No yardage was harmed….

I don’t normally do mystery quilts!!!

I have problems spending my time, energy, and money for fabric when I don’t know if I will like the final result. But, sometimes they just pull me in!!!

I am a member of the “Scrappy Girls” Facebook group which is sponsored by Meadow Mist Designs. It is an extremely active group and they produce many GORGEOUS scrap quilts!!!

Each year they put out a mystery quilt and it has been fun to watch the progress of the quilts during the last few years. This year I decided that I didn’t want to watch from the sidelines but instead to participate in the fun!!

BUT, just as in previous years, I didn’t want to use any of my precious fabric for the quilt and sure didn’t want to go out and buy yardage!! Instead, I decided to try to cut the entire quilt just from scraps. It became a fun challenge!!!

I started with my largest squares, deciding on the four colors that I wanted to use and finding any squares that were as large or larger than the required ones. I set up a post-it note for each piece and counted down the squares as I added them to the pile.

In some cases, I didn’t have squares that were large enough so I sewed strips together to make a piece big enough to cut out the square. I tried to be sure that the seam wouldn’t hit in the middle of the block thinking that it probably wouldn’t be in the way when piecing the quilt…..

We will wait to see if that was a correct assumption!!!

When I needed 2×3 inch rectangles, I cut 3 inch squares down to fit the required size…..

I made good use of the layer cake squares that were languishing in my scrap drawer, cutting them into 5 inch squares OR a mixture of 5 and 45 inch squares. I used 2.5 inch strips to make the 5.5×2.5 pieces.

Kaitlyn was working at one end of the cutting table and I hovered over her scraps like a vulture, waiting for her to say that she was finished with one particular yellow strip so that I could grab it!!

Toward the end, I was running out of background fabrics but still needed sixteen 5.5 inch squares. I was about to break down and pull out some yardage but remembered my box of small pieces (too small to be on the shelf but too big to cut down into scraps)…….

These white and beige fabrics provided the final few squares.

Into a project box it went…..

….waiting for next month’s clue!!!

I will say that she has done a great job of obfuscating what the individual pieces are going to be used for!! Often times you can tell, but not with this one!!!

If you are interested in joining the…..

you can find it here……

Why don’t you join me and we can compare results!!!