The final assembly step is to put the final border on. It will be a 3" border, so cut 3.5" strips from the border fabric -- the fabric you had to have the most of.

The corner stones for the final border strips are the 3" friendship stars.

Adding your final 3" border brings it up to 52.5". With binding, maybe 53" now.

You will also be adding the binding which will be from the same border fabric as the final border.

And, as you've guessed, the applique portion goes in the center block.

That remains the final mystery.

(I have to figure out a way to upload it to everyone ...)

I hope everyone likes the Christmas/Winter mystery quilt so far.

I'll be back later to finalize the applique and solve the final mystery.

Here is a blank layout template if it's any help to anyone.

I keep it on hand and scribble notes on it.

****** You have to download it and print it in its actual size for it to look right. It will show up correctly in Explorer if you download it.

So far it's looking really good cordelia! I'm such a chicken! I always wait to see more of what it'll look like towards the end but I definitely wanna do this now! Especially now that I can better choose my fabrics. oh am I picky!!

I figured everyone was waiting until I spilled the whole thing out there.

I've never done a mystery quilt because I've never wanted to invest a lot of money or time in something I'm not sure how it will turn out.

BUT, everyone make sure they let me know if there's any problems downloading templates.

If anyone's definitely going to do this, make a folder on your computer, name it mystery quilt or something, and download all the templates and save them there. They're yours to keep.

The blank lay out template is really just a small note size. I'm going to stretch it out in Paint program and you can have a larger printout if you want room to label block spaces and colors.

I still owe you all an applique for it, but it's larger than a page, so I'm going to have to redesign it to fit on individual pages so I can upload them too.

Now that I think of it, the fun with the quilt programs is I can change out colors and blocks all the time.

That could be a good "woodsy, outdoorsy" quilt too. I can change the pines and add woods/earth tones, hmmmm.

I'm going back to the drawing board and playing with some colors now.

All this needs is a great big moose applique. Our Alaska members would have that!

OOh I like the new color scheme!!! Yummy! oh my I can see that I will definitely need to add this beauty to my list!