For the past several years I have participated in Quiltville's annual Mystery Quilt. After a couple of years making quilts with some very intense piecing, it was announced that this quilt would be easier. Nothing smaller than 2". I can tell you that it takes a LOT of 2" squares to cover a queen size mattress, especially since a 2" square becomes 1 1/2" once it's sewn into a quilt! The name of this year's quilt is Easy Street!
Earlier this summer I took a workshop from Bonnie Hunter. Bonnie is the designer of the mystery quilt and many other quilts that I've made. During the workshop, she suggested that, if we are planning on participating in the 2012 Mystery, that we start stashing turquoise, lime green, purple, white with black print and gray fabrics. A few weeks ago, the color palette was published. And I bought my gray and white with black print. This morning, the first clue was released. It was nice saying in and working on this mystery quilt. I'm quite excited to see what she does with these colors!
Easy Street  |
| Easy Street Mystery Quilt Fabrics |
 |
| Step one is four-patch units! Background and gray. My background is the black and white fabric. I'm using only one fabric for the background rather than many prints. |
The first clue was to make 4-patch units with gray and white with black print fabric. I cut 19 strips of each fabric, sewed them together, pressed open, stacked in pairs, alternating the colors. This gets them ready for cutting.
 |
| Working on the 4-patches. |
Once the pairs were stacked, I cut them into 2" segments. Carry to the sewing machine, making sure the dark fabric (gray) is on top. It has to be this way for the seams to spin. Sew together, open, press.
 |
| Press. Spin the seam allowances so all of the seams lay clockwise. |
 |
| 192 four-patch units done! All of the centers are spun (see bottom left). Now I'll have to wait until Friday for step 2. |
