I'm in the same boat, Pamela. The light aqua was the hardest color to come by. But there are so many of the blues that you shouldn't have any trouble getting the variety you want.

I finally finished clue #3. I always make more units than needed, so I have some ability to exchange units if I manage to get fabrics too close together. Or, as Mr. Monk would say, if they aren't "snuff."

Leslie

I managed to get one set cut yesterday just so I could measure the length of strip needed to get a completed matched set (17 inches as KalamaQuilts posted) using the Essential Triangle tool. Since I love aqua, I have plenty to choose from and will try to get the other 40 sets cut today. I like Iceblossom’s idea so I will put some blue painters tape on my ruler today to help with slipping.

Iceblossom, thank you for the picture! Love your colors! I know I am a very visual person and this really helps me.

I am still just following along. Haven't sewn anything yet. (I am currently working on Long Time Gone quilt).

I just want to say that sometimes, if you turn your fabric to the "wrong" side, you get "another" fabric. I remember hearing that you bought both sides of the fabric, so why not use them (? Eleanor Burns)? This may help stretch the number of fabrics that you have to use. I realize that some fabric's wrong side is not at all pretty or usable, but others look wonderful and look quite different from the "right" side.

I love seeing what everyone has come up with so far!

That's part of the reason why I'm moving slowly with this step, Ilovetoquilt, these hand dyes each have a usable side, sometimes I'll use the up of one side with the down of the other just to get the colors to match a bit more closely!

I'm about half done, have some comments about cutting/trimming/rulers before I go back to it.

First off -- best idea of the day, I changed the blades on both my rotary cutters. The one started yesterday with just a tick of a missed thread here and there and just got worse as the day progressed until I was muttering to myself and shredding fabric. I am slicing and dicing with ease today!

About my trimming ruler, I've been using a small square, I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't go up to a 6" square just to fit my hands better but instead this morning I found an even smaller square but with clearer lines for me and I've gotten it working just lovely.

I did my double line of masking seam tape at the appropriate spot and then I went to look to see if I could find my sandpaper dots. The answer was no, but I solved my problem which was the teeter-toter effect of the seam in the middle of the HST. I went to the medicine chest and pulled out a clear small finger cut sized bandage, cut it in half and put one on either side of my diagonal and no more wobbles plus more traction! (you want to have the dots about 1/2" from either side of the diagonal, approx halfway down the square for the best results)

I have a variety of vision issues and often use tape on my rulers, especially when I'm doing repeated cuts so I don't have to read the markers. Improves my accuracy greatly. I also tend to sew large and trim down. Below is a picture from another project so no give-aways on this one. For the picture I took pre-cut squares that varied between 6-6.5", sliced them on the diagonal and then made a 7.5" block; ie, not a standard size for rulers. You can see I used the diagonal line on the ruler to help me.

Doing a similar thing for this project, I have the tape at the straight outside edge of the desired finished measurement, and I'm using the diagonal to guide me for my finished size.

Edit: In this picture I was mostly marking that 7.5" size, that's where the tape goes side to side. I always put my tape on the down side of the line, that's just a preference.

In the Frolic project since I'm using it to help stabilize my cuts, the double thickness of tape is on the bottom of the ruler, along with those bandage dots.

About working with scraps for those that aren't so used to it...

In this step I'm faced with a number of issues, smaller pieces of fabric. Very similar fabrics and far more variety in my "blues" than in my aqua.

I've found I can only do a few sets at a time, 4 is probably better but I did 6 here. I've found that if I cut my QST first, it can be hard to tell which batch is which. I make my HST first, keeping them in the same order that I cut, which is the order shown to the left of the picture. Now that the HSTs are trimmed, I will do the X cut and clip the sets together and move to the next set of blocks.

With my dark and mediums, most of them started out as odd shaped/roughly fat quarters to begin with and they are getting smaller now. I'm cutting one strip of each width of each fabric, typically I'm getting 3-6 of any given dark/medium. I have a limited number of aqua, so what I do is I stack the aquas so they are each a different color. Then when I have the same dark/medium three times in a row, they each get a different aqua.

Sorry, not a lot of variety in the darks/mediums this round for a good picture, but I think you can see the aqua tones sorted up top. When I'm actually working the stacks aren't spread out like that and as soon as I post this I'm cutting those combos on the side!

So here's those same pieces as in the post above, now prepared for sewing. I've got one dark green, three dark purple and three speckled purple, but each of the purples got a different aqua.

Edit: You can see how different the same pieces of fabric are piece to piece here and why it can be hard for me to tell which one goes with which set. Each set of two is from the same fabric, even if one edge looks yellow and the next green, or one is light and the rest dark.

Also, those are little dots of maroon ink on the bottom square. No blood or stains on this project yet!

I got my fabrics paired and strips cut last night. It's certainly a convenient clue for those using FQ or WOF strips, being the perfect number of pieces to cut from those lengths. I'm very slow cutting with the Easy/Companion Angle rulers, but I hope to make good progress on cutting today (although the Christmas tree needs decorating, too; DH and I came to the conclusion that we are too old for a large tree, so he brought the base of the old dog house up from the basement, and we bought a nice 4 footer and put it on top of the upside down base; no more bending to the floor to get lights on the tree! But I will have to learn to decorate with smaller ornaments).

IceBlossom, what you've done with your bandage is make a free bloc-lock ruler :) well done.

I've finished my little wad. I love sewing with 30's so much, so cheerful I'm so tempted to go back and upsize the project. But I won't, I know I don't have enough fabric to do it.

edited to add there was a quilt cam this week from her post office, very nice.
https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2019...n-morning.html

Iceblossom - "" Oh, did you ever make me homesick!! Here Come the Brides! I mostly lurk on this website, enjoying all the adventures and trying to learn before getting started on a 'real' project. Been in Virginia since 1985 but my heart is forever in Washington. From Olympia and Spokane with a son in Kent.

Keep Clam! I'm in Renton, we still have an Ivars down at Lake Washington. I haven't gone to see the clam lights yet this year...

I'm sort of the same about Alaska as you are about the Seattle area. I grew up there from ages 10-23, or 1970-1983 and have lived down south ever since. But I love it here and I'm here by choice, even though I have eventually acclimatized, I still consider this the tropics -- it's green all year round even if it has been "terribly cold" the last couple of weeks it's just been rain!

Just want to point out that a specialty ruler isn’t needed for cutting the quarter square triangles from the 2.5 inch strip. I keep seeing people saying they don’t have the right ruler. All you need is the corner of a square ruler since you are cutting a 90 degree triangle. Using the corner of the square gives you the same thing. Since we know the strip width, that is all we need to know to get the correct sized triangle.

very interesting and why didn't i think of that? Ok do you have any suggestion for the 1/2sq triangle? I'm just not not thinking clear enough today.

I think it would be the half-square triangle that has the 90 degree angle, not the quarter square triangle?

They both do. It’s a matter of orientation when cutting from a 2 1/2 strip for all pieces as Bonnie does. When you cut from a strip for a hst you are cutting with the 45 degree angle at the top. The qst triangles (the ones we are not sewing) as cut from a strip utilize the 90 degree angle at the top.

You can certainly use a different strip method to use the 90 degree angle at top for the hst as Bonnie shows in the clue week when we did just the Hst. I think the showed it using the folded corners ruler.

While you don't need a specialty ruler for the HST, you do need to be aware that the strip size Bonnie uses will not work with triangles or squares, it will not be correct! With the specialty ruler it is placed so the top of the strip is even and there is only one dog ear. You have to compensate for that other dog ear.

You need to "snub" off the top of the point in order for it to work. You can just take a piece of tape and cover off the end of the point on your ruler. Unfortunately I'm having issues with my scanner right now and can't show the diagram I did.

The rule for making right triangles is to add 7/8ths to the desired finished size and not our standard 1/4". Many people just call it 1" and trim a sliver off or adjust their seam a bit fatter.

With my scraps, it makes more sense for me to do it by squares and not strips, I'm not making many repeats. For other people (especially using just one fabric), strips might make more sense.

With my vision, it works better for me to cut and piece larger and size down, I'm using finished size plus 1.25" to make two HST from each square.

No specialty ruler is needed for the QST. Just make squares as she says and slice as an X. If you don't have enough fabric to cut the squares and have to cut them as triangles, we can work with that.

Ok. We have one set done. We had one practice go with the specialty ruler and were able to figure it out by strip set #2. Hubby is figuring if we do 8 sets a day we can get through this clue. He is not loving this one.

we did the math wrong for clue 3 and only made half as many as we need so we’re also playing catch up on that one. I have them all made, just need to trim now.

I love looking at everyone’s blocks but haven’t been able to motivate myself to start. I am saving the directions. I was going to do single colors and am thinking I want to see the quilt before I start.

My Bee in Bonnet Vintage QAL has been sitting around half done and the blocks and layout has been published so I am going to finish that before I start something new.

This looks like fun and I love mystery's. For some reason, when doing any type of mystery, I seem to be able to keep up with projects, probably my herd mentality.:cool: Doesn't matter what craft, knitting, cross stitching... I do better in a group. What with clue 5 coming out shortly I have been able to save up my clues for possibly doing it in the future. Looks like a good scrap quilt... and I've got three somewhat large boxes of stacks of my scraps to play with so I'm always looking for a good one. Can't wait to see what this turns into.

Drat! Coming down hard with a cold. Got my clue done yesterday which is good because my head is foggy today.

Came back to my post about the specialty rulers last night too late to edit/clarify. When DoomBuggy says you don't need a specialty ruler for the QST part of the strips, that's true as far as it goes, but for that size of strip you need to account for the missing ear of the HST. So when I'm referring to "not having the specialty ruler" it has nothing to do with the QST, but with the HST. If I cut my strips that small to begin with, I'd just use the point of my square as DoomBuggy suggested. But since I'm making my strips larger, it doesn't work quite so well. Sure, I could pull out another piece of tape but for me and the way I think, the process would just be very cumbersome and rife with chances for mistakes.

I guess there are two basic ways to do this step, the "one strip" method where you get all your cuts for one unit from a single set of strips (and should have the specialty ruler for the HST). And the "two strip" method that I used, no specialty rulers needed.

My current saying is the quilt we make depends on the fabrics we have. For people with yardage or good fat quarters, the single strip method is probably pretty darn sweet -- as has been mentioned you need about half a yard so you can just slice and dice your strips together. Bet you get going good after the first set or two! With my mish mash of pieces and my desire to especially use up small pieces, it just wouldn't have worked.

For the "one strip" if I was to do it that way, I'd probably start by cutting my strips to my over large size and then cut off my squares to make the HSTs. Then I'd trim down the strip to Bonnie's dimension and cut the QST.

This is the first time I'm using Easy Angle since I finally, finally, finally learned to use my Martelli ergo cutter correctly. I used to go off after about three cuts and would have to trim bits and pieces to get back on track. Yesterday I never had to stop and correct and it went so smoothly and quickly, that I have high hopes for the results.

I found this clue a bit of a mystery so am grateful to Iceblossom for the clarification. I've finished this week's clue (I'm only making half) and am playing catch-up on the other clues to make sure I have enough of each. I'm using green in place of the aqua. I lost count on last week's and didn't make enough, but catching up will be easy. Since I'm using yardage I didn't clip together in sets of 4.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]621159[/ATTACH]

Sort of nice to know that many of us had issues but resolved them in various ways. I know I would have really liked to have prints I could match instead of the fabric I had!

Here's what my final set looks like. I have a number of reservations about them. I already mentioned that I had a very narrow selection of fabric to start with and one of them was very green so I decided to extend the fabrics a bit farther. That was partially to soften that green and partially to extend the number of fabrics. Maybe I went a bit too far, all the periwinkle and lighter green shades were added during this step.

Because of the nature of the fabrics all along I've had quite a bit of variance in my shades and specific pieces coming out looking like they were from a different color group but this time I really noticed that even though I had pulled darks and mediums for this step overall the darks were coming out dark. And unfortunately some of the Refresh aqua pieces were coming out really on the dark or light sides of their nature when what I wanted was the medium!

I'm trying to reassure myself that it will all be fine in the end. Speaking of which, for those of you with cut yardage or kits, how close to the end are we getting? I just have unknown amounts in my color groups so I can't tell when I'm getting close to the end of the fabric. Obviously we haven't touched the Parakeet yet.

Oh! About those paper clips -- always be careful using them on fabric. These are coated and I bent out the ends a bit but very easy to snag on your fabric. I don't usually work on combinations like this and if I did I'd probably use the thread technique to keep my fabrics together. Super simple, just make a nice sturdy thread on a reasonably large needle, put a knot in the end and then stack your pieces in the order you want (in this case to keep them together, next step maybe in sewing order). I still label them with a piece of paper saying "bottom" (that helps hold them on the string anyway) and one for top, plus if I need a row identifier like A, B, C, etc.

Iceblossom I love your vibrant colors! I can hardly wait to see your finished quilt. This is exciting but also hard to watch all of you producing the #4 clue blocks as I am visiting family - away from my sewing machine and getting anxious to work on my sets.
Belfrybat your colors are very nice together - love that green!

People on the Quiltville Facebook page who started with the amount specified are saying that this clue used all of their aqua yardage. I expect Bonnie might reassure that we won't use it again or advise that more will be needed. It has only happened once that I recall that the specified yardage wasn't enough.

I have cut all of my strips for the blue part of this block...I had to use all darks, because my light blues did not contrast with the aquas enough. This used up most of my darks, I think my biggest piece remaining is roughly a five inch strip. Most of my dark strips are about 3 inches or less. I will have about a three inch usable chunk at the end of each strip I have cut to add to the scrap pile.

I will hopefully cut all of my aqua strips tomorrow.

Looking good everyone!

I’ve been away from my sewing machine and am catching up on all four clues this week. Finished one through three. Will tackle #4 tomorrow. Hope to be able to post pics soon. I also need to catch up on another mystery that has clues once a month.

Ok, I took Iceblossom's idea of putting a new blade in my rotary and wish I would have done it sooner. I always think that when I change blades. What a difference it made! No more little snips to cut because it was skipping and I just kept using it. Sometimes it is the little things in life. Love everyone's colors!

You make me home sick with this post. I grew up in Ballard. My oldest son lives in Kent & my Brother lives in Tenino. My best friends from High School live in Oakville not far from the Casino. I was up there last year for our 50th High School reunion.

I miss Ivars! Their clam chowder is the best! Growing up in Ballard, we ate halibut & a lot of Swedish & Norwegian foods & of course German from my Dads side of my family. When I was up there last year for our reunion, the price of salmon was outrageous! But I miss all the evergreens, Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, etc., etc., etc.,

Cindy, I lived in Washington for 30 years, then moved to Issaquah when I married my husband. When we go back to visit we are in awe of the prices for everything and the traffic! It is beautiful and green there, my daughter and siblings are still there. We will be heading back this summer for a reunion, always good to visit.

I have cut a lot of strips of both colors, and hope it's enough for this clue. Today I cut 5 sets, but haven't sewn the HSTs yet. I can tell already I am having a lot of scraps from this step as I am not very good at cutting at an angle and sometimes veer off a little. It's not much, but then I have to straighten the cut and loose just a bit. , there is no wiggle room for these mistakes, so then I have to find another scrap to get that last cut. Also, because I am using scraps, I have to use 2 shorter pieces to make a long enough strip for cutting and then I have scraps from both ends. I will put these scraps to use, I just don't like loosing so much of my fabric to the scrap box. LOL, OK, I get it that I am complaining about making scraps from my scraps. LOL

Ice-- I think since these are in sets you'll be fine with mixing the aquas and greens. I really like them.

Wildyard - I feel the same way every time I make a scrappy quilt -- I just end up with smaller and smaller scraps that I hate to throw away. Now I do Bonnie's mysteries with yardage and usually cut my scraps into strips and make "jelly roll" type quilts. I seem to have less waste that way.

We unexpectedly had our youngest two grandchildren over yesterday while Mom and Dad finished their Christmas shopping, so I did not get much cutting done. I made some progress earlier today and am heading back to the sewing room now, hoping to finish the cutting, and maybe even sew a few HSTs.

Bonnie's so good at rousing our curiosity. I wonder what we'll do with these QST pieces -- finish the QST with some green and neutral? And what about this odd number ?

These aquas really brighten things up. I went for the instant gratification and picked through my HSTs looking for one of each pairing (I think I missed a few). Some of my aquas are lighter than some of my neutrals, so I will have to keep an eye on that.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

the odd number made me laugh...it's a mystery!
Wildyard, do you need some sticky bits on your rulers? I have used many things over the years, clear polish with glitter in it, nexcare tape, sandpaper dots, yadayada, but I have found these to be the best.
https://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop.../-/true-grips?

I use the centers first, then cut the circles in quarters, and then use the background, used that way there should be enough stuff here to cover every ruler anyone has. Well worth the money, for future cutting needs. My rulers are pretty small so put them in the corners, that isn't where we are looking so no vision empeded. On large rulers I'd put one in the center too

Thanks for the reminder Kalamaquilts!! I had indeed ordered the stickers for the back of my rulers, then put them away and am not sure where they are. I am going to go see if I can find them right now!! I need to keep cutting up my strips today and that will surely help! Hugs and happy quilting everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!

It is 11:00 Christmas Eve and I am awake waiting for Santa. :o Actually, just got home of a beautiful carols and candles service and will turn in soon. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all. I hope your stocking is filled with all the fat quarters, charm squares and little gadgets that you dream of.

Merry Christmas fellow MQer's! I finished cutting Clue 4 last night and as we have a very low key day planned I will most likely have the sewing done by this evening.