Mystery Quilt I

"Rectangle Island"

Let me begin by apologizing. Sometimes my evil twin (not Tom Selleck, the other one) gets unruly and obsteperous and insists on participating. He was interfering so much I couldn't get the work on the instructions done, so I agreed to let him place the clues. Sorry about that.

Since you're reading this, I assume you found the first clue... The instructions will be presented here. Clues to how to find the next set of instructions will be presented aat the end of each set. ET wanted to leave some out, but I insisted he at leasdt play fair. I strongly advice that if you are doing this quilt, you study each clue carefully. As has been mentioned, copying the clues and messages and pasting them into a "Clue List" document for yourself, so you can go back and review them, is probably a good idea.

Step One - Materials

First, because I'd be uncomfortable if I didn't include it, set up your sewing area. Make sure you have what you need to sew and to iron. Clean your sewing machine and adjust it. Have thread on hand... white cotton. Put a new needle in the machine. Use a smallish needle. The big ones will cause puckering. Have good scissors and a good roller cutter. If you've had your roller cutter awhile and used it a lot, treat it to a new blade. I used three OmniGrip cutting rulers, a 6x24, a 3x18 and a 6 1/2 x 6 1/2. These worked well on the different sizes of fabric stacks I used at different times.

This is a super easy quilt and will make a marvelous first quilt/first mystery for even a pure beginner. If that describes you, you should brush up on the basics of quilting, i.e. seam allowances, strip cutting. strip piecing and ironing. All of that is on the web site (Quilt Shop - Basic Blocks) and shouldn't present much problem.

This quilt is scrappy in approach, though it could be done in patterned tonal qualities if you knew what you were going to end up with. You won't, though, so tough nuggies... Do it my way :^) You can use bright scraps or soft scraps. Personally, I'm a sucker for 1930's repro and feed sack stuff, and that is what I'll be using. You could go to tonal scraps, such as all Delft blues, but if you do, I'd stick to pales to mediums. The odd piece of dark will leap out at you.

Those of you with large stashes are obviously experienced and won't have a problem picking a range of brights or a selection of 30's or whatever appeals to you. Those who are not are best advised to get fat quarters in either brights or 30's repro.

As always, my biggest problem is quantities. Being a guy, I just always just buy way too much and work from that. That's one of the benefits of going scrappy and working from a given family of fat quarters... you can always grab a few more if you run short and they'll blend in.

Remember, the best scrap advice is that a good scrap quilt involves approx. 20 fabrics. This is a simple quilt, really, and you should be able to get your pieces out of 12 fat quarters, unless you screw up! I did, and I ended up using 16 fat quarters, though I didn't use them all up. I came close, though. My mistake was made in my first cutting, and I will show you how to avoid it. So, if you're clever with layout, you might get away with 12. However, note that all fat quarters are not created equal... depends on the original fabric width, width of selvages and who cut them up. If you're a beginner, please, do start with 16 fat quarters. That will leave you with enough fabric to cover for mistakes, and if you don't use them now, you will at some time in the future.

You will also need 3 to 4 yards of background. I used a good quality white cotton. You could use bleached muslin, but if you do, get quality stuff... the highest thread count. Many muslins are very thin and of lesser quality than the pattern fabrics.

The finished quilt top, less any border, will be 56" by 63". I'll discuss borders at the end.

For those who want larger quilts, the finished block size, less seams, is 7". Do your own math to determine how many more blocks you will need. I was going to suggest that you could also simply make larger blocks, but that could be a bit awkward, since this is a mystery quilt and you won't know the exact sizes of all of the pieces at once. I suppose you could make the first pieces larger, then do your own math to correspondingly enlarge the other pieces as they are presented, but that makes my head hurt, so I'll leave that possibility to you.

Here are two pix of the family of 1930's repro fat quarters that I'm using:

One last thing, because I'd worry if I didn't state it... wash/shrink your fabric!

Good luck!

Captain Dick

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Message from ET:

Arrgghhh! Think ye're ready fer Clue 2, do ye? Well here it be, and make of it what ye will!

Mwaaahahahahah!!!!

Second Clue:

“I hope you’ve been saving my posts! You’ve had the clue for Step 2 all along, if you can just figure it out.”

ET

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Next message from ET:

Aw.... Havin' troubles, are ye? Well, here, I'll throw ye a bone...

Zippety deesies,
Zippety doozies,
Poor little Onions,
Can’t find the cluesies?
They’re in Olde Treadleonia,
Now that you know.
You just need to figure out,
Where you should go!
I gave you good hints,
The clue’s aren’t hard to find.
Just think them through.
You must use your mind.
The clues are well written,
But they cannot be heard.
So I couldn’t emphasize,
Just the right word.
Though the words are not spoken,
Each one you can see.
You just need to find,
The one word that is key
Once you find the right page,
Slide your cursor along.
It’ll help you out,
You just can’t go wrong
The answer will be there,
As quick as a wink.
Just hit the right word,
And up pops the link!

Hope that helps......

Mwahahahahahaha!!!!

ET
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