so it just sat there longer.  Then when I was going through my UFO blocks and saw it, I decided it needed to be made into a quilt and within a couple of weeks, the design for this block came to me.  I posted about it on Oct 2nd, post called An extra rhododendron block.

In short, I decided to steal some of the flying geese from the original Rhododendron Trail quilt to use in this one.  I needed more interest then just adding border after border to make it the right size for a NICU quilt.  The idea for the burgundy triangle borders also comes from Bonnie's original mystery quilt version.

I like how this one turned out!!!  Very different from the first one above.  I just love coming up with ideas for different layouts, especially if they are leftover blocks that are now being used and gifted to someone who needs a hug.

This is the third quilt I finished this past week.  Tally:  33 quilts to finish by end of year - 3 = 30 more.....lol.  Last week was week one and I finished 3 quilts.  Today, Sunday is the end of week two.  I'll let you know how I did tomorrow.... trying to keep the momentum going for as long as I can, though I do know that realistically I cannot maintain this rhythm....

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take some time for yourself!!