Mystery quilt all sewn, seeks backing

       My guild's mystery quilt for this year is all sewn. I am not going to put a border on it. I am looking for an appropriate backing so I can get it done to show at guild.

Guild mystery quilt

      The final clue of the guild mystery quilt came in and I was able to lay it out. The paper copy showed a square. I don't know why, I hate square quilts. Maybe because people are rectangular, not square. I stopped subscribing to Block magazine because most of the quilts lately were squares. I like the colors I picked not knowing what the quilt looked like. Relief.
     I pondered with some graph paper and added a top and bottom row which I think finish it off better and makes it a rectangle. Win-win. Now to find a backing. Not sure I can get it quilted by the reveal in September.

Slow, but moving forward

      Progress on UFOs and other stuff is being made, but I wish I had superpowers for just one day to get it done. The mystery quilt from Alycia, Dakota Inspired (A12) has been sewn for a long while, but I finally got it quilted over the weekend. I made the binding, which is glued on now, and hope to get it sewn. As soon as the quilt was trimmed off the longarm and hit the floor and I got my camera, the newest inspector was already on the job.

Binding made, now glued, ready to sew

     I confess, I could not wait to the retreat to web and sew Rolling Stone. It has a 1 1 /2" white border on it, but it needs more. I tried a many fabrics (2 shown here), but they do not let the fabrics in the blocks shine. I have no more of that fabric as it was a layer cake I got on Etsy. I just don't know how to finish it off, so this is stalled.

     I appreciate when people tell of good purchases that are useful and reasonable, so I am giving a recommendation here for light. I always need more light. My husband put in one of those puff LED  ceiling lights that does help, but when I am sewing, I need more light around the machine. I was browsing on Amazon for lights that were adjustable and not chunky. I got this Micomlan LED adjustable 2 light clampable lamp and am happy with it so far. It has different levels of brightness (I use the brightest) and different colors (I use the coolest). It twists to fit exactly how I want it positioned. Where I have it clamped, it can rotate over to the Singer 301 where I do small piecing and it can be readjusted. I like to have light on the needle area, but also all around the fabric so I don't feel like I am sewing in a hole. There are many kinds of these. I read the reviews, that day there was a small coupon, and just tried it. The fact that there are 2 lights on the bars, makes a big difference on the surrounding fabric.

Alycia's Mystery A12 Finished

      I have been MIA in posting blogs because I just haven't been able to write them. I take the photos, keep sewing, and read everyone else's but can't write mine. I have been super fatigued since my second shot in early March and my mental energy is not right.
     Alycia held the A12 mystery quilt recently and I finished my top. The last step was to put the side triangle alongside the churndash blocks. When I tried the dark blue, the quilt looked drab to me. I tried string piecing the squares to be cut into triangles, but I used reds and blues and it looked awful. I tried again using a variety of blues and it worked- I love the quilt now. I pieced the strings diagonally on newsprint, trimmed and then cut them into the triangles. I added about 1/2" extra and it made piecing the triangles easier. I staystitched all around because so much is on the bias or tiny pieces. Have to find a back now. Thanks, Alycia for another great pattern. If you read her blog, stop in and give her a word of encouragement as she just lost her mom.

Solid blue or mixed red and blue did not do it for me

Mystery top sewn and Alycia's mystery

     I am picky about doing mysteries and somehow I am sewing two at once. Not sure how that happened. I finished the guild mystery top which was a facebook mystery years ago. Now I have to find/make a backing and get it quilted, oh boy.
     I used hand dyed fabric (not dyed by me) and dark blue assorted batiks and assorted neutrals. Not a hard quilt- the components are easy to assemble.

Sewn blocks

Audition wide dark borders

Auditon color border with thin dark blue

Final choice after umpteen auditions- thinner blue with wider black scribbled border

     Alycia's A12 mystery is being assembled and here are 20 blocks laid out on cardboard trays, ready to sew.

Mystery nearing completion

     My quilt guild is currently working on the last clue of our mystery. I like to do mystery quilts occaisonally because it provides another quilt I can give without doing a lot of planning or thinking. I like to support our guild, especially when we are still meeting remote.
     I am working on another mystery with Alycia because it assures me I will make a RWB veteran quilt and I don't have to plan it out. 
     I laid out the blocks for the guild quilt and saw it was a square. I am not fond of square quilts, especially for a comfort quilt. After some mental back and forth battle, I decided to add another row and had to figure out how to do the blocks without going through the mystery clues.
     I used graph paper for the 2 alternate blocks and wrote dwon what pieces I needed to cut. I always make some extra blocks when doing a mystery quilt, but there were not enough for 3 star and 2 lattice blocks. It took me longer than I wanted to figure out and cut out because I still have a vaccination brain and am not the sharpest crayon in the box.

The square layout, blocks finish at 12"

Layout with the extra row. I like the size much better.

Working on the extra blocks for the last row.

     Currently, the quilt is webbed on the wall waiting for the horizontal rows to be sewn. More photos later.
     The borders on the Mystery quilt were an add on at the last clue and I thought the blocks were way too fussy with such a strong overall design, so I will use some dark blue batik for the border. Once the quilt is all sewn, I will audition border fabric and size.

New Mystery Quilt done

     Alycia posted a new mystery quilt- A Winter Quilt Along, with each step supposedly taking one hour. Some of the steps were longer for me, especially since I had to do a lot of ripping as I sewed together parts wrong. Sometimes I am angle challenged, especially if the design is not symmetrical. 

     It started out with lots of HSTs. It was divided into three sections- top, bottom, middle. 

     The center section was last. When I laid it out, the center did not work for me. I thought the center should pull all the diagonals together and have some points, instead of a truncated star. 

Testing out the new design

     This meant I had to make more HSTs (half red, half blue) and leave off a few half red/white. 

Going to choose the red fabric

      I was happy with the result and choose the red fabric for a border. I won't be able to sew this on until after Christmas.

Mini quilts and Mystery

     First, for the Mystery! I designed a quilt for my guild as a Mystery Quilt with 7 clues. It was meant to teach them how to use values, break up putting a quilt together so it could be sewn between other quilts- picked up and put down without getting lost. and beginner quilter friendly. However, over half of the people dropped out. I spent hours writing, doing the illustrations in Word, copying, testing, etc. I have a profound respect for pattern writers. I have no desire to write another pattern. 
     One Mystery pattern writer that I admire and have made her quilts is Alycia who is a champion for QOV quilts. I noticed she has been real busy, and I offered her my mystery for her followers. She graciously accepted and it is a go. Go check her out. I have not posted any pictures of it on my blog, so it truly is a mystery.

     For Valentines, I made my grandkids mini quilts that I used decorative paper clips to hold onto the cards. If they want, they can save the quilts and hang them in their new bedrooms. Their addition started at Halloween and mostly ended yesterday. They have new bedrooms upstairs. My husband put wood floors in for them, the trim got painted, and the beds were set up yesterday. Thursday, the carpet in their work/play area will be done. 
     I used the polaroid quilt idea and heart fabric for the backing. I used felt for the batting because I find it makes it less floppy than regular batting. I would love to make a whole polaroid quilt. Or two.

Back of mini quilts

Guild Mystery Reveal

     Over a year ago, my program co-chair and I came up with a mystery quilt for our guild. Elizabeth drafted it out herself and we fine tuned it and wrote the clues. We could not find a mystery quilt that appealed to us and would make use of the whole lesson we did for the guild on half square triangles (HSTs). So, with a lot of effort, the clues were made and passed out. I made all the blocks first ironed to freezer paper and put them up on the design wall so we knew we did not have any mistakes.
     The big reveal is the first Monday in February. I finished quilting and binding it today. Since maybe one person in the guild reads my blog, I am showing it today here. All our snow melted, so it was kind of muddy and not as picturesque, but it was sunny. It is an original pattern and I chose to do it all scrappy. Again, I have to say, I don't like it. The effect I was after in the lights and darks did not show up. The contrast between the inside triangles of the stars and the points was not enough for me. I don't know what else I could have used- I could not go any darker or lighter without issues. I better make something I love pretty soon. 
     I do like the quilting. I used MagnaSoft bobbins from Fil-tec. This solved all my tension woes in the bobbin area. I have to solve the irregular tension issue with regular bobbins. The top was Glide. The backing was a big hunk given to me for comfort quilts, which this will be. It is 68" x 78".

Inside photo

On the fence

Detail

Outside light, a little bright out 

Back

Detail 

Migration has landed

     When Alycia posted a Mystery Quilt a while back, I decided to make it. I needed to do a veteran quilt. I try to do four a year. The top was finished rather quickly and it sat that way for too long. Finally, I quilted it and bound it.  She named it Migration and the pattern is for sale at Craftsy. She will be doing another mystery quilt real soon, so check her out if you would like to jump on board.
    I changed it up a bit and made the blue stars at the strip junctions. Pieced on a Singer 301 with PremoSoft thread. Quilted on a Nolting NV with Glide on the top and Omni in the bobbin.

Mystery from Kevin the Quilter

     

     A brand new mystery, his first one, has started by Kevin the Quilter. It is called Sapphire Stars. I love scrappy and I love Kevin's quilts, so here I go. However, I just bought the Simple Folded Corners ruler by Doug Leko from Bonnie Hunter because I hate to draw lines on squares and flip them, then trim them. This ruler lets you trim first so you are sewing next to a cut edge instead of a line on the diagonal of a square. So, I will show you how I cut and sewed these Clue 1 pieces. If you want to cut the small squares oversize and trim, this ruler lets you do that also. I would rather sew slower and more careful than to have to trim again.

Fabric lined up in corner, diagonal line on stitch line 

Corners trimmed off

Both corners added, excuse the poor pressing

The ruler and printed directions, video online by Bonnie Hunter

Ok, 5 done out of 48