Mystery solved

It's time for the big reveal. So here is how all the pieces go together, Well, my pieces.

I do recall that I had you cut some extra half square triangles of the light background fabric.  No you don't need to correct me.  I recall that I had you cut too many.  Again sorry about that.  BUT if you would like, and  if you happen to have more coordinating scraps, (and who doesn't?) you could use them for an additional piece border like I did here.   If you would like to add the extra pieced border, you will need a total of 56 half-square triangle units from 3 7/8 inch triangles, and 4 dark squares 3 1/2" for the corners.
 
My original plans were to simply add another plain border and be done with it like I've shown here.

 Of course the center of your stars may be different and you may alternate centers if you've done both options. And because I am all about options, instead of Thirtysomething units in the corners you could just use 4 light background squares like I've shown here.

Now I just need to decide if I like it best with another plain border or not. And do I have the courage to use some jazzy thread on that white background?

Well, I had fun, I hope you did, too.

A clue with an option

Do you ever feel like you are being bombarded with ideas for quilts? It happens to me all the time and I just have to share. That's what I do.  I call this quilt “It’s Getting Late”.  It’s from my book Thirtysomething, too!  I really like these stars and always thought that I would make another quilt with these stars, but rather than arranging the stars the way I did, I thought I would alternate light stars and dark stars and use a completely different style of fabric.  That quilt has been on my to do list for probably 10 years now.

The stars in this quilt were made using some of the same units that we’ve made for the mystery quilt.  I was reminded of this quilt when I played a little with my pieces for the mystery quilt.  I have to admit I never thought to color the stars scrappy like this.

Have you tried different arrangement of the pieces to see what designs you might come up with? I’ll give you a clue.  I thought that I could follow the directions for the quilt I planned without presenting any options.  I find that very difficult to do, so here are your options. You need to join 4 Thirtysomething units to make the centers for 9 stars. 




Option 1 is the easiest and that is to make four-pointed stars.
Option 2 is to sew the units together with the points in the center. 
Option 3 is to make 4 of Option 1 and 5 of Option 2.

I have no preference when it comes to pressing the seam allowances.  My general rule is to press in the direction of least resistance, and sometimes I press the seams open.  That’s what I’ve done here.

Here’s one more quick step.  Sew together pairs of a half square triangles units to make flying geese units with the light background as the geese.
That's it for now. Boy, keeping you in suspense like this has been fun. Next week will be the big reveal with one more option!

New to you?

Is the Thirtysomething unit new to you? It may look like a common patchwork unit based on a four-patch, but it uses 30 degree angles instead. If you are working on the mystery, you have already cut the pieces.   The three pieces in a Thirtysomething unit I have labeled A, B, and C.  The kite-shaped piece in the center (patch C) is trimmed square after it is sewn. I hope after you cut the A and B triangles you took the time to stack the A triangles and B triangles in separate piles. Trust me, it can be confusing if you don’t.
       
Before sewing the Thirtysomething units, check that you are stitching a scant 1/4" seam allowance. Test it by stitching three 1 ½" x 5" scraps together on the long edges. The middle piece should then measure 1" exactly. Adjust your seam allowance till it is!


Place an A triangle and C triangle right sides together,  matching tips precisely. Start stitching at the broad end of the C triangle rather than at the point.  This will place the smaller A triangle underneath. Don't be concerned that you will be sewing through a single layer of fabric (patch C) for an inch or so. You will notice that the C triangle points in both directions. That means sometimes you will start stitching the patch at a 90degree corner and sometimes that corner is a 60 degree angle. Remember, this is the corner that will be trimmed square after sewing the three triangles together.


  The seam allowance must be pressed toward the A triangle for proper alignment of the B triangle.  Hold the point straight while pressing to avoid curving the seams.  Press carefully to avoid tucks, particularly at the point.  Remember, do not trim the point until after the B triangle is sewn on. The point is needed to align the B triangle.



  
 Add a B triangle, carefully matching the raw edges of all three layers at the narrow points. Start stitching at the broad end of the C triangle. The small B triangle will now be on top. Press the seam towards the B triangle. Hold the point straight while pressing.

Most likely you will want to try a few before you set up any chain piecing. After you get the idea, you will end up making 40 Thirtysomething units and get pretty good at it.

A few suggestions:
Pair all the A and C triangles right sides together, offsetting them ½". This will allow you to check that pieces are indeed  RST and that you are using the correct piece. If you are not you will see the square corner of the small triangle instead of the  60degree corner.

Flip and stitch broad end in first. A lot of times in classes the gals will somehow spin the pieces so the broad end is in first with the small triangle on top and then by mistake they sew on the wrong edge of the small triangle.  So, as you pick up each pair and flip them to sew with the small triangle on the bottom, check that you always stitch the long bias edge of the small triangle to the C triangle.

 

Squaring Up
    Use an ordinary square quilter's ruler and position it on the unit so the edges of the A and B triangles are aligned with the 3 ½ " lines of the ruler. The inner point of the C triangle should be at 3 1/4".  Center the broad end of the C triangle in the opposite corner of the square. (The 1 3/8" mark on the ruler should meet the seams at the edges of the 3" unit.)  Trim the C triangle and any excess fabric adjacent to it. Finally trim the points.

The Thirtysomething Square Up tool was designed to trim Thirtysomething units that finish either 3" or 4" including seam allowances. IF you are using this nifty tool, simply align the angled lines marked 3" with the seam lines of the Thirtysomething unit and trim everything extending beyond the edges. Then, rotate the Thirtysomething unit and tool to square up the unit to 3 ½", trimming the points and any excess fabric.

I've only made about a million of these things, so I think I have ironed out all the kinks. Literally, I have made over 70 quilts with these units. I occasionally hear from teachers that want to make the pieces bigger somehow to allow for the gals with wider seam allowances.  They invariably change the angle and things don't line up as well then.  I think this is a great opportunity to learn the importance of a scant 1/4" seam allowance. I hope you agree. Happy quilting.


 

The next step

I haven’t been able to sew much this week as I’ve spent a lot of time at the hospital with my elderly neighbor.  She’s home now and I hope things get back to normal soon. So I’ll get right to the next step in our Thirtysomething mystery.

Before we do any more sewing, we need to finish cutting our 2 ½ inch medium and dark strips.  Keep the strips folded or paired wrong sides together.  Sub cut the strips into  4 1/4" rectangles then cut the pairs of rectangles in half diagonally just like you cut the C triangles.  Keeping the fabric wrong sides together when the rectangles are cut diagonally will automatically produce triangles and mirror image triangles.  Separate them into stacks with 60 of each.

To help mix up the scraps take about half of the triangles off the top of one pile and move it to the bottom of that same pile.

Using the triangles from the right side of the pile shown in the photo and the light rectangles that we trimmed last week, sew together one of each as shown.  To align the pieces for sewing, offset the half triangle so that it’s 60̊ corner creates a quarter inch wide triangle extending past the light background piece.  Press the seam allowance towards the dark triangle.  Repeat with all 24 light background pieces.




Take a triangle from the other pile and sew it to the opposite side of the light background rectangle.  Offset the half-triangle in the same way so that the 60̊ corner is sticking out 1/4".   I’m showing a pair of these flipped over because you want to sew them with the 60̊ corner going into the machine 1st.  So this is how they will look to you.
Repeat with all 24 light background pieces.  Again press the seam allowances toward the dark triangle.

After pressing, each of these units need to be trimmed to 3.5" x 6.5".  I usually just measure the width, because they were already cut 6 ½" and it was the width that was altered when the triangles were added.  You can measure and trim one unit at a time if you like or stack them up like I do.  I stack about 4 on top of each other lining up the long edge of the rectangle and offsetting them each perhaps by an inch.  Then I measure over 3 ½ inches from the long edge of the rectangle and trim the excess from the small triangles.

I hope you found that easy.  I guess that’s all until next week.  I have to start thinking about getting my taxes done.

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.

A new quilt shop & step 2

Well, not exactly a new shop, but it sure looked like it. Sawdust And Stitches, the quilt shop in our little town is in a very old building.  They have needed new light fixtures in that store since day one.  They finally got them over the holidays. What a huge difference! (Yes, it's been that long since I have been there.)  I always enjoyed that store before.  Now I'm afraid with the new lights I'll enjoy it more!  (read: spend more)  Wish me luck. Actually, I was pretty good when I was there the other day.  I went in for some thread and only picked up 3 half yards to go with it.

My scrap box of A, B. and C triangles was stuffed. These are the triangles I use for my Thirtysomething technique.  So I sorted through all the pieces to see if I could come up with anything I could use to make a few more blocks.  I guess this was just for fun, because I have no use for these blocks. They were added to the pile of orphan blocks. Oh yeah, I remember why I went through that box. I was preparing for a class, and made the 6 inch blocks with the equilateral triangles. I call them the Fancy X block.  I made 3 of those and 4 other blocks.

Before I put the new orphan blocks away, I dug out a few other 12 inch blocks and placed the Fancy X over their centers to see if I could come up with some ideas for some new blocks.  What do you think?


 I put another quilt on the frame and I was sure I had enough thread on the spool.  I was really surprised when at the end of the 2nd row, I ran out of that thread so I had to place an order and have been waiting for it all week. So, while I have been waiting I made myself an apron using my favorite chicken fabric, and a new tote bag.  I made the bag I have been using all these years about 25 years ago. It's my favorite and I still have the pattern. So I made another one. And the apron has only been on my to do list for over 10 years. So I'm feeling pretty good about that

Now to begin sewing the Thirtysomething Mystery.

Step 1.  Sew a light triangle to a medium or dark triangle. Press the seam away from the light triangle. Make 24 half-square triangle units.



 I'm going to bet that won't take you long at all, so here's the next step.


Step 2. Make 12 Square-in-a-Square units. There are several ways to get the pieces lined up correctly for sewing. hopefully these pictures show that. One is to finger-press a crease at the center of the edges to be joined. Then match the creases, and sew. Another way would be to trim the pointy seam allowances using a trimming template. This should make the triangles fit the squares perfectly.

A 3rd way would be to center the triangle and make the little mouse ears sticking out the same size.  This is easier to see when the triangle is on the bottom.


Either way, sew a medium or dark triangle to opposite sides of a 4 3/4" light square; press away from the center.  Sew triangles to the opposite sides; press. Repeat to make 12 Square-in-a-Square units. They should measure 6 1/2" square.

I'm curious. Would any of you  rather make these units with over-sized triangles that are trimmed to size after sewing? Would you rather see directions telling you that? IF so, how much bigger?

Take care and sew long,

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.

Announcing a new Mystery

My 1st cut-and-paste wall hanging is ready to quilt. If you've been following my blog for a while, you should recognize this.  It took me a while to get this far because I wasn't happy with the 1st red that I chose for the appliqué in the center.  Too bad that meant I had to go shopping for more. The appliqué block is a variation of the Whig Rose. Most quilts that I saw with this block have that jagged zigzagging red piece colored green, but it didn't look very organic to me, and I didn't think that the block needed more green so I used red there. I've got this one basted and I'm going to quilt it on my domestic.  It's only about 28" square.

 I have decided to post the next quilt that I'm going to be working on as a mystery!  I have conducted a few mysteries when I 1st started teaching quilting.  I ran those differently than most teachers would have. Basically we all worked on the same components for the quilt, but how you decided to arrange your pieces in the end was entirely up to you.  I did not provide a final plan for those mysteries. They were fun because everybody's turned out different.  I won't do that to you this time, I have definite plans.

There are Thirtysomething units in the mystery quilt. If you're not familiar with those you can follow this link and print off detailed directions on how to make Thirtysomething units. You could make a few before you decide if you want to participate in the mystery. The quilt will finish 48" square. I'll post a new clue once a week.  If your friends like mysteries, invite them to join the fun. Use your medium and dark toned scraps for this one, or do what I did and pull a range of co-ordinating batiks from my stash. Here's the requirements.

Light background - 1 7/8 yards
Medium and dark scraps - 18 strips 2.5" x 20".  Not cut with a zigzag like in the jelly rolls.
And 36 squares, 3 7/8" x 3 7/8". Cut each square once diagonally to make 72 triangles.
Border - 5/8 of a yard for 3 1/2"  border. You can select this when you're through piecing if you wish.
Binding - 1/2 yard
This is what I'll be working with.

 

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