Dec
29

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt – Clues 4 and 5

Posted Monday, December 29th, 2014 in Quilting | Read More

I have been busy preparing for the holidays and trying to stay current with the mystery quilt. I had clue four sewn but not pressed before Christmas.  Clue five was given on Friday, the day after Christmas, but I didn’t begin to work on it until today. (Monday, Dec. 29) Today I made all of the blocks for clue 5 and pressed all of the finished blocks.

We are getting near the end of the mystery. I can’t wait to see how everything goes together!

I am linking to Bonnie’s Link Up where you can read more about the mystery.

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Dec
14

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt – Part 3

Posted Sunday, December 14th, 2014 in Grand Illusion | Read More

This week the blocks are easier to cut and  assemble. The piecing was quicker because I made strip sets, re-cut, and sewed again. I pressed each strip in opposing directions and was able to nestle all the seams and sew without pinning.

I had a large piece of solid green that was left over from the Zelda quilt I made for Tristan in 2012. I  used the  this green fabric for all of the blocks rather than making them scrappy. I used fat quarters for the other colors in this block.  I have been able to find all the fabrics I needed in my fabric stash. It feels wonderful to make a small dent in my piles of fabric!

Here are my 120 blocks for clue three.

I am linking up to Bonnie’s link up page.

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Dec
11

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt – Part 2

Posted Thursday, December 11th, 2014 in Fabric Stash, Grand Illusion, Quilting, Scrap Quilts | Read More

This week we are making 200 pink, black and white rectangles and sewing two together to make 100 blocks. Bonnie gave us three different ways to assemble the rectangles. I chose to use the second method.

I printed the template for the diamond and taped it to the EZ Angle ruler to cut the diamonds. I wanted to try to make a block before cutting 200 pieces and took the template off my ruler to cut a few triangles. The pieces fit together perfectly.

I like to sew assembly line style. After sewing all 200 rectangles, I pressed them. Next I pieced all the blocks together and again did all the pressing.

To see the progress of other mystery quilters, click on this link.

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Dec
1

Grand Illusion Mystery – Part 1

Posted Monday, December 1st, 2014 in Fabric Stash, Quilting | Read More

The first clue has arrived and I am busily sewing blocks. My Thanksgiving guests left early Friday morning and I started cutting my fabric in the afternoon. On Saturday I was busy putting up Christmas decorations but did squeeze in some time for sewing. I now have all 288 half square triangles finished and sewn to the solid squares, reserving 80 for another clue to come later. The block assembly has begun! I am making 100 Broken Dish blocks.

I used Triangulations to make the HSTs (half square triangles) rather that using the EZ angle ruler. I’m not sure it saved any time because of having to remove the paper but my blocks all finished perfectly.

All the fabric for this quilt came from my fabric stash. I found that the pink fabric matches the paint chip perfectly. I had been saving this fabric for something special and the time to use it has arrived! To see all the fabric I am using, click here.

If you are also making this mystery quilt, you can link up to Bonnie Hunter’s blog with this link.


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