Super Sleuth Soiree

So . . . as hard as it is for me to believe . . . it has now been three weeks since we held our Super Sleuth Soiree Mystery Quilt Workshop.

I know I had some recuperating and adjustments to make because of my age . . . but really – three weeks!?!?!

Well let’s get started here and get everyone up to speed on what our little “Soiree” was all about . . .

First of all it was optional to come “dressed up” and we had some amazing outfits make an appearance for sure!

Lise absolutely blew me away with her hippie outfit . . . anyone who knows Lise, knows that this is sooooooo not her – but ended up just perfect.

We had gals in housecoats, Super Sleuth attire, old women, old men . . . the list went on and on.  It was amazing to have everyone come out prepared for a good time.

After everyone got settled in and a “wicked” cackle and poem greeted the forty-seven participants we started with the clues.

Clue #1 was in a painted pumpkin tin with tissue paper and the ladies headed off to start their project.

The community centre that we were able to rent ended up just a little tight on space when it came time to “hide” our clues, so the newly renovated Men’s Bathroom ended up being Clue Central.  Have you ever tried decorating a Men’s bathroom before?  Very interesting concept – at least there was no urinal to deal with!

Another clue was attached to the back of these scary little skeletons.  Some people may have needed glasses to read the details on this one!  It was really just a guide for putting on the first borders, so not a big deal – I didn’t hear of any eye-strain accidents anyway!

Of course you can’t host a workshop without having lots and lots of food.  This is a quick shot of the one corner of the dessert table.  Before everyone got to this part they had pulled beef on a bun, cheese, pickles and coleslaw and . . .

. . . hot apple cider and hot apple/cranberry cider with creepy heads floating in the brine.

Decorated sugar cookies,

Mummy cookies, more decorated sugar cookies and candy corn cookies,

and three different cheesecakes – this is a photo of just the one, but there were two others that were just as gorgeous.  Seemed a shame to cut into them!  After all was said and done, there was about 1/2 a slice leftover and a few crumbs – tasted as good as it looked I think.  I didn’t get a piece!

Here are a couple of more clues.  Everyone got a treat inside the cello bag clue and everyone got a specially designed charm square inside the envelope clue.  A “subway” style  design was created with the names of all the towns that workshop participants came from.  This was then uploaded to Spoonflower and the fabric was ordered.  A small mug rug pattern was also included with the clue and the charm square in this package.

The clue inside these little boxes was rolled up and put on a spider ring along with another little piece of chocolate.  We didn’t want anyone to go home hungry.

The final clue was put into this little fabric goodie bags all decked out in Halloween prints.  Boy that was fun putting together 50 of these little creations!  Thank goodness for amazing helpers that dug right in and got ‘er done.

Here is everyone hard at work – we really did have an excellent space to work in.  Before everyone got there for the day we were able to get a few quilts hung up on the walls to make it a bit cozier and provide some eye candy as well.

Before everyone left for the day we had them take their partially finished quilts up on the stage so that we could get some photos of their projects.  We also discussed some of the finishing ideas – yo-yos in those centre squares or maybe some appliquéd flowers; in some of the outer borders we discussed adding vines and flowers or crows and bats like in some of the ones from the previous post.  Lots of ideas to make this quilt their own.

As you can see from the photos, everyone was able to get the centre and first borders put on.

Plus you can see the different impact that the fabric choices are making.     The only instructions they had for choosing fabrics was that they had to choose 12 fat quarters that they loved.

I would have loved to get a photo of each individual quilt up close . . . they seem so far away, but at least we can see the different color values and how much they got done.

There is one lady there that has another border put on . . . that’s looking good too!

Quite surprising to me is that the gal on the far right hand side there used the same fabrics as my original quilt that was in the magazine.  So she knew exactly how her quilt would look when she was all done just by looking at mine.  All the fabric lines that are available out there and we used the same one!  I bought my package of fat quarters over a year ago so I know we weren’t shopping in the same place.

There is a Christmas print one on the right and a “make mine pink” one on the left.  There was pastels and brights and hand-dyes and flannels – it was so much fun to see the combinations.

And then we had a table of gals that obviously were drinking way too much coffee . . . they all had their second borders on and that really bright colored one even has her third border on.  Amazing!

This was a HUGE undertaking, but so very satisfying and tons of fun.  We have now started our idea files for the May, 2012 workshop and we’re pretty sure it will be just as much fun and the projects will be just as amazing.  We have not made the announcement yet as to who we have coming as teachers, but we have people registering anyway . . . they say they don’t care who’s coming as long as they are on the list!!! No pressure there . . .