SusieQOH

I'm cutting Clue 7 as I somehow skipped it entirely.
From what I've read in the instructions you can use any blues and raspberries. They don't have to be what we used in previous clues.

joe'smom

SusieQ, that's correct.

Iceblossom

Correct Susie, they can be brand new fabrics if needed but they need to be kept in sets.

A lot of my pieces were still great colors and usable randomly but just were an inch or so short to make a set.

Edit: Oh, I wanted to say something about my approach to scrappy versus one set of fabric or whatever, my real line is "the quilt we make depends on the fabric we have". I had a big bag of randomly sized pieces of hand dyed! I didn't really expect the issues with the dye not being set, or that I'd have to go to a much broader value range rather than have enough to keep true-er to the paint chips, or that in an entire strip of fabric I'd have an all yellow piece that should be red. That wouldn't be so bad except that yellow is my neutral.

I've certainly made scrappy quilts with far more identical repeats as well, and there is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes it works better to have "just" six blues, six greens, etc. And there is nothing wrong at all with a planned quilt of just one blue, one green, etc.

Before I developed my stacking/sorting techniques for dealing with fabrics, I'd start out by randomly putting fabric I liked together. That would go well for about half the combinations, and then the fabrics I rejected before were now "double ugly" and couldn't be put in combinations I was happy with but yet, no matter how hard I tried, the two fabrics I didn't want touching always ended up right next to each other in the final layout. Or if there are only 4 pieces of orange in the entire top, they end up within a square foot of each other.

SusieQOH

I'm finding Clue 7 daunting- yikes!!!
I only have about a dozen done. I'm going to have to search my stash I think.

QuiltingNinaSue

Finally made it to clue 4, and love using the essential ruler. I feel like the baby on the back of the Indian maiden, "I don't know where I am going, but I can tell you where I have been." That is an old, old saying from my childhood, because I cannot imagination where the pieces will go, but hope I am accurate in cutting pieces as Bonnie Hunter directs me to cut them. Loved my Bloc loc HST and have one for the flying geese as well. Have downloaded clue 8, and wondering when we will know how to set it all together. Love it that the electrical power is back on and its warm in our house again, and we can see! Blessings feel good after not having it for a number of hours.

tallchick

The good news is the end is near, yay! But I totally agree, a daunting task indeed! I break them down to manageable sets by doing some stopping and getting up to go do something else then coming back. Today I’m cleaning, doing laundry and sewing in between. I’m really looking forward to the seeing the end!

SusieQOH

Lisa, I'm doing the same thing! And I'm about half done with those triangles. I have an easy angle I bought a long time ago that I'm using.
I also did a bunch of strips and then brought them downstairs to cut. Change of scenery lol

SusieQOH

Oops!!! Glad you caught that, QuiltnNan. I forgot!

wildyard

Well, I am happy to announce that I've got all but 7 sets of the triangles cut for clue 7!! I've been doing them 10 at a time then taking a break, but my back gave out before the last 7 so I'm hugging the heating pad for a while. I am cutting for a 3/4 size throw, so I only have to make 31 sets. Because of the odd size, I may end up having to cut a few more of different clues to make it come out even on the wall.
The good news is I did end up being able to use only one red in each set and won't have to mix them. I end up with a few more duplicates than I wanted but that's ok. Duplicates of the red, not full sets. I make sure that each set has a different blue/red combo.
Just 7 more to cut then I can start sewing up FGs and HSTs.... oh and pinwheels. OH MY!!!

joe'smom

SusieQ, if you are using the Easy Angle ruler, are you cutting clue 7 with your blue strip on top? The Easy Angle is configured differently from Bonnie's ruler so you have to switch the position of the blue and red. Bonnie didn't specifically say this in her clue but she did say that if people were using a different ruler, they needed to check how to arrange their strips so the dog ear is positioned correctly.

I am about 1/2 done with the clue 8 geese. I'm thinking back to the beginning, and Bonnie saying the 4-patch was the foundation of the quilt. She had said this about the 9-patch from ORL and that turned out to be the center of the block. I think she also said it last year about the 4-patch from Good Fortune, which turned out to be a big part of the orange block.

Because of my extremely dark reds and blues, I think my quilt might have a rather somber look.