Grand Illusion, Part 1!

Transcription

1 Friday, November 28, 2014 Grand Illusion, Part 1! Click HERE for updated Printer Friendly version. Let the Mystery Begin! I know you are ready! I know I am ready! This mystery pulls together all of the colors, the sites and the sounds of that grand old dame the Grand Hotel of Mackinac Island, Michigan. It was my life long dream to visit this historic place, and I had my first chance this past May when I taught for the Grand Hotel Needlearts Seminar. Talk about a fabulous place to spend a week stitching away with others who came from all over.

2 I am STILL wowed by the whole experience and so excited to be teaching there again in May of 2016! Maybe you will join me and witness this wonder yourself? Stay tuned for details as those dates draw closer. I have been saying all along that THIS YEAR ((oh what a year we ve had!)) was going to be a bit easier. A bit more relaxed. I hope you find that it will be. Feel free to make the quilt any size that you want it to be. My quilt came out 88 X 88. If you want it smaller, make 1/2 or 1/4 the number of units. You can easily decide after the reveal the direction you wish to take with it. Each Friday through New Year s I will be releasing a new clue. It is your responsibility to print each clue as it is released. Clues will be removed in the spring for inclusion in a book or pattern publication and I will be unable to provide you clues after that time. So that you don t get far behind and drop out ---Start each clue each week, no matter how many units of each step you accomplish. This way when the reveal comes around, you are up to speed on what the units are and can go back and complete them with confidence. Pull out those pinks and aquas!

3 Unit #1 We are making half-square Triangles! Remember those color cards we told you about at the beginning of the mystery in the intro? I want you to know those are for guidelines ONLY and your colors don t have to match any of those swatches exactly! They are just to get you going in the right direction. For instance on the pinks do you know how many shades of pink to peach that geraniums come in?? These are just a few and there are more! Aqua and yellow under that magnificent porch! All of my fabrics are scrappy with the exception of my yellow yardage, but you can feel free to use one fabric of all the colors, or scrappy up certain parts and not others. It will work. This is your quilt!

4 Cutting pinks/aquas into 280 triangle pairs! I am using the Easy Angle Ruler for the half square triangles in this quilt. You can use any method that gives you a unit that measures 2-1/2 and finishes at 2 in the quilt. The use of die cutting machines is your personal choice and I will not be listing specialty dies for this quilt. As shown above, place a pink 2-1/2 strip and an aqua 2-1/2 strip with right sides together. Trim the end of the strip set to start off with a good square corner, and using the 2-1/2 line on the ruler, cut the strip set into 280 already matched pairs of triangles, ready to sew. People often ask How many strips do I need?? It all depends on the length of YOUR strips. See what you can get out of one strip set and do some simple math to figure out how many strips you need. I m working with a wide variety of scraps in different lengths and the number of units I need is more important to me than the number of strips it takes to cut them. 280 PAIRS = 280 half square triangle units!

5 My son Jeff made a video of me with the Easy Angle Ruler for last year s Celtic Solstice mystery. View it if you haven t used this ruler before. You ll find it under the videos tab at the top of the blog. The video shows us using 2 strips, but the process is the same. Sewing Pairs! Chain sew the triangle pairs with a scant 1/4 seam. Sew a couple and press toward the aqua. Measure. If yours are coming out SMALLER than 2-12 square, your seam allowance is too wide. Adjust it and sew some more and test again. Do what you have to do to get your seam allowance where it needs to be. Most 1/4 feet are wider than they should be so take this into consideration before you sew all 280 pairs before measuring!

6 2-1/2 now trim that dog ear! Make 280!! Set 80 aside for another day.

7 Broken Dishes Unit! From Black 2.5 scrap strips cut squares. From Yellow Constant fabric cut 100 yellow 2.5 squares. Lay out units as shown! Join to complete 100 broken dishes units. Pat yourself on the back, clean up your sewing area and consider this a job very well done! We will catch you next Friday, Dec 5th for Part 2! This and all parts will be listed and linked under the Grand Illusion Mystery tab at the top of the blog for easy reference.

8 Don t forget that MONDAY, December 1st is our first Monday Mystery Link Up party! If you have a blog, a Flickr page or a Pinterest page, you can join in the fun! It s a great way for all of us to share our projects in progress with one another. You can add your link to it up until Thursday, Dec 4th at 11:59pm. Share your fabrics, share your units! Just share with us! If you miss adding your progress to our first Link-Up, just add your post to the link the following Monday! You can post ANY progress of ANY step on ANY of the Link-Ups. You do need a blog or a flickr page or Pinterest page to share your photos. Start one now it s free, and it s fun! Have a terrific time with Clue #1, Everyone! Sew glad you are sewing along! Click Here to like our Quiltville Friends Page on Facebook for more fun! Click Here to join our sister group, Quiltville's Open Studio on Facebook, a place to Sew, Share & Grow!!