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. 

Sew Sunday | Grandma's Quilt | OMG Goal Update

Happy Saturday!  It's a miserable, wet, windy, rainy weekend here in the Pacific Northwest.  Perfect weather for staying inside and sewing!!!  :)  I've made a lot of progress on my Grandmother's lap quilt.  After much deliberation I decided to machine sew on the orange peels rather than sew them by hand. I loved the idea of working on grandma's quilt each night by hand, but the process was going to take to long.  She is in poor health, and I would rather her have those extra months snuggling under my blanket than waiting for me to stitch by hand.

After I had most of my wedges sewn down, I decided to pull in a few more light fabrics to make the quilt look more balanced and lighter.  I didn't have any more of the Charlotte line by Kensington Studio for Quilting Treasures, so I pulled went to my stash.  I had purchased a kit off of Craftsy on black Friday that went with another blue & white quilt I planned to make for my mom's beach room.  (shhhhh, it's a secret)  The fabric line is Summer Breeze III by Sentimental Studios for Moda.

The good news is that my piecing went so fast that I completed my OMG goal early.  As I finished ironing the final seem it occurred to me that I could have folded my 5" blocks in half and pressed to find the center line.  I wasn't really sure how to line up the orange peels, but it doesn't really matter.  Grandma will love it and with her poor eyesight she will never notice that it isn't "perfect".

Speeding up the process means I met my One Monthly Goal early.  Now I need help with choosing the border(s).   I'll be using the yardage I have from Summer Breeze 3 to tie in those fabrics even more.  Would you choose the darker fabric on the left or the lighter fabric on the right for your first border? 

Sew Tuesday ~ OMG Challenge

Normally I post my sewing stuff on the weekends, but I just had to slip in another post to let you know of a new challenge that has spun off from the A Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.  It was created by Heidi of Red Letter Quilts misses ALYOF as much as the rest of us and decided to pick up the torch and start a new challenge to help all of us reach our sewing goals.  

The challenge is called One Monthly Goal or OMG for shot.  (I like her already, don't you?)   Link up with your goal the first 7 days of the month, then link your finish at the end of the month.

My overall quilting goal for 2016 is to get my design wall projects made into quilt tops.  (at the very least)  I currently have 3 quilts going on this wall.  At the very top is a quilt of the month applique that I joined 2 years ago.  This is the one I am hoping to finish first, so that I can actually hang it on the wall or use it next Christmas.   I have 6 blocks that are at or near completion, and 3 more blocks to do before I can trim them all up and sew them together.

Those cute little x squares (in progress) were started for my younger son's quilt.  He has been so patient waiting for me to get it done.  My plan was to complete it in the Fall, but I got news that my brother's fiance was going to have a baby, so I put his quilt on hold in order to make a baby quilt for my niece's arrival.

The squares in the middle/bottom are for our guild's QAL.  To stay on schedule we are supposed to have all our blocks done by our September meeting.  Everyone who has a completed quilt by our December meeting will also get a special prize.  That is why I am making my goal this month to get back on track with my QAL blocks.  I didn't reach my goal last month, so it is rolling over to this month.  I need to complete 9 blocks in order to be on schedule and I now have 6 done.  If I get done early I will start on the next 2 for February.

In addition to this I also want to:
-make a lap quilt for my grandma

-participate in the Art's Walk Challenge

-quilt 3 quilt tops

Now I need to figure out how to add a button to my sidebar again. :)  I hope to see all my quilting friends on this new challenge blog.