Guess I'm early. Waiting- Glass of water- what will today hold?

Too bad I'm not done sewing - yet

Clues 7 and 8
 

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I think I’m still full! Well, at least not too interested in food yet. Not used to all that rich food all at once!

I had planned on having this mystery quilt end on Dec. 1 but I will not be around next Saturday, and by now many of you are pretty sure what is happening, so guess what -- TODAY YOU GET THE FINAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE QUILT! Can’t wait to see everyone’s completed quilt top. Yes, it is quite a bit of sewing, but we are at the end and you can take however much time you need to finish this.

Gather together the piles of blocks you make so far, keeping similar pieces together. Assemble the blocks as shown in the top 2 pictures, you will have 24 of each of the B-E amd D-F color combinations. These form the corner blocks of your 18-½” square. The top picture is my F-C combination. The colors are bad on the 2nd picture, the A-E colors really are the white and medium-dark lavender.

I saw that some of you said the pieces you made a couple weeks ago reminded them of an Irish Chain. This is my adaptation of the Irish Chain, using two colors instead of one for the large diagonal chains. I liked the drama of the black and white.

Now, assemble all the pieces you have made according to the 3rd and 4th pictures, the completed 18-½” blocks. Press all the seams well after sewing the small sections together, before adding the next section.

Sew together the 12 blocks as shown. (Don’t forget - if you used a strip tube ruler to make your half square triangles, they will have a bias edge, be careful not to stretch the edges.) Lay flat and pin together to prevent stretching.

You will have enough fabric of the lighter of the A-B combination or the darker of the C-D combination to make sashing. Cut 8 pieces up to 1-½” wide -- I cut my strips 1-¼” wide so my finished sashing is ¾“ wide -- this is just my personal preference, use narrower or wider as you want. Or if you want a different color sashing, pick something entirely different from your six fabrics if you choose to do so. Pin and sew the two long sides, then press toward the sashing and add the two short sides. Press toward the sashing.

Yes, the three striped 45 degree pieces you made are for the borders. Lay one border pieces down on one of the long sides first, and pin in place - the edges are on the bias and will distort if stretched. Cut off the extra. Using 2nd border piece, add to the other long side. Cut off the extra.. Press. You should have enough cut-offs from the long sides to sew on to the third piece of border you made, to add borders to the top and bottom, the short sides. If some of you didn’t end up with enough, just piece together a short section and make more of the border.

And ka-boom, you are finished with the lap quilt top, and it is ready to sandwich and quilt.

Hope you enjoyed this mystery. I’ll look forward to seeing your quilts when they are pieced together. For me, that’s the most fun of the mystery, seeing what every one of you has done with your fabric.

It’s been another fun train ride. Thank you to all of you for joining me on this trip.

my final projects with the mystery blocks
 

In order to make sure that my directions are correct, I make up a completed sample of my mysteries before I even post the first clue. I was in the process of laying out the completed 18-½” blocks when my daughter came in the house, and saw them on the living room floor.

When I picked fabrics for this lap quilt, it was to be a gift from my daughter for her godchild’s birthday in December -- her favorite colors are lavender and purple. My daughter came over around the time of Clue 4 and said, oh dear is that Nell’s quilt?” I told her it was. . “Uh oh. Her mother just told me purple is no longer her favorite color.”

So, I made her something else, not this same pattern, because I needed a break from it! And turned these 12 blocks into 2 charity quilts. I made another 6-strip piece and made another border piece, trimmed the border pieces to 2-¼ to keep the quilt less than 44” wide, and cut a little more sashing. This photo shows what I ended up with. They have been quilted and turned in to the charity I sew for.

I love it!!!!!!

Now off to sew

Thanks for doing this.

Looks good! Now to see how mine will look. It will be fun to see what everyone's finished quilt looks like. Thanks Judy, guess the train is pulling in to the last station, they'll probably be glad when we all depart and they can rest :)

Thanks Judy love the quilt, now I just have to catch up as I am behind a couple of clues as I had to finish up a quilt that I have to get in the mail. I'm all most done just have a couple of feet left of the binding left to sew down and it's done , then I have to make a pair of mittens and a hat and I can ship it off and then I can play with my mystery quilt.

By the looks of everyones post their are going to be a bunch of georeous quilts for all to enjoy.Can't wait to see them all.

thanks judy i never caught on to any of the mystery sure suprised me its been great fun. now to sew

Thank you for all your kind words, makes it all worth while!