Clue 2! Winter Mystery Quilt Along! Come Join the Fun!

Happy Friday to everyone!

What a week I have certainly had and its been lots of fun and lots of planning of many many fun things to come. I hear you saying "Seriously you are saying just get down to business and let us all have the mystery clues".  I hope you are enjoying it, don't forget I want to see all of the photos of how you are going.



So without any further ado, here goes:-

Today you will need to bring out the little 2" squares we put away last week and to this we will add some background and our medium fabrics.  I am using two different colours so I will give you total to cut and then my breakdown incase you are using two colours also.

Cutting instructions:-
from last week the 36 dark 2" squares (18 blues and 18 greens)
36  pieces cut at 3.5" x 2" of medium fabrics (20 Pinks and 16 yellows)
*note I cut these in lots of four of the one colour, if you can this would be a good idea unless you are doing a completely scrappy quilt
9 x 3.5" squares of your background fabric

pieced all cut and ready to sew

Sewing instructions:-

From your medium strips you have cut separate into two halves keeping them in pairs.  

Take one pile to the sewing machine with the 2" squares. 

*if you are using 2 colours separate the colours and take to the machine with your medium strips.  I had 10 pink strips and 8 yellow strips. 

We are adding a square to each end of the strip.  If you are using two colours add them to opposite ends of the strips.

ready for sewing

The next stage take the 9 backgrounds with the remaining strips to the machine and sew the strips to either side of the background fabric making sure you use the same fabric on each square.

prepared ready for sewing

And this is what we achieve, 5 pink units and 4 yellow units and 18 strip units.

all pieces joined into units

Last stage for sewing this unit is, to join the strips together as follows.  

Remember if you are not using two colours for you darks it will not matter how you put the small strips to the centre of the block.  If you are using two colours make sure the colours are opposite each other as follows in photo below.

Ready to sew unit together

all units stacked in order for sewing

Clue 1 and 2 all complete 

Now we have completed clue two.  We now have 9 uneven 9 patches and 36 four patches.  Only two more clues left folks!  How are you enjoying this?  Are you loving my colours coming together or are you enjoying yours more.  Don't just visit leave your calling card!  Say hello, and let me know where you are visiting from, I love to chat!  

Don't forget to join me on instagram here  and don't forget to tag your blocks with #Wintermystery2016 or on Facebook  at Wehago Designs Quilting Community

So until the next post over the weekend to let you know how my sewing is going, have fun and keep on smiling and quilting!

Cheers!

Wendy

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

Winter Mystery Quilt-Along 2016

Well are we ready for a bit of creativity as we start our winter to keep our souls nice and warm. Yes I am in the southern part of Australia and we are just starting our winter.  So far it hasn't been to bad, we don't get snow where I live jus lots of rain and sludge often and cold winds to chill you to your bones.  

It is at this time after completing or almost completing a lot of quilts recently that I need to sort out my scraps and what better way to sort than to sort with a quilt in mind.  Well I have one.  It will be 54" without borders.  If you want to make it a bit bigger you might just have to make a few more blocks.  So tomorrow I will start sorting my fabrics but I have got some fabric requirements ready for you to join me in this mystery! 

I hope you are excited because I certainly am.  I am planning to make mine scrappy.  

Now for the requirements:-

For your background you will need 2.5 mts (2 3/4 yds)

Now the next lot of fabrics you will require will the the opposite of this colour.  For example if you are using a light then you will need to use dark fabrics, if you are using a darks for background use a lights for this fabric and you will require 1.15 mts (11/4 yds)

And of your medium fabrics you will require  3 mts (3 1/4 yds).

Now I hope you are excited to look in your scrap heap this year and join with me.   Don't forget to put a new needle in your machine, fill your bobbins and most importantly put a new blade in the rotary cutter.  I'll be back during the weekend most likely Sunday with your first Clue. Don't stress if you don't have all of your fabrics sorted it will work out and you will be able to gather them as we go.  

Now I must go and get some sleep so that this will all fall into place.

So until the first clue is released, have a wonderful time discovering fabric you had forgotten about.

Let's warm the creative juices of the souls,

Wendy