Tag: Morewood Mystery Quilt

Continuing with Morewood Mystery

Last month I posted about joining the Morewood Mystery Quilt presented by Meadow Mist Designs. We are currently in the first sewing step, making Half-Square Triangles. The administrator of the mystery presented a wonderful video with suggestions about how to make these blocks faster and easier.

But first I had to MAKE the squares and decided to “up my game” a bit when drawing the lines prior to sewing. Previously I would just put the fabric on the cutting mat and trace the line but often the fabric would slip and slide around so that the line wasn’t straight and didn’t fall perfectly in the corners. This time, I pulled out my sandpaper board and used it to hold the fabric in place……

It worked perfectly!!

Once the squares were sewn, I turned to the first of the video suggestions…… a way to press the blocks so that the corners don’t slide out of square.

I normally cut the blocks apart first and then press them but Cheryl suggested that a majority of the pressing should be done BEFORE the center line was cut.

Press one side first……

Turn it around and press the other side so that it is pre-folded and looks like this…..

Now you cut along the marked line…..

When you get ready to do the final pressing, the piece is already “Pre-pressed” and ready to go!!

I felt like it made a huge difference in how the squares turned out and it will definitely help with the trimming process but I will talk about that tomorrow!!

So my HST’s are now ready to go and I will wait NOT-so patiently for the next clue!!!

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!!!