Susie, I just went back to check and the finished size for clue 3 HSTs is 2", not 2.5".

Irish- I'm losing my marbles! That's exactly what you said. I thought you meant the UNfinished size was 2.
Oh no, I think I'm overtired here :D

Speaking of lost marbles, I am apparently midst fibro foggy mind as I just finished sewing all my pairs of 2.5" strips together down both sides. My problem is I didn't cut the strips on the bias, so if I make the HSTs from my now paired strips, they will all have bias edges. Should I go ahead and use them this way, or should I cut new pieces of fabric and begin again? If I have to do it again, I will make the 8 at a time method. Any suggestions?

Use the easy angle ruler wildcard. You will need to unsew your seams but once I was introduced to the easy angle in a prior mystery I’ve never looked back. The beauty lies in no math or odd sizes needed. Whatever the unfinished size of the finished half square tri, that is the width to cut the strips. I have more tips if you decide to use this method.

KalamaQ, I would love to hear your tips on the Easy Angle method.

I am happy to be caught up after 3 clues! I bought a constant green to use, but then found a green I absolutely love on the bottom of a stash pile of greens; there won't be enough for the whole quilt, but I think I'll use that one until I run out. Now I'll see how much progress I can make on the binding I'm working on before clue #4 comes out.

I enjoy seeing everyone’s progress. Such lovely pieces.

I’m 1/2 done with step #1. I just need to sew 1 more seam, iron, and trim. Step #2 - I need to iron background fabric, sew and cut. And step #3 - I need to cut strips, mark, sew and trim. I got behind b/c I caught a cold. So I’m a week behind on everything.

I’m also working on quilting 4 quilt tops and finishing 2 quilt tops. One top is a pain. I have mis calculated the # of blocks I need 2x’s. The other top I need to put smaller pieces to make 28 blocks, square and I can put the top together.

I don't have that ruler but I do have a triangle ruler and also I have smaller rulers with the 45* angle marked on them. Could I use the same concept but using the rulers I already have?
Yes please to all the tips and help out there. LOL, and thanks KalamaQuilts for your suggestion.

Great neutrals, joe'smom!

Well....I’ve read through the clue but haven’t had time to start it yet. What is the 8 at a time method? That sounds like the fastest way to get these puppies done.

I finished Clue #2 yesterday while DH was watching the NE Patriots vs. Cincinnati Bengals game...I was looking forward to starting Clue #3 today but since I lied awake 2 hours in the night thinking about the mailing deadline for Christmas gifts, and since one son and DIL live in Key West and the other family in California, I don’t think I’ll be sewing today.

PamelaOry here's a website that I used for the eight at a time method. https://blocloc.com/wp-content/uploa...rt-for-HST.pdf

It is very quick and easy.

I usually make hsts by drawing lines across squares, that is actually what I am sewing as leaders and enders atm. I really like the idea of cutting the units from bias cut strips, but I don't think that will get me the variety in colors I am looking for. I think I will continue to use strips and Bonnie's triangle tool, although I am not looking forward to sewing along biased edges that small so many times.

I love seeing how everybody's colors are turning out...I can't wait to see how different all of our finished tops are!

I am going to start my HSTs today...there is snow on the ground and I am about to start a fire and turn my music on and sew!

I like the methods of making squares by drawing a grid and sewing and then cutting them apart at the end, anytime I have to make multiples of the same HST, I use that if I can.

With this project and these scraps (and even though I've already found out that I lose a lot of individuality when I cut down these hand dyes), I found it easier to cut squares. I cut my squares over-sized (way too big!), drew a line down the center, and then used my 1/4" foot on either side of the line.

When you chain sew both sides like this, you cut apart the squares along the seam lines, that makes the dog ears disappear. But since I have soooo much to trim, that is the least of my problems, those puppies are going to be trimmed off anyway you look at it.

Edit/PS: When I mention that I have a favorite fabric that was sort of problematic, it was the dividing line between my darks and mediums... that's it in the bottom left corner. So happy it made it into the quilt.

Also, not very happy with the bobbin stitch with my little Brother, going to try So Fine in the next bobbin or switch to my vintage machine.

Thank you Iceblossom for the tip about cutting the ends off of the hsts. I always cut the dog ears off when I trim the blocks.

Came back too late to edit, my little Brother does pretty good with what I call "sewing into space" but some machines balk a bit at that. You can overlap those points a bit as you feed them through since you are going to cut them off anyway. That is, actually ride up the next piece on the end of the previous piece.

Or (and this is one of those times when a picture is worth a 1000 words but I don't have one yet) you can jog the fabric over a bit and sew the alternate seams, that is, the right seam, jog the next block over and up at the point and then the left seam. You can also do this when piecing a lot of little triangles, the type that love to get sucked down, flip every other one over so the points form a straight path for the sewing machine.

I've become a big believer in my 1/4" quilter foot -- I simply couldn't piece with a zigzag needle plate and foot. I do want to mention that I've been very pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of the one I'm using on the "cheapo Brother". Also that the needle threading assist is very helpful to me with my vision issues. I am not a machine snob, it's just getting used to a different one and missing some of the features I no longer have.

I want a good 1/4" on both sides of the needle (plus a hatch mark across the foot to show the 1/4" in front of the needle) so I don't have to draw seam lines when I'm doing these what I still call "modern strip piecing techniques" as opposed to putting together one piece at a time. If you don't have one, you should probably draw the seam lines when sewing to the left instead of to the right as usual.

Queenbarbie- Thank you!!! I'll be able to knock them out a lot faster with this method!

My singer is pretty good at sewing into space, Iceblossom. My treadle maching not so much. I used to have one of those entry level brother machines I bought for twenty bucks from a garage sale. It pieced smaller pieces so well, but I had issues trying to sew together WOF length strips with it, or any fabric wider than about four inches. The weight would pull the fabric left and I would get horribly wavy seam allowances, no matter what I tried. I eventually sold it for what I paid for it to a coworker who just wanted to occasionally mend her clothes on it.

Thanks for the tip to trim off dog ears before splitting the squares...I will use that one for sure!

thank you! I knew basically what you meant, just had no idea how to make for a specific size. This link is perfect!

I don't know. I'm guess yes if you are a math and visual whiz. :) The easy angle is marked and designed specifically for 1/2 square triangles and one side of the dogears is already accounted for, hence the cuttiing and size come out the same. so aligning it on the fabric is a chinch. Bonnie shows how to use it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ_AoJsGJbM
About 2 minutes in is the first key tip...flip. flip back. flip.
She doesn't show it here but somewhere elsewhere, a close up of any ruler on the fabric. You should Just barely barest see the edge of the fabric, don't have the size line just off the fabric.

And along with always having the dark on top when running patches through the machine, I always have the dark on top when I cut my 1/2 squares. Consistency has helped me get better results across all my patchwork.

If you aren't pressing to the dark it doesn't matter, but it sure does when stitching two sets together, the top side has the seam point up and you can see if it will get bent over or flipped, the underside is always going down so it rides smoothly over the down pointing seam side.

If that is all clear as mud, I can probably explain it worse ;) But JoAnns carries the easy angle so it's accessible. I prefer the smaller size myself, Bonnie prefers the larger one.

I finished up clue three this weekend. I changed all of my colors to match the color pallet of my house since this is going to go on the master bedroom bed. I’ve done a couple of Bonnie’s quilts before and enjoy the small pieces. This is the first time I’ve really done it full scrappy though. I bought all FQs for the colors to get a some amount of variety.

Here are my finished clues. I’m really hoping the next clue is time consuming because I’m not going home for Christmas and there’s only so much my husband and I can do with 4 days off in a row (Sunday-Wednesday). I do have other projects to work on but this one is fun!

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Good points, Kalama. I think the consistency one is huge. I prefer to have the lighter fabrics on top, it works better with my vision issues and you can see that I drew my lines on the lighter fabrics, I was going to point that out to people not used to working with scraps -- sometimes it is the easy hints we miss! I showed the cuts on the seams with the backsides because the contrast was better, but I only draw one line on the lighter fabric. I do it while cutting and counting and don't find it a bad step, I have a pad of paper and a pencil next to my cutting pad, take it off the cutting pad, put it on the pad, position the ruler, zip the line, and stack the block. Again, I love my 1/4" quilter foot, I wouldn't want to draw all three lines.

I do most of my marking with a basic No. 2 school pencil, I find it shows up well with most fabric. I also have white pencils that I use a lot for dark fabrics.

This last year I started to have real problems working with black fabrics that I never had before, couldn't see them together (part of my problems are that I have no depth perception, part is I can't focus down far enough any more -- readers mostly make blurry stuff bigger and not clearer), had problems reading the rulers, all sorts of issues... Nature of a progressive condition I guess. I need to find some ways to help me work with it a bit better or maybe I can still get away with navy or gray as a dark neutral.

I very seldom work with black because of my vision issues, I hear you IceBlossom. I used your method of 1/2 squares for many many years. They all work. I also go against the stream and run my points through first, I'm far less likely to get the 'veer' I get when running them through last.

Quilting Lawyer, I'm loving all the purples I'm seeing come up this year. We might get slammed with a biggie...you never know, it's a mystery :)

In some ways, quilters today have it so good with classes and tv and youtube! I started quilting just before the rotary revolution and so learned the how-to's to go along with my basic geometry knowledge, but you can bet I watched Sewing with Nancy to learn the latest stuff!

I've gotten rid of a lot of my quilt books, but one I kept and highly recommend as a reference book on things like different ways to make triangles or other ways to cut with rulers is Template-Free Quiltmaking by Trudie Hughes. Clear directions, helpful charts. I think she was the first or at least one of the first with "Around the Twist" and "Lover's Knot" which are in that book but there were other versions by other designers about that same time that are probably better known.
https://www.amazon.com/Template-Free.../dp/0943574374

I use the 'Creative grid' rulers with my eye problems. Also have an 18 inch x 6 inches with a 'lip' on the end that helps to rotor cut the fabric. I learned with Eleanor Burns, so my HST are the strip method. Yes, the first 3 clues are easy, so I am thinking it will get harder clues before we finish in January. I did reorder Bonnie Hunter's rulers she recommends and her string ? book too. Love doing the HST block, and will have time in the next week to finish them.

Four inches of snow on the ground, so its sew snow time in the quilt room. So nice to see everyone's progress on the clues, and the colors they are using. Lovely start! And great looking quilts will follow I am sure.

"I’m really hoping the next clue is time consuming" by Quilting Lawyer.

I am hoping so also, Quilting Lawyer. I remember in the past, she gave Christmas week off to let everyone "catch up". It was a bummer with all that free time after Christmas. I have another project ready to go in case she does the same this year. I have all my scrappy HST's ready. I went multi colors and neutrals. With the simple components, of 4 squares and hst's I can make lots of patterns if her pattern doesn't work with totally scrappy.

I also ordered the Easy Angle ruler from Bonnie when I started this project. I had been satisfied with my tried and true method of cutting squares, drawing a line, cutting, pressing but was up for learning something new. Bonnie has a video on her blog showing how to use the Easy Angle that is very helpful. I love this method! So easy to use! I'm a convert to this method for sure.

Thanks for the link. I have seen it before but never gave it a try. Why wait? Now is the time.

I'm a math nerd and I enjoy a good challenge, and here is what I came up with. (Instructions are written for a right handed person.)

1) Cut a strip of fabric or paper 9 mm wide. This is what you will use to mark the "extra" bit that gets added to turn your triangle into a trapezoid. (The number comes from the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle where the short sides are both 0.25" long.) Use a color that will contrast with both your triangle fabric and your cutting mat.

2) Cut one (or more) strip of fabric your desired width. (In the video, Bonnie Hunter says add 1/2" to the desired finished size of your HST.)

3) Place the fabric strip(s) (step 2) on your cutting mat and place the marking strip (step 1) carefully over the very left end of it. Use your ruler to cut from the top of the right side of the marking strip diagonally down to the bottom of the strip.

Here is a diagram of how to line up a triangle ruler or a rectangular ruler. The black rectangle is fabric. The red rectangle is the marking strip. The blue shape is the ruler. The rectangular ruler includes a thin blue line showing where the 45 degree line is marked on the ruler. (I drew it like my ruler, where the 45 degree line starts (0.5") above the bottom of the ruler.) The diagram shows the fabric rectangles extending slightly to the left of the marking rectangles - I drew it that way just for clarity; in real life the edges should be lined up exactly on top of them.
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4) Place the marking strip just below the strip to mark the extra bit needed on the next trapezoid and then use a rectangular ruler to cut that line. (Match up a line on the ruler with the top of the edge of the strip to make sure the ruler is straight.
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In her video, Bonnie shows how to sew with the fabric in the trapezoid shape. After sewing it, you would need to trim off dog ears at one end of the HST. This video (starting at about 6 minutes in) shows using the Easy Angle ruler to trim the other end of trapezoid before sewing. If you want that extra bit of trimming do step 6.

6) Place the marking strip along the side of the trapezoid with the untrimmed corner so that the corner of it just barely touches the diagonal cut. Use your rectangular ruler cut along the edge of the marking strip.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]620981[/ATTACH]

I think this should work, but you should test this out with just a few cuts and see how it turns out. Depending on exactly how you are lining things up when you cut, you may need to adjust the width of the marking strip a bit. Bonnie Hunter notes that you may need to adjust the width of your seam allowance a little bit to get the exact finished size correct.

It was fun to figure this out, but I think I will stick to the eight at a time method of mass producing HSTs.

If you do try this out, I'd be interested to whether or not it worked well for you.

I turned the first corner of my binding today, and cleaned up the two weeks of mail that had accumulated on the dining room table while I had the sinus infection, as well as the chaos in the kitchen. I hope to get back into the sewing room tomorrow to press some wing units from Orca Bay (made a few years ago, and boy are they a mess; I hope I'm able to use them because I don't have any of that fabric left; I used the leftovers in stash projects -- maybe not the best move).

I used the method that Queenbarbiej gave us. They went really fast! I only have 36 more units and I'll get them done in the morning.

I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts re: methods to complete Clue 3. I have the Easy Angle ruler that I purchased when I did BH’s Allietare mystery but I think I’m going to try it along with Queenbarbiej’s video to see which is faster and most accurate.

I sat down to rip out the stitching on my strips... yes I used the tiny 1.8 stitch length since I was going to be cutting them. Lol, after doing one section about 5" long, I decided to forget that and just make them over. I cut my squares and got them all lined up, marked and pinned.. I'm doing the 8 at a time... today I will start sewing them.
I will find a way to use the strips I made, either in this project or in another one. They won't go to waste!

Woohoo! Trimmed and done for this week.

Making tamales for the rest of my creative part of the day.

Yum, love tamales. Like your colors. That school bus yellow really pops.

Hope you let us know what you decide! Maybe I need to try another new method.

I love tamales too. I have never made them on my own but once helped make them with my 3 sisters. We had so much fun and they were so better than most you get.

Finished my clue 3 HSTs today, using the 8 at a time method.... ears clipped and ready to go.
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your colors Wildyard!

After using the 8 at a time method and BH’s Essential Triangle tool I have decided to continue my HSTs using her tool. This is what I discovered...doing the 8 at a time meant that I had to cut 6” squares when some of my fabric pieces (from my stash) were actually strips and not wide enough to get a 6” cut. Also using this method meant that I was having to trim every block to get an accurate 2 1/2 HST.

Using the Essential Triangle tool, I result in a nearly perfect 2 1/2” HST and only need to trim the dog ears from one end. I also found it easier to chain piece them one right after another rather than the 8 at a time method. Additionally, I was able to use short length pieces from my stash to get a good assortment.

I’m sure there will be times I will use the 8 at a time method, but for this project BH’s tool works just grand.

Beautiful fabrics, wildyard!

My plan was to do this years quilt mystery however I just had a major right shoulder surgery on December 11.I wonder if it's possible to print off each one of the clues that Bonnie gives use and start on the mystery quilt later. I can still search my fabric that I will need for the quilt because that takes only one arm and hand to search with.