Scrap in a Box - the Penultimate Clue

There are some words that I really love.  "Penultimate" is one of them.  I'm not one for big words (in fact, I specialize in plain language writing), but for some reason, penultimate tickles my fancy, and I use it whenever I have the chance.

So, we're almost done the Scrap in a Box Mystery Quilt, designed by Charlotte at Scraptitude Quilts.  In fact, the final clue (or should that be the ultimate clue?) should be up any day!

Here are some of the blocks and corner pieces - laid out as I think the final result will be.  But there still are some extra half square triangles left, so I could be wrong.

I'm quite pleased with the look of this, so far!  I even have a name for it - I'm going to call it Tutti Frutti.

Another Scrappy Mystery

Back last winter, I had a few posts about the Scrapitude Mystery quilt.  I was really pleased with the result (which doesn't always happen for me with mystery quilts).

Here is my Scrapitude top



Have I actually finished the quilt, you ask?  Well, um, no.

But let's not think about that!  Charlotte, the designer of the Scrapitude quilt is running another mystery - Scrap in a Box.  When she did Scrapitude, she didn't have her own blog, so the clues all ran on Sandy's Quilting for the Rest of Us blog.  But this year, Charlotte has her own blog, Scrapitude Quilts, and she is running a new mystery, called Scrap in a Box.  It starts here.

What I liked about Scrapitude, and what will continue with this new mystery, is the slower pace.  I've thought about joining other online mystery quilts, but before I've even made up my mind, they're already on Step 3!!  I'm a slow quilter!  (All of my blog followers are nodding vigorously at this point.)

Charlotte posted her cutting directions in October, and gave us till now to pick fabric and cut. Then, her clues will run once a month.  I can keep up with that.

When I did Scrapitude, I went totally scrappy.  I had never done a scrap quilt before, and was a little nervous, especially in a mystery, with trying to control the colours. And I really liked how it turned out.

But this time, I'm going to restrict the colours a little.  I have this fabric, which I like:

I'm going to use those colours - red, pink, orange and yellow.  The background will be white.  Here are the fabrics I chose.

I've got all my cutting done.  The instructions for the first step went up this week, so I'll be working on it this weekend.

But, on Sunday night, I do have some other plans:

Scrapitude top is done!

I've been working on the Scrapitude Mystery Quilt on Sandy's Quilting for the Rest of Us blog and podcast.



The quilt was designed by Sandy's guild friend Charlotte.  She promised we could make it totally scrappy, and I took her at her word.  It seems to have worked!

We did a 2 1/2 inch square exchange at the Calgary Modern Quilt guild last year, and I got about 300 squares from that.  I also had about a million charm squares from a series of swaps I participated in with an online group several years ago.  Add some whites that I had in my yardage, and some more 2 1/2 inch squares from my own scraps, and I was off to the races!

All of those triangles on the outside edge are all half square triangles, so all bias.  I'll be adding a 2 1/2 inch white border, just to tame those bias edges. Then comes the hard part - trying to decide how to quilt it!

Scrapitude Progress Report

So, I've been working away on the Scrapitude Mystery, hosted by Sandy at Quilting for the Rest of us.  And, I've been feeling quite smug, because I have actually been keeping up with the clues!

Sandy posted the first part of Step 4 the other day, and I started right in.  We had to put various parts together to make 25 of these blocks.  I've got 9 done, but they are coming together fairly fast.  I'm right on schedule!

Then, she posted the second part of Step 4, which talks about using triangle units we made in Step 2.  Wait a minute?  This isn't sounding familiar!!  So, I pulled out the instructions that I had printed out, and - lo and behold - I missed a large part of Step 2!  Who is wiping egg off their face now?

But, not to worry - I plan on getting caught up in time for the final clue in a couple weeks.

I'm linking up with Sandy's Scrapitude Linky Party and you can see other participants' photos on the Flickr group.

All Caught Up With Scrapitude

I can't believe I actually managed to catch up - our house has been in such shambles with all this renovating going on.  But, I took last week off from work, and:

• Conducted an archeology dig in the freezer, excavating many pounds of ice and discovering some interesting artifacts (which were quickly thrown away before they could thaw out;
• Chose some new lights (which was quite traumatic - turns out brass is no longer in style!);
• Painted two rooms - only about 10 more to go; and
• Managed to do some sewing!!

Step 3 in the Scrapitude Mystery Quilt involved sewing half square triangles to sets of quarter square triangles - 128 of them.  We were to cut the half square triangles from 4 7/8 inch squares.  I had about a million charm squares from a series of swaps a few years ago, so I used those.  That meant I had to trim them down to size when I was done - but who am I kidding - I would have had to trim them in any case!

Here are about half of the finished pieces.  I understand that this is the last "mystery" step and that we should be getting instructions to put it together next week.  I'm quite excited to see how this turns out!

Quilting History, Day Five

Mystery Quilts!

I've done three mystery quilts.  I have to admit - they are not my favourite.

The thing with a mystery quilt is that you have to pick fabric with no idea, really, how it is going to go together.  If I can see the pattern, I have a better idea if my fabric is going to work or not.

Here is my first mystery quilt.

I learned a valuable lesson with this quilt.  I bought the three fabrics from one line.  Each, by itself, was quite lovely.  Together - boring!  All mediums.  No sparkle.  Oh, well.  It's a good couch quilt!

Undaunted by my first mystery quilt - I signed up for another.  Here it is.

This one came out better in terms of contrast.  The photo is a little more purple than the actual quilt.  The solids are more of a rust.  Tell you the truth - I don't like rust all that much.  I did like the border fabric, and chose the other fabrics to match.   But again, I didn't really like the combination.

I used a little thicker batting in this quilt, (Quilters Dream "Select") and my husband loves it.  I have to admit - it is really cozy.  Both of these quilts are not quite twin size.

So, it was awhile till I tried another Mystery Quilt.  This spring, though, Vicki at Peacebrook Quilting http://www.peacebrookquilting.com/ announced she was doing a mystery, and I thought, "Why Not?"  Then her instructions came thick and fast.   Even though I'm not normally that quick, I did manage to keep up.  Here is the result.

I quite like this one.  I free motioned it with a baby bonnet design, as it's crib size.  I donated it to the Slave Lake fire victims.

So who knows.  I may try a mystery again.  But first, I have to get all of my UFO's completed!