Mystery Quilt 2016~ Clue # 1

You may or may not know that one of my passions in life is quilting. When I went back to school two years ago, I had little or no time to quilt. However, since graduation, I have been making up for lost time!  A few months ago, I found a group on Facebook for quilters called Quiltville Open Studio. It was through this great bunch of ladies that I learned about Bonnie Hunter, a nationally known quilter/teacher, and her awesome blog. For the past several years, Bonnie has done what she calls a "Mystery Quilt". I love a good mystery so naturally this intrigued me. This years quilt was inspired by Bonnie's trip to Provence France. At the end of October, Bonnie posted on her blog this years inspiration and color pallet, with directions to search our "stash" for fabrics we would use in the quilt. The "mystery" is that we do not know what this quilt will look like. Bonnie will give us a "clue" each week instructing us which fabric to use and what block to make. 

Now, those of you that know me well, know that I am a planner and like to know all the details before I start doing ANYTHING...including quilting. I have also never made a "Scrappy" quilt. (Scrappy quilts are just what it sounds like. Using scraps of fabric from other quilts you have made, or fabric from your stash, in blocks to complete the quilt) 

Amazingly, this sounded really fun to me and in the spirit of trying new things, I decided to jump aboard this Mystery Quilt train. As soon as the color pallet was posted, I dug through my fabric choosing my fabric. (would you believe that the queen of purple had NO purple fabric and actually had to buy some? Yeah- go figure) 

While everyone across America waited for Black Friday sales to begin...we quilters anxiously awaited for our first clue to be posted.

Clue 1: make 221 four-patch blocks from the neutral fabrics we chose.  

I began sewing strips together and then cutting them into 2 inch blocks. The instructions said to make the four-patches as naturally scrappy as I could. There is no "naturally" scrappy in my nature, so I decided to try a tip that one of the ladies on Facebook posted. Put all of the 2 patch blocks in a bag, draw out 2 and sew them together for a four-patch block. 

So....into the bag they went. I did, for the most part, sew the blocks together that I drew out. It took me a few days, but all 221 blocks are finished...and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how scrappy they turned out. On top of that, I learned several new techniques. One of them was how to "spin" my seams to reduce the bulk in the center of the four patch. 

 Above are the 2 patch blocks cut from the strips. To the right is a picture of the "seam spinning"   

Now to wait for Friday to find out what clue number 2 will be! 

Four patch blocks all finished.