Ready, Set, Sew! Winter Mystery quilt along!

The time has arrived to reveal the first clue!  Hope you are ready!  If you missed the first blog post with the requirements you can find it here.

Ready? Set? GO!

For this weeks clue you will need just your background and your dark fabrics which you have chosen.  So let's begin!

My colour selection - answered

I decided I wanted a bit of variety in my quilt and not just three colours.  So I have chosen green and blue as my darks so to speak.  These are both next to each other on the colour wheel so they will blend well.  I haven't worried that they are lights or darks just that they show blue and green or a mix.  

For my medium I decided to use pinks and yellows, these have two colours between them on the colour wheel and go together well plus they are two colours away from the green.  You could work the opposite way or chose and fabrics like this in a combination you like.

my fabrics from stash

Cutting Instructions

Ok you will need to cut 2" strips from your background fabrics,  I have actually used partial strips as I am busting my stash for this little quilt and I want variety to create movement in my quilt

You will require 288" in length overall

From your dark fabrics cut the same amount of 2" strips plus an extra 36, 2" squares and put these squares aside for next week.

colour wheel

Cutting Instructions

Ok you will need to cut 2" strips from your background fabrics,  I have actually used partial strips as I am busting my stash for this little quilt and I want variety to create movement in my quilt

You will require 288" in length overall

From your dark fabrics cut the same amount of 2" strips plus an extra 36, 2" squares and put these squares aside for next week.

strips ready for piecing

Strips cut and waiting to be paired and sewn.  I lay might out like this, I take a background strip and then I put another coloured strip on top and sew together.  If the fabrics are different sizes I just sew to one is complete and add another as the photos below show you.

let the piecing begin

sewing a 1/4"

Once these are all sewn, take to the pressing board and press with the seams towards the dark fabric. 

Then off to the cutting mat where we sub cut these strips into 2" just like the photo below.  We require a total of 72 (2" X 3.5" strips) of each colour 

Subcutting strips

subcut pairs

Strips all subcut ready for pairing and piecing into four patch blocks.  Don't worry if you have a few extras you may like to use your favourite combination and swap some around later.

ready to make four patches

Now off to the machine to sew these babies together!

final seams happening for this week!

Sew the four patches together using the 1/4" seam.  Remember to make sure you butt your seams to each other so your centre of the block, this will ensure they match nicely.   Just like below. 

unpressed block straight from the machine

After you have sewn your units please go and press them all. They should measure 3.5" now
And you should have a total of 72 four patches. 

Patches to be put away ready for next clue

Clue 1 complete! Yay!

Above you will see the extra squares with the four patches all complete.  Now I would love to see all of your creations.  So remember you can come over toWehago Designs Quilting Community Group on Facebook the or hashtag your photos on Instagram with #wintermystery2016 and follow me on Instagram @wehago.  I also have a Facebook page Wehago Designs and I plan on putting this pattern on my website once we complete the quilt and it will be a free downloadable pattern.

So off you head to the cutting board or the fabric stash and start your creation.

So looking forward to seeing this come together all over the world, and many thanks for coming with me on my quilting journey. 

Have Fun

Wendy