Yahoo! Winter Mystery Quilt Along Reveal!

Happy Friday!  Plus a big Hug and a Kiss for the first day of the month!


Well I hope you are ready to do the last bit of cutting and sewing for this block and quilt!  So lets get to the sewing area and be off and sewing steadily for a quilt top.

Cutting Instructions

From your backgrounds you will need to cut 72  x 3.5" squares.

Sewing Instructions

Take out the four patches from the first clue and make sure they are all facing the same way.  As in the top right corner has either the dark or the light (depending on your background).  Place the background square on top and sew as per photos below.  We are about to make double four patch blocks before assembling our block to make the quilt

ready to sew four patches to backgrounds.

Press Seams towards background square

four patches and backgrounds sewn

Once these are all sewn we then pair them to look like the following photo and then sew these seems together to finish the block

Ready to sew four patch together

Make sure you butt your seams together so that you get a nice point meeting at the centre of the block

Sewing together

Press blocks open and gather all of the other blocks

All units of the blocks assembled to make the new block for the quilt

Now for the Reveal!  We have been making Crossing Ohio!  Have you crossed Ohio?  or have you crossed a new bridge whilst making this quilt?  I would love to hear!

Ok lets lay this out for you to see!

Crossing Ohio Block

Layout your block like this, I then work from the top and chain piece, I have the right piece placed on top of the centre and work from the top of the block and chain each one and remove leaving the little chains between.  This is called Webbing a block, it really helps us not to twist things when they are going together.  

Starting of sewing the complete block

Still all joint and ready to join other three pieces

opened so you can see what it is like part webbed

I now pin the last side pieces to the webbed centre piece.  I do this so that I am able to flip the block and not forget to flip the other parts of the block so that I am sewing with the least amount of fabric going through the throat side of the machine.

Pinned ready to sew

All parts now webbed and opened for you to see

Now back to the machine and sew those last two rows together to create the block

Sewing the last rows together

TA DA!  its all sewn!

 

Crossing Ohio all Sewn!

Now I love this block as it makes a secondary pattern through the quilt.  I have chosen some border fabric which is in a photo above with the units of the blocks and also a binding.  During today I will sew this little quilt together to look like this and I will be putting the borders on and I will explain how to do this for you all.  So either later today or early tomorrow you will have another blog post with the finishing touches!

Crossing Ohio -Winter Mystery Quilt Along!

This is how it will look with a bit of a look at my border.

Now I am actually thinking of Calling this little quilt of mine Gelati Stars. what will you call yours?

I hope you have all had as much fun as I have doing this and I am wondering how many of you have guessed what it was going to look like?  Do you like it or hate it, we all have different taste, I'm just interested in your thoughts?  Also would you do another one with me?

Ok off to the machines and consider these questions.  If you find it hard to leave a comment on the blog just let me know in the group or message me.

Have fun and Enjoy the first day of July!

Wendy!

Winter Mystery Quilt along clue 3 is here!

Good Morning to everyone!  here is your clue 3 for the Winter Mystery Quilt Along!

Are you all ready?

Today you will be sewing hourglass blocks and I have a very cool way of doing them without dealing with triangles!  I am sure you are happy about this neat little trick.  

Cutting Instructions

So today you will need 18 backgrounds cut at 7 1/4" this will either be you light or your dark fabric

Then you will need of your 18 Medium fabrics cut at 7 1/4".  I am using two colours for my mediums and if you are doing this cut 10 of one colour and 8 of the other.

Preparation and Sewing Instructions 

Squares ready to be prepared for sewing

Mark each medium fabric with a pencil diagonally like this

You may use a pencil or you may use a hera marker like I did to form a crease in the fabric that you can see so you can use this as a guide.   Pair your mediums with a background fabric square with right sides facing.   Off to the machine we go and we will sew a 1/4" seam either side of this marked diagonal line.

You should now have 2 sewn lines like this

Place your ruler point to point diagonally on the opposite diagonal to you have sewn

Cut the fabric from point to point diagonally on the opposite of the sewn diagonal like in above diagram and below.  Then cut on the drawn or marked line inbetween your stitching.  

this is what you will now have.

Open up the pieces and you will now have four quarter square triangles ready to make into hourglass blocks.

cut units to make hour glass blocks

Press your seems to the dark side, in my case this was my medium fabrics.   Making sure you but the centre seems together to have a neat fitting block and then sew this seam to form your hourglass blocks.

Pink ones sewn Yellow to be sewn

Ta Da!  You are almost complete.  If you did not hear on the first clue I accidentally recalculated my calculations and halved the amount of four patches you need so you will need to make another 36 four patches before next weeks clue.  

unit blocks and totals for the quilt so far

72 four patch units

9 Uneven 9 patches

36 hourglass blocks

I really hope you are enjoying this quilt,  next week sees the final clue and the making up of the quilt. I have actually purchased a striped binding for mine and a Star background which you can see in last nights blog post here

Also remember Announcement of Mystery can be found here

                          clue 1 can be found here

                          clue 2 can be found here

You can join us on Facebook Wehago Designs Quilting Community or on Instagram with #wintermystery2016.  

Looking forward to seeing your quilt come together like mine is and all the different combinations of fabrics and colours.  It truly is amazing how we can make a quilt look different by our different choices of fabrics and colours and make them look so totally rockstarish!

So this is your EARLY Friday post to start your weekend off in a great way!

We are heading into a very cold patch of weather today so if you are in my part of the world rug up and stay safe and to everyone else take care and stay safe and we will meet back here again very soon.

signing off to go and get ready to quilt some more an another project.1

Wendy 

A busy week to be sure and company in the garden

Hello from my little happy quilting place down under!  How have you all been?  What's happening in your part of the world?  Read on and see what I have been doing this week.

Tuesday saw a little visit to the Sewing Connection for these beauties.  The pinks and purples will be for my Glacier Star Quilt and the strip and star fabric will be for my border and binding of my mystery that I am sharing with you all here.  Next clue in the morning.  Please note that the first clue did have a mistake and you should have 72 four patch units not 36.  I have edited the blog post but just Incase you have missed my amendment I thought I would just mention it here.

I have been working on my Decades of stars quilt and I am happy with the progress and the way the quilting is bring this quilt to life.

These Little Wattlebird visited the garden for the nectar in this Calistemon and I managed to get a couple photos of them.

They also have a wonderful song and are beautiful to listen to.   I really love my garden the way it attracts these lovelies.

Oh and here are some fabrics from the stash by Denyse Schmidt that will make an appearance in an upcoming quilt which I am excited about and these fabrics are just a tad gorgeous also. I will have some piecing and some applique to do for this quilt and I'm sure you will love it.

Today I have been doing some free motion quilting on this UFO.  So tomorrow I should have another quilt finished.  I am happy that my machine quilting is coming together also.  My first love will always be hand quilting but sometimes time and other constraints make hand quilting not possible.  So I will be happy to be able to create lovely quilts using the machine for these occasions.

This is the entirety of the quilt.  It was a free block of the month I did with a Facebook quilting group about four years ago with my scraps and I finally got these blocks into a top this year and am now completing the quilting and having fun!

So tomorrow morning I will give you the next clue in the mystery.  We will have one more week and then the mystery will be revealed.  I hope you are having as much fun with it as I am.

So tell me how has your week gone?  Have you had a Quilty  week or a relaxing week of something in between.  Leave a comment in the comment box and let me know!  

Until the morning have a great night or day wherever you are in the world.

Wendy

P.S.  Remember A creative person never gets bored!

Not just a slow Sunday but a slow week!

Hello to everyone!

I trust you are all as well as you can be and enjoying the weekend!

Last weekend I had a bit of a collision with one of our dogs and went down like a sack of potatoes and last Sunday ended up in ER and recieved a half cast with a diagnosis of soft tissue damage or. Scaphoid Fracture!  Argh!   Was my cry!

Not to be bored out of my brain I decided I could operate the sewing machine and I unearthed my 2.5" confetti squares.   Some I cut from my scraps some are from my swap group where we swap 49 in an. Envelope once a month during the year.   So I have started on this little top with black and whites and colours!   I have a red and an orange block done

Here is my container with them sorted into lights or low volume and darker and black and whites.

Not long after I started the above blocks hubby asked if I could make him a little quilt to put under some of his work to protect my floor and what he was working on!  So what do you do, stop the quilt top you're working on and start another!   

Here is the result.  I will quilt this up for him as soon as I can.

On Tuesday I went to my Doctor and he sent me off for a scan on my hand on the Wednesday and I went back to him on the Friday for my result!   He knew I was tired of the cast as it all felt wrong.   So to my relief on my return visit he gave me the all clear of the scaphoid fracture but told me I have ligament damage!   Oh no,  well I know it will take about 6 weeks before I am back to full strength but I do know I can do little bits here and there!

Enter the next confetti quilt, this will have a type of 3D effect with a chain like happening around and through it.

Now for today, I decided I would finsh a couple of quilt tops with borders!

This is a quilt I did with local quilters last year but realised I must get some of the green from Ella Blue to put the final border on!   So off to the quilt shop tomorrow!

Now to cut the border for my wonderful 49th birthday quilt from Kathi!  She found this wonderful quilt for me and gifted it! I am so thankful to her and I'm looking forward to quilting this later in the year!

Here it is!  I think this will be awesome and my mind is contemplating my quilting design now!

So as you can see I would love to be hand quilting but I can only do these sorts of things slowly with lots of breaks for my hand.  I can cut small amounts at the moment for a short time only!

I am so happy to be able to link with Slow stitching Sunday with Kathy take a look at all the eye Candy!

Now it's your turn, tell me how your week has been and what are you doing this weekend, I'm curious!

Until, a few days time, I hope you enjoy yourself and can be creative!

Take care and remember please say hello!

wendy

New fabric equals exciting times

Just look at this gorgeous fabric!  I am so lucky to have won little bundle of delight.  I participate in a monthly sew in with a group of ladies from around the world on facebook.  We all can sew in our own homes and post photos to the event wall.  Then if you are chosen from random number you are the winner of a prize which someone has donated.  So imagine my happiness to find out I was going to be the recipient and the absolute joy when this arrived in my mail box.  I have been thinking of a few different options to use this with.  I will focus on the few quilts that have deadlines at the moment and then work with these blossoms.

                                 

                                       

And this bundle of wonder is for the Pantone colour of the year quilt challenge.  I have my fabric, my idea and I am so excited to be nearing the starting of this project.  Now that I have finished a couple of quilts and am nearing the finishing of another quilt top, I am hoping to start on this one next week.  Be sure to check out Play Crafts, On the Windy side and these fabrics from hawthorn threads should make my quilt just the way I want it to.

Anyway until next time, keep creating,

Wendy

Fabulous Friday and sensational Saturday makes me whoop!

Let me tell you why I want to whoop about my Friday and Saturdays achievements.  Firstly Friday I decided to clean up all of my fabric.  All of my bins were just horrendous and looking like this one above.

After a short time I managed to get them looking like this.

I have sorted the boxes into a box of yardage and three small boxes of fat quarters and smaller usable pieces.  Then there are three boxes of scraps which I am going to cut  I to 2.5" squares and charm squares.  These can then be used for quick quilts or borders.

But look at this little lovely and this would be a great whooping find, I did this in 2004 and all it needs is a border, but I have an idea and may include it in a quilt I am planning on making in the next couple of months.

My other little whoop is this darling little fabric bowl basket, which I have posted to someone who needs a bit of cheer in her life right now.

My sensational Saturday found me outside mowing my lawn and I am finishing the evening off nicely at the hand quilting frame.  I am linking this post with Confessions of a fabric addict

Exciting news!

I am announcing a linky which I will be hosting at the last Friday of every month. This will be celebrating the goals I have met and the goals I hope to meet for the future month.  I am asking for you to think of what you might like to blog about in this regard and link with me.  I am really looking forward to this and so you don't miss out on all of the fun be sure to follow me whichever way you find easiest.

Until the next time we meet,

Have a wonderful whooping weekend, I know I am going to,

Wendy