paintmejudy

Good morning, everyone! Today you will begin the next mystery train ride by making a table topper of approximately 42”. Welcome to all returning passengers and to any new train riders. I think all levels of quilting skill will enjoy this project. As usual, we will sew in the club car and the restaurant car will be available for snacks and beverages of your choosing. The conductor assures me she will have fresh coffee and hot water for tea available at all times, should you desire to sew in the middle of the night. Our journey will take 4 weeks beginning as you board the train this morning, and will end at the final destination on February 28th. Postings will be made on the next four Friday mornings by 10:00 a.m. PST, next clue posting to this thread on February 7th. Bookmark the thread to make it easy to find us every week.

My goal this year is to lighten the load of my scraps, and I know many of you have that goal on your bucket list! I have made this pattern three times using scraps and made charity quilts out of the tops. Now I have cut my pattern down for a topper. I will give directions for scrappy so you don’t have to cut into yardage for small amounts needed. You could even use leftover charms and they will be cut down a bit for our needs. Pick a good range of light, medium and dark. You’ll need about 55-60 different charms or it would not be a problem if you have some duplicates of the scraps. Pick some extras in case you don’t like the way they assemble.

To those of you who have ridden this train before, you know I give hints on some fabrics so you don’t hate your end result! I think that small and a few blenders or solids will work best with this pattern. Fabric A is sashing. Fabric B will appear to be prominent in your topper and perhaps you would like to choose scraps that will look nice with B. And as I mentioned, small prints will work best, but medium can be used. It’s your choice on B as to scale of the print, but I would not pick tiny. I think I am going to go with the light prints, and use an equal amount of darker, but a mix of light, medium and dark will be equally attractive. The first picture was of my original A nd B choices, but as I started cutting, I chose the bottom fabrics. I think either one would have worked equally as well.

Fabric A – 18” WOF OR You can use 2 identical fat quarters for A.

Fabric B – 3/4 yard (need more if you want binding to blend with topper) More about finishing during week 5

Binding – wait until you are done to see what you want to use.
So, with this information, I will end for today. Feel free to post any questions, I’ll try to answer as best I can and not give too much away.