Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt - Clue #2 and A Turkey Pot Pie Recipe TOO!

It's pouring rain outside!  In California that is a joyous sound right now.  I love to hear it hitting the roof and pelting the windows. Something about water that is so soothing.  We had a lazy morning, got out of bed late and the girls crawled in for a snuggle together. Even they can sense that it's that type of day.

About noon, I decided to start in on Clue #2 of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt.  I carefully printed out the instructions, read them through several times and started to cut.

Oh, sometimes we just go on auto pilot and we miss the smallest detail.  I decided I would just cut a couple strips and play with the fabric to see how it sorted out...good thing.  I decided to try her template method first.  Hmmmm...after cutting the first set out wrong and then realizing that something didn't seem right, I decided to go with her Method #3.  

Whew, now I am back in a familiar place and we are cooking along.  I still only cut about 3 strips because I wanted to make sure I got this going in the right direction.

I love chain piecing, I'm sure I may have mentioned that about a thousand times.  Again, rhythmic and soothing like the rain outside. And it's wonderful to see a stack of piecing that you just finished and clipped apart, all ready for the iron.

I'm using a constant black and a constant white in this quilt.  And I love them.  I think there is just enough going on in each one to keep it interesting.

Grand Hotel

You can see where Bonnie's black and white inspiration came from! The photos of the Grand Hotel are vivid!

Building a nice little stack of blocks and some bonus HST's too boot.  We will save those for another project.  Loving my color choices so far and still continually amazed at how fabrics can work so well together when you cut them small enough! Don't be afraid to try something in your scrappy goodness, it all works!

Oh!  I wonder how these will fit together, so many possibilities and I'm sure I'm a mile off...LOL.  That is part of the fun.  

Time to stop for dinner.  Using left over turkey and fixings from Thanksgiving I made pot pies tonight.  They were delicious!

My Recipe:

Filling:  2 cups left over turkey, chopped or shredded

              1 cup left over glazed carrots

              1 cup left over green bean cassarole

              1 stalk celery finely chopped

              1/4 onion finely chopped

              2 cups left over country fried potatoes from breakfast

              4 cups half and half

              1/4 cup flour

              1/4 tsp thyme

              salt and pepper to taste

              3 TBS butter or bacon drippings

Pastry:  I used left over pie pastry, you can use your favorite recipe or store bought. When I make my pies, I bag up the trimmings for pot pie topping.

Saute up the onion and celery in the butter or drippings, remove from pan and leave the butter or drippings, add flour, stir and cook for a minute or two, add 4 cups half and half, thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir and cook on medium heat until bubbly and thickening, add back in the onion and celery, the carrots, green beans, potatoes and turkey.  Simmer for a few minutes until heated through.

Spoon into individual serving pans and top with flaky pie crust cut into a round big enough to cover the top.  Pierce your pastry with a fork and also poke a hole in the middle for steam to escape.  Place in a 400 degree F oven and cook for 20-25 minutes until pastry is browned.  

Line your cookie sheet with parchment in case you have a boil over, makes for easy cleanup. 

Back to my piecing.  I hope you are playing along!  If you have not started, don't freak out, the clues will be up on her site for a while. It's not a race and this can be a hectic time of year. Relax, do a few each day or when you get a break in the action, or wait until the holidays are over.  Go to her blog site and download the instructions to your computer, keep them for when you are ready to start.  Jump in anywhere, you can always go back and pick up clue #1 later.  Here is the link for the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt:  Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt  And if you want to see how others are translating this clue you can go to the link up here: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html

Don't be afraid!  Give it a whirl!  You will enjoy the process, one step at a time and before you know it, you will have a beautiful quilt finished!  Make up those pot pies, put them in your freezer and you'll be all ready with dinner, no fuss...more time for sewing!