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.