Sew Sunday ~ Grand Central Clue 3 part 1

Update on Clue 3 for the Grand Central Mystery QAL from Sew On The Go.  

This one was fun to start with.  In fact I almost got all 3 weeks done last weekend.  On Sunday before the Superbowl I pulled all the remaining fabrics from my assorted brights and was able to use all different ones from the ones I used for clue #1.  I'm not sure if it will make my finished quilt look more scrappy or too busy, but I love these colors & fabrics so much.  It's fun seeing them being cut down and sewn together again.  My first step was to make all the cut all the pieces into the sizes called for, including half square triangles, then I began sewing strip sets.

I was having a blast sewing strips together and sewing them together again just like I thought the picture showed, until I realized I read the instructions wrong.  If you read yesterday's post, you're not surprised are you?  My personal "learn from my mistakes...twice" lesson last week was certainly to pay more attention to instructions and information, especially for a mystery quilt without videos. <insert seem ripper>

Once that was done and I was headed on the right path, I began zipping through the sewing.  Everything was going at lightening speed and I was impressed with how quickly this step was coming together.

Michelle gives us fabulous tips on her blog as well as in the downloads she makes available.  I couldn't remember how to make the center seem twist open, but using her instructions made it so easy!  Thank you, Michelle!  Even if you aren't following along with this mystery, I encourage you to read her blog posts.  She gives such good information.  She is a good teacher with lots of pictures to help visual learners, like me, understand.

This is the point where I ran into a snag.  I thought I had the ruler I needed, but turns out, I don't.  I have the tucker trimmer and the wing clipper, but what I needed was the Tucker Trimmer and the Large Square Squared ruler from Studio 180 designs.  Ruby Street Quiltworks used to carry all the Studio 180 Designs rulers, but they are sadly out of business.  :(  So, it has been ordered and I will play catch-up when it gets here.  In the meantime, Michelle released clue 4 on Friday, so I have something to work on while I wait for USPS to bring my ruler to me.  If I run out of current projects to work on I can always clean up my sewing room or work on an UFO.  (I can't let that happen though.  LOL)

Sew Monday ~ Grand Central Mystery Clue 2

Yesterday I shared my results from clue #1 of the Grand Central Mystery Quilt from sewonthego.com Today I am sharing clue #2.  This one went fairly quickly.  It also called for half square triangles of my background fabric (I chose white on white), so I cut those first and set them aside in my trusty ziploc bag.  (Same pic below as from yesterday, but it was cut to a different size.)

I forgot to take pictures, but I used Michelle's instructions and the Wedge Star ruler to cut the triangles below as well as get the angle started for the diamond cuts. 

After sewing them together I trimmed off the "dog ears".  This stage went so quickly, and I only knicked the diamond once.  (oops)

After trimming them up I sewed the 2nd set of triangles to the other side.

The final step was to trim it down to size.  I LOVE blocks like this that give you wiggle room to trim down.  The ruler really made it easy to get is centered and cut perfectly.  

Clue #3 is in progress for me.  I'll share that soon.  This is still a difficult challenge for me, but I am loving how each clue is turning out.  

Sew Sunday ~ Grand Central Mystery Quilt Clue 1

A couple of weeks ago I shared some of the quilting challenges and QAL (Quit A-Long) I am taking part in.  One of them was/is the Grand Central Mystery QAL from Michelle Hiatt at Sew On The Go.  Friday started week 3, but I'll be honest.  On Friday I had not even done clue 1, but I am happy to say that I am now over halfway through clue 3.  I'm taking a break to watch the SuperBowl.

Before the challenge began, Michelle, gave us tips on choosing our fabrics.  I'll be honest here, it isn't easy for me to do this without knowing the pattern.  This is my first mystery quilt and I admit, I like more control than this gives me.  LOL.  One thing about it though, I love the colors. 

This isn't my final fabric pull, but it is where I started.  I also took this picture in black & white so I could check out my color values.   I'm not sure it matters much for this quilt pattern, but I wanted to be sure I had some variation.

Michelle gives instructions each Friday and then a download PDF that is only available for one week.  It's free, but if you miss a clue there is a small fee to get past ones.  Totally worth it, if you want to do this QAL.  She put so much work into it and the instructions are really well written.  I'm learning a lot about pulling colors and different ways to piece my quilts.  That alone is worth giving up my control of design.  (sort-of)  LOL

For clue one, we sew together strip sets.  I sewed the first 2 together and then auditioned the 3rd ones.  I'm trying to be a little more free with my fabric placement.  This is something I struggle with.  Anytime you see a "scrappy" style quilt from me I have re-arranged the pieces to make sure it looked just right.  (in a scrappy way)  Did I mention control issues?

I really liked the way these colors looked together in their strips of 3, but decided to change the pic to B&W to see if the color value placement was ok.  Again, I'm not sure it matters in the final quilt, but it was worth editing the picture on my phone.

Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I did switch around the 4th strip set.  It looks like 3 darks to me, so I took a medium value from one of the other sets and switched it out.  

Not a big change, and possibly not noticeable.  If I were being super structured I would make all 3 strips have different values, I would rip out seems so I could better arrange the pieces, but in the end that is not the point of this quilt.

From there I used the triangle wedge star ruler to cut my strips into triangles following the directions in the download for Clue #1

Here is how it looks when I put the strips from one of the sets together.

   

And this is one of each.  hmmm... Who knows what it will become.  The directions also had us cutting a set of half square triangles.  For now I am keeping each of the finished clue pieces in Gallon ZipLoc bags.  I'm sure there is a better way, but it keeps them safe and together for now.

Clue 1 is done.  I'll share my clue 2 results tomorrow.  Now back to the SuperBowl and my Uncle Wayne's family favorite Crab Dip.