Veterans Mystery Quilt - Clue 5 - The last clue!

It’s now time to put it all together! I’m going to show you how to lay out the blocks and you can assemble the top any way you wish. You can do it in rows or columns or you can start with the center and add the blocks as borders in the way I’m going to show it arranged.

 

The Veteran’s Quilt (48 x 60) is constructed from just the blocks that you have made.  At the end I will give you some border measurements to make the quilt larger for a Quilt of Valor.

 

 

The only tricky part is the center. Here’s the layout using the blocks from clue 1. The 2 blocks with all 4 corners in fabric 1 go where the green arrows are. Lay out the other blocks paying attention to the points where the fabric 3 pieces touch. See the yellow lines in my diagram? That shows that the fabric 2 pieces all line up on the same diagonal. Make sense? Now you have the center set right.

 

 

Now add the blocks from clue 3. There’s no tricky placement here.

 

Finally, add the blocks from clue 5. These do have an arrangement but I think you can easily see it from the diagram. Sew it all together and your quilt is done……unless you are adding borders in the next clue.

  

Here’s my veteran’s quilt version.

 

 

Here's my Mom's version. (Of course she got the clue early!)

Quilting and binding considerations: Since I have pressed all of my seams open I will quilt this quilt with an allover pattern on my longarm. Stitch in the ditch would not work well with pressed open seams. If you are quilting this on a DSM you might quilt an all-over filler type motif or a simple meander. Quilting diagonal straight lines would also work great.

 I will bind this quilt in fabric 3 (dark blue).

 

My second quilt is going to be a Quilt of Valor so it needs to be bigger. Here’s what I designed.

 

The first border is 1.5” finished (uses 5/8 yard, strips are cut 2” wide)

The second border is 4” finished (uses 1 3/8 yards, strips are cut 4 ½” wide)

The outside border is 3” finished which makes the quilt 65” x 81” (uses 1 yard fabric, strips are cut 3 ½” wide)

 

 

I was making this quilt from stash so I had to work with the yardage that I had. I was completely out of the 2 light fabrics so I had to make do with 2 borders. The narrow black border finishes at 1” and the print border finishes at 5”.

Like all good quilters you, like me, will work with what you have to make the quilt work for you.

I hope you have enjoyed this mystery project as much as I have. If your quilt is going to be donated to Country School Quilters for our veteran’s project you can send your quilt, binding and backing to me and we will quilt and bind it for the project. We will also provide the backing. Also everyone donating a mystery quilt top will be entered in a drawing for some hand dyed fabric. If you send a finished quilt you will have 2 entries in the drawing!

 

Please share your quilt in our Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2170899@N25/

Veteran's Mystery Quilt - Clue 4

This month we are making the last block.

Here’s the block that we are making and we are making 24 of them.

  

First make the 3 sub-units. I pressed all of my seams open.

You will make 48 of these half square triangle units. This unit finishes to 4”. If you are cutting individual pieces you will cut a 4 7/8” square and cut that once on the diagonal. You will need 48 in fabric 1 and 48 in fabric 2. Sew them to make 48 4 ½” squares.

Next make 24 of this unit. Cut 48 2 ½” squares each in fabric 2 and fabric 3 and sew them together into a 4 ½” 4-patch block.

Finally make 24 of this unit. Cut 48 2 ½” squares of fabric 4, 24 2 ½” squares of fabric 1 and fabric for the half square triangle block. The HST block finished to 2” just like the ones in clue 2.  Either use foundation paper or cut 12  2 7/8” squares in each color and cut once on the diagonal. Sew two triangles together to make the 2 ½” square. Sew your individual squares together to make this block.

Sew the sub units together to make 24 blocks like this.

Here are the blocks for my 2 quilts.

Please share your blocks in our Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2170899@N25/

Veteran's Mystery Quilt - Clue 3

Are you still with me? I know that Clue 2 was a bear but it will be worth it, I promise!

Now it’s time to use all of those HST blocks that you made in clue 2. But first we need to do a little cutting.

Cut 64 2.5” squares from Fabric 4

Here’s the block that we are making.

  

You can assemble it however you wish. You can assemble the 4 quadrants and then put them together in the block as a 4-patch. I assemble my block in rows and then sew the rows together onto a block.

Make 16 blocks. I pressed all of my seams open.

Here are the blocks for my 2 quilts.

Please share your blocks in our Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2170899@N25/

Veteran's Mystery Quilt - Clue 2

If you survive clue 2 then I know that you will make it through the whole quilt! This clue isn't difficult, there's just a lot of it. Don't sweat it. You have a month so take your time and do it in bits.

Clue 2 is really simple. You are going to make a lot of half square triangle blocks. Each block will finish at 2”.

You are going to make 64 blocks in each of these color combinations:

Fabric  1 with Fabric 4

 Fabric 2 with Fabric 4

Fabric 2 with Fabric 3

You can make these blocks any way you prefer. I like to foundation piece mine using Triangulations. Triangles on a Roll is another great tool for making these blocks. If you use either of these you will need foundations for 2” finished squares.

If you are cutting individual pieces, cut 2 7/8” squares and cut once on the diagonal. You will need 32 squares in fabric 1, 64 squares in fabric 2, 32 squares in fabric 3 and 64 squares in fabric 4; all cut once on the diagonal.

Here’s  a good online video tutorial for 3 methods for making half square triangle blocks. In this video they are making the 2” block that we are also using in this project.

I pressed all of my seams open.

Here are the blocks for my 2 quilts.

Please share your blocks in our Flickr group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2170899@N25/

Veteran's Mystery Quilt - Clue 1

I'm so excited to get the mystery quilt project started. Having never done one before I'm also a little afraid you will hate it. But let's get started and see how it goes!

This mystery quilt will have 6 clues, 1 each month through October. The October clue will be instructions for border to make the quilt large enough to be  Quilt of Valor. A veteran’s quilt only needs Clues 1 – 5.

Let’s get started!

Fabric Requirements:

The quilt uses 4 colors and the clues will use a patriotic palette.

For the veteran’s quilt (and center of a QOV):

Fabric  1 (red):  1 ¼ yards

Fabric 2 (Dark blue): 1 ¾ yard PLUS ½ yard for binding

Fabric 3 (Light blue): ½ yard

Fabric 4 (white): 1 ¾ yard

For the QOV version you will need these additional fabrics:

Border1: (recommend fabric 2): 5/8 yard

Border 2: (a coordinating print or fabric 1 or fabric 2): 1 ½ yard

Border 3: (fabric 2 or 3) and binding: 1 ¾ yards

For my Veteran’s version I am using these fabrics:

Fabric 1: dark red

Fabric 2: dark blue

Fabric 3: medium blue

Fabric 4: tan

For my QOV version I am using these fabrics:

Fabric 1: light gold

Fabric 2: print

Fabric 3: black

Fabric 4: beige

Instructions:

All of the blocks for the quilt finish to 8”

For the first clue we are making 8 blocks.

Cutting:

Fabric 4: cut 32 4 ½” squares

Fabric 1: cut 42 2 ½” squares

Fabric 2: cut 22 2 ½” squares

Make the Units:

Each block is made of 4 units. Each unit uses 1 -  4 ½” square and 2 – 2 1/2” squares

You will make 10 units like this:

16 units like this:

6 units like this:

  

To make this block position a square over opposite corners and draw the stitching line diagonally across the little square.

Stitch on the line and cut away the corner. I got the most accurate result when I stitched just to the outside of the drawn line (toward the corner).

I pressed all of my seams for this quilt open.

 Here are the units for both of my quilts.

Make the blocks:

Using these units make 2 blocks like this paying close attention to the orientation of the colors.

Make 6 blocks like this:

  

I pressed all of my seams open for all blocks in the quilt.

The blocks for my two quilts look like this:

  

You are done with clue 1. Here’s a hint for Clue 2: prepare to make a lot of half square triangle blocks! If you like to construct HST blocks using foundation papers you will need foundations for 2” finished size blocks.

If you have any questions please post them here on the blog and I will answer here for everyone to read.

I’ve set up a Flickr Group on the CSQ page so please share a photo of your finished blocks here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2170899@N25/

Veteran's Mystery Quilt is coming!

This is just a reminder that the veteran's mystery quilt project will start on May 20th. You can get all of the information on fabric requirements here. I've had a couple of questions about fabric choices so I thought I'd share them here:

• The one type of fabric that probably will not work well are large scale prints
• There needs to be some value contrast between fabrics 1 and 3 (like a medium and dark). It doesn't need to be a strong contrast, just some contrast.
• Fabric 3 is seen primarily next to fabric 2. It can be lighter or darker and only needs to be a shade different but it can be almost anything. 
• If you are going scrappy I think you will be happiest with small scale prints or tonals.

I hope that helps! If you want to bring your fabric choices to the meeting Tuesday we can look at them and make sure they will work well for your quilt.

Check the blog on May 20 for the first clue!

Veteran's Mystery Quilt

Two things have occupied my thoughts lately. The first thing is this blog and how to get members interested in using it. I think it can be a great tool for is to keep in touch between meetings and to get to know each other better. The second thing on my mind is what to do for my next veteran's and QOV quilts. I work on one veteran's quilt and one QOV at the same time and I finished the last pair at Saturday Sewing. I've been working on several design ideas in Electric Quilt and it hit me that I could combine both goals in one activity.

I've developed my next veteran's quilt design and decided to offer it here on the blog as a mystery quilt. I hope some of you will join me and make it.

Basic information about the quilt:
It's designed as a veteran's quilt so it's 48" x 60" finished. I'll offer instructions to add borders for a Quilt of Valor that will be 65 x 81. You can make this quilt for any purpose you want. It doesn't have to be a veteran's quilt or QOV. It can be a quilt for yourself or gift or another charity. It's simply a fun project and I hope you'll join in.

The quilt is all squares and half square triangles. No curved seams and no applique. The smallest cut piece is 2.5". Blocks finish at 8" square.

I'll post clues monthly on the blog around the 20th of the month and the quilt top will be completed with the September clue.

Fabric requirements:

The quilt uses 4 colors. As an example, I'll give the fabric requirements for a red, white and blue quilt.

Fabric 1 (red): 1 1/4 yards
Fabric 2 (dark blue): 1 3/4 yards PLUS 1/2 yard for binding
Fabric 3 (light blue): 1/2 yard
Fabric 4 (white): 1 3/4 yards

If you are making the QOV version you will also need the following fabrics for borders:
Border 1 (recommend Fabric 2): 5/8 yard
Border 2 (a coordinating print or Fabric 1 or 3): 1.5 yards
Border 3 (Fabric 2 or 3) and binding: 1 3/4 yards

Red, white and blue isn't required, of course, so I wanted to show a few other color palettes that would work great for this quilt. I chose all "manly" palettes because I'm making it as a veteran's quilt but you can use any palette you wish. Here are a few ideas.

This is the palette that I am using and I'm doing it scrappy.

Here are my fabrics. The veteran's quilt is on the left and the QOV on the right. The fern print is in the back will be one of the borders for the QOV version. Printed fabrics are a great resource for color palettes and this is the fabric that I used to pick the palette for these quilts. I am trying to use up my huge stash of commercial fabrics so I limited myself to my stash. I'm using charm squares, fat quarters and half yards.....anything that fit the palette of the quilt.

Blue and brown is a good combo for a man's quilt too.

This one reminds me of a fishing cabin in the woods.

A good choice for a vegetable gardener.

Black, white and red for Betsy.

A beachy look.

For the UVA fans.

For the Hokies.

What do you think? Will you join in? Leave a comment and let me know what colors you will use for your quilt.