True Confessions

I have to admit I'm still laughing at something my husband told me the other day.  He said in the middle of the night, he had jumped up to look out the window to see what was making the noise he heard.  It didn't take long until he realized that it was me snoring! I have a hard time imagining that I sounded that bad, but then, he is a bit hard of hearing. Really.

Well, now I guess it's official.  I quilt for hire.  This is a picture of my 1st customer quilt.  Rita is one of the church ladies that I work on the comfort quilts with. She put these blocks together after she won them at a Crazy Quilters meeting. One of the activities of the guild is where everybody that is interested can make the block of the month and when they're turned in, only those who have made a block have a chance at winning all of them.  I don't know any more than that about this pattern, but it sure is cute.  The coordinator plans the colors. I just quilted it.  I would've had it done sooner if I hadn't run out of thread.

The Great Lakes Professional Longarm Machine Quilters Association met this week.  There wasn't much of a program, but I had a good time anyways.  2 of the new members that day were in the 1st quilting class I took 29 years ago.  After the meeting we went for all long lunch. As usual, they were after me to re-join the Crazy Quilters guild.
There was also a quilt club meeting this week at the Ben Franklin quilt shop. I don't participate in the block of the month, but I still enjoy going. Most of the talk was about the upcoming retreat.  I sure wish I could go with them.  Maybe next year.

Now for the mystery quilt.
I have another confession to make.  I made a boo-boo when I listed the cutting instructions. I was trying to decide between two patterns I wanted to offer for the mystery and by mistake I copied the cutting directions from the wrong file.  The 2 patterns were related so  I am able to make the adjustments needed and will make a note in that post that I've edited it.  The only thing that you should notice is that you have a few extra pieces and there might be a few extra seams. Very Sorry. So let's continue with cutting the rest of the light fabric.

From your remaining light fabric cut 4 squares, 6 1/2 inches.

From the 3 1/2 inch light strips, cut just 24 rectangles, 3.5" x 6.5".  2 corners of these rectangles need to be trimmed at a 30-60° angle.  There are 2 ways to accomplish this.  1st is to use the Clearview triangle 60° ruler. Warning: Not all equilateral triangle rulers measure the same way. Position the square corner of the rectangle along the center line of the ruler as shown below. Measure and cut off a 30 - 60 - 90° triangle 3 1/8 inches tall from two adjacent sides.

The other way is for those of you who do not have the ClearView triangle ruler.  You'll need to make a cutting guide to attach to the bottom of any straight edge ruler.  1st mark perpendicular lines on a piece of paper.  From the intersection of those two lines, measure up along one line 3 1/8" and mark a dot. Use the 30-60° line on your triangle ruler to draw a line from the dot back down to the horizontal line.  The length of the short edge of the triangle should be between 1 3/4 and 1 7/8 inches long. Use your scissors to cut out the paper triangle. Next align the long edge of the paper triangle to the edge of an index card. You can use tape to hold it in place while you cut along the other 2 edges of the triangle. Tape the edge of the index card to the edge of your straight edge ruler, as shown. To use this system the corner of the rectangles should fit inside the cardboard edges of the triangle.  Simply butt the fabric against both edges of the cardboard and cut along the rulers edge.

If the corners of these rectangles are cut correctly, you'll notice that you have a blunted tip at the 120° angle.


Also from the 3 1/2 inch strips, cut only 8 rectangles, 3.5" x 6.5".  The corners of these are NOT trimmed.

One more fussy cut from the 3 1/2 inch light background strips: Cut 20 rectangles, only 6" long. Cut these diagonally to make what I call C triangles. These triangles have 30-60-90° angles.

You can check the angle as you cut these rectangles in half by using the Clearview Triangle or the 60° line on your straight edge ruler. It's not a bad idea either. Often when I teach this, the rectangles are cut longer by mistake, and that changes the width of the angle. You'll need a total of 40 C triangles.

It's my guess that it probably took me longer to write this than it will for you to cut the pieces. Many interruptions tonight. Yes, I checked it over.

For those of you playing along, thanks for joining us. We'd all love to hear from you. And, please write if you have questions.