love to sew

well, I got sucked in because I have so many scraps and 4 patches from doing leaders and enders the Bonnie Hunter way. I'm going to select the 4 patches and then see about doing the second clue. Judy, I know you used gold for your constant. Please give me suggestions for another color. Should it be a light medium?

paintmejudy

To tell the truth, I only used that gold color because I had a large piece of it, and didn't use any gold in the 4-patch. At least I don't think I did. At this point, it's late Friday afternoon, and I would wait until tomorrow to see what you want to do about clue 2. It really depends on what you have in the way of 4 patch and the neutrals or background fabric if not using neutrals. I think you will be able to make a decision as soon as you see where we are going tomorrow.

love to sew

Can the neutrals have some color in them? like Bonnie Hunter uses lights? I realized the 4 patches I have are mainly darks and lights(but not neutral) or the read that way with a red view finder, even though many are mediums. So I'm going to have to make more (even though I have over a 100 4-patches that I picked thru there are not 48 that work for the colored patches or the colored with neutrals, lol) That's ok as I feel the need to sew, it is such a distraction from whatever else is going on. And I'm using up my scraps! yay. It is therapy for me as I think is for others as well.

paintmejudy

Of course you can add some color. I guess I forgot to post this picture with the "busy work" from the 2nd clue! And then if the print wasn't light enough, I used the wrong side!

AngeliaNR

I'm still tagging along--I wish life would give me a chance to catch up! My four patches are done but for a bit of pressing (I'm making double the amount--you know me, Judy; I like Big quilts!). Hope to work on the QSTs tomorrow.

Thanks again for the fun--I've needed it!

love to sew

[QUOTE=Suz;8001265]This is how I make QST. Think "swastika" (hate the word and it meaning). Draw lines diagonally on one 6" square and then match to a second square. Stitch 1/4" to the right of a line to the cross line. Stop at the cross line, turn, take about 4 stitches on the line to the next or outside line that would complete the "X", turn and stitch 1/4" to the end. Do this again on the other part of the "X". When you look at the center, it will resemble the "ugly" word. Now, cut on the drawn lines. You will have four identical QST. Press to the dark. Mix these with others and once stitched, square to 4-1/2"

Sorry, I have still not learned to post pixs. The nice think about this technique is that you do not have to deal with the bias. And if you want four identicals pointing in the opposite direction, then start the original stitching to th left of the drawn line. ---- Hope my description is clear and helps with the frustration issue encountered w/bias edges and stretching. ----- I'll try to answer any questions.[/QUOTe
I'm a visual learner and I can't seem to follow this. Hopefully someone can post a picture with how to do this.

Suz

Love to Sew, go to #331 and take a look at Judy's tute. She makes it very clear. I stitch to the cross line and make either an "X" or "ugly" word to avoid the stop and start with hanging threads. The cross over stitchings do not interfere with the unit once cut.

paintmejudy

To begin: Looking at the first picture, you will see the layout for all the 12.5” blocks, using all of the 4-patch and the dreaded QSTs. I then laid all out in rows of 4 in order to make sure I wasn’t going to end up doing the last 3 blocks with too much of one color. And I did find out that maybe there is a touch more red than I had planned. Sew the individual blocks as shown in the layout, press well and it doesn’t matter how you press your seams because they will be sewed to sashing. Check to make sure they measure 12-1/2” and trim if needed. Adjust seams if necessary. Each of the 3 rows will contain 4 scrappy blocks and 5 of the 12-12” by 2-1/2” strips of neutral. I did press the seams of the scrappy block towards the neutral strip.

Secondly: Using the rest of the 12-1/2” x 2-1/2”, gather together 20 of your 2.5” squares. Looking at the picture, you will see how I made the sashing strips that are separating the rows and one on each long side. These 4 sashing strips were made from four neutral strips and five 2-1/2” squares. Press the seams towards the neutral Sew the strips, matching the colored square with the neutral sashing. They should nestle in there perfectly. Sew the sashing strips and the rows of blocks as shown.

Now came my dilemma – how to finish this quilt. I auditioned a bunch of things, took pix of 2 of them. But in the end I used the one in the sketch, then laid some pieces of fabric down to see what it would look like, I took a picture of this, and used two additional rows for the border. The drawing shows the neutral that you sewed on the quilt top that surrounds the outer edges of the quilt. Then I added these 2 additional rows that ended up measuring 4-1/2” wide , adding 9” total to the width and to the length. My daughter’s quilt ended up being 53” x 65” if I remember correctly. I bound the quilt in purple, her favorite color.
The first strip next to the existing neutral/colored squares is made as follows: Cut width of fabric in your choice of color at 2-1/2” wide. I used a turquoise. Cut turquoise in 8-1/2” strips and 2-1/2” squares. Pick two colored 2-1/2” squares to go with this and sew in a row, to match the length and the width of the quilt top. Look at the diagram.

For the next row, use the same sizes as when you made the neutral/colored squares – 12-1/2” x 2-1/2” along with one colored 2-1/2” squares. I used a brown pin dot for this border.

The length will need 4 colored sections on each side, and the width will need 3 of the strips.

Make four 4-1/2” square blocks to fill the four corners. Maybe make 4-colored QST blocks using all different scrappy colors? Or a 4-patch of all different colors?

Sew the long sides on. Add a 4.5” square to each of the shorter units and sew to the top and bottom.
I feel terrible that I don’t have a picture to show you, I know it would be so much easier to see what I did.
I ended up taking the quilt into the long arm gal before I took a picture. It will be for my daughter’s birthday.

And then after all the agonizing, I did this. Since I didn’t take a picture, I’m including a sketch of what I used. Hope it makes sense to you.

So, we are done. Another mystery, and I hope it was a fun project for you. I know, I know, QSTs aside that is. LOL

I am planning on giving everyone a chance to finish this before starting number 19 and have a bit of a rest. That said, I am aiming for the first Saturday in April to start another mystery.

dotcomdtcm

This is fabulous!

paintmejudy

Thanks, Dotty.