The mystery begins

I'll get to the mystery in a minute, but first I will catch you up on the last weeks quilting activities. I got the Whig Rose wallhanging quilted and bound; and I love it. There was quilting at church.  We missed last month due to snow so there was lots of show and tell. This comfort quilt was one turned in.  Most of the blocks are actually leftover from one of the raffle quilts we did for church. Most of the other show and tell was just tops.

 Only 5 of us this time and we never set up a machine or got the iron hot. Some cutting and organizing of the next raffle quilt and layering and basting. Still, it was good to get together again and we got stuff done.
I'm planning to get back to work on the next book soon.  I have mentioned this one before. I am calling it the Thirtysomething block book.  I was organizing my Electric Quilt files yesterday and today.  All 75 of them!. Cleaned out some duplicates, renamed some etc. Still have a ways to go.  I have about 150 blocks I intend to narrow down to no more than 100.  Don't ask me how. Tell me instead.  Please. I've had a hard time deciding how I want to do this book. I've not done a block book before.  It'll be great for anyone that loves to do samplers.

My mind is always racing with quilts I want to do. I have probably 9 piles of fabric for 9 different quilts just sitting around this room waiting for me. I will pack away all but 2 or 3 now so I can focus on the next book. I  am also doing a new class at Spring Festival in Cincinnati in April that I have to prepare for. So putting those things away will mean less distraction.  But Maybe I can kinda kit up those piles first. Sound good?

Now for the Mystery.
At this point I intend to post one clue a week.  Normally that would  be agonizingly slow for me, but as I just mentioned, I will have plenty to do. I don't intend to delete these directions either, so at anytime, even after the mystery has been solved, anyone will be free to get them for free and make this quilt.  If you would like to print the directions, I would suggest that you simply highlight what you want to print then just "print selection".

Today, we will just cut some of the light background fabric.  The medium and dark fabrics needed are the triangles and strips listed last week. I showed you the fabric I planned to work with, but before I cut any fabric for a scrap quilt,  I go through my scrap boxes and find any that will work. I found a bunch of triangles.

So from the 1 3/4 yards light background fabric, cut:

2 strips, 4 3/4" x 42".  Crosscut just 13 squares, 4 3/4".  Trim the remainder of the last strip to
3 ½ inches and cut 4 squares, 3 ½" x 3 ½".

2 strips, 3 7/8" x 42".  Crosscut 12 squares, 3 7/8" x 3 7/8".  Cut each square in half diagonally to make 24 half-square triangles.

10 strips, 3.5" x 42". We will cut  pieces from these later.

I hope nobody needed a picture for that. Happy cutting.