Valentine Mystery Quilt - Step 3

If you go to my website and click on the Valentine Mystery at the top of the page, you'll find Step 3 of my Valentine Mystery quilt. This is the last step in this little spontaneous sew along. The file will show you how the block is made and the rest of the quilt put together. You should be able to make it in time for the holiday.

 This was fun! I hope you had a good time sewing along with me. Thanks for joining in! 

Valentine Mystery - Step 2

Instead of writing everything here on my blog and trying to get all the pictures to fit, I decided that it's a little easier for me to upload the directions for the 2022 Valentine's Day Mini Mystery Quilt as a .pdf onto my website.  Also easier for you to print out. So, for the remaining steps, click here to go to my website and then go to the Valentine's Day Mystery page and download the file. 

You're going to take the 3 1/4" squares of light fabric and 3 1/4" squares of red fabric that you cut last week and make some hourglass units. The directions in Step 2 will give you a couple of options for making them.

I'll show you how to put the blocks together next Wednesday, January 26. Have fun! 

Valentine Mini Mystery Quilt

To combat all the gray days and winter doldrums here in northern Illinois, I decided to whip up a simple little Valentine's Day project just for fun - and as a Mystery sew along for my Facebook group. If you'd like to join in, here's Step 1 for the 2022 Valentine's Day Mini Mystery Quilt. Look through your pinks, reds and shirtings or light prints and pull out some scraps of fabric to make the blocks. You don't need much. 

This will be a pattern for a quick and easy little quilt for you to display around the house, on a table or doll bed or hanging on a wall. Won't take you much time at all. Over the years, I've found that there are two things that help us to successfully finish a project - taking it in small steps and sewing along with friends. Always more fun in a group.

Cutting instructions:

From a pink print, cut

            4 squares, 2 ½"  x  2 ½"

From a red print, cut

            4 squares, 3 ¼"  x  3 ¼"

             1 square, 1 ½" x 1 ½" 

From a light print (or 2 different light prints), cut

            4 squares, 2 ½"  x  2 ½"

            4 squares 3 ¼"  x  3 ¼"

            4 rectangles, 1 ½"  x 4 ½" 

Here are all the pieces you should have cut. Borders will be an option later.

That's it for this week. You can see that I used two different red prints and two different light prints for a little variety. You may cut yours from the same red print and the same light print if you choose. Use the same print for your four pink squares, however. Place these pieces inside a zip lock bag and put them where you won't lose them. Next week I'll show you how to make the blocks. You'll also need a coordinating fabric or two for border(s) to finish the quilt. We'll talk about border options in 2 weeks.

                         Hope you all have fun!

-Kathy

P.S. Friends, just so you know - I set the comments on my blog to be moderated so that every time you post a comment I have to approve it before it appears. This may take me awhile until I see it. I have been getting so many stupid spam comments from nasty people that I have no choice. So I apologize if it is an inconvenience for you. It's so annoying but I am not going to let the spammers win . . . .

Dear Jane Progress

Seems like I'm off to a great start this year.  Considering I started my Dear Jane journey in 2010, that's only 11 years to get the center completed LOL . . . . 

I'm hoping that, in between sewing hexagons for the sew along that started in January and the upcoming little Valentine's Day Mini Mystery Quilt, maybe I can get some more triangles finished (31 down, 21 to go plus the 4 corner blocks). Oh dear. It always sounds so daunting. I make some progress and I feel good about it, but then - there's still so much more to do. How DID our friend Jane Stickle even manage this? And in the 1860s no less, without the EQ Dear Jane software for help with directions and paper piecing! I know for a fact I could not have done it without that help. 

                                  

                                     

                                 

                                    

I keep my poster up in my sewing room for a constant reminder.

                           

If you are thinking about making a Dear Jane quilt but can't find the book . . . .  Did you know that Brenda Papadakis, who wrote the Dear Jane book, has come out with a second edition of Dear Jane? It's the 25th Anniversary edition. The original one with the yellow cover has been out of print for quite a few years and is really hard to find. My own copy is all dog eared and marked up after ten years and so I treated myself to a brand new one (with a blue cover LOL). Hopefully, this will renew interest in The Quilt and some of us will get inspired to finish the ones we've started when others begin theirs for the first time. 

                                

If you feel you need a little motivation to work on your Dear Jane or maybe begin one, here's a post I wrote several years ago about my journey.

                             

Oh yeah! Join me this month in my Facebook group for a Valentine's Day Mini Mystery Quilt.

This little sew along begins on Friday, January 14, 2022 in the group. It will be another small and simple design and won't take you too long. We'll do this in quick steps every week so it won't interfere too much with hexagons or anything else you're stitching right now. Bring out your pink and red reproduction fabric scraps along with some shirtings or light  prints. I'll give you the cutting directions on Friday. The following week we'll make the blocks and the week after we'll put the quilt together. Simple and fun and you'll be done in time for Valentine's Day. You'll need one pink print, one red print and one or two shirting prints. If you like scrappy, then choose two different reds and a couple of different lights for variety. But use the same pink fabric. Have a fun weekend! 

Happy New Year

We're kicking off our Hexagon Sew Along in my Facebook group today!

Those of you who know me know how much I love snow. I know, I know, it's so messy, cold and bothersome and everyone hates it. But I missed having snow at Christmas this year. No winter wonderland like we've had in years past . . . .. But more snow is supposed to be on the way!

Pics from other snow-filled years.

If it does snow, today will be a perfect day to begin a sew along. I'll be staying home, sewing hexies, all nice and cozy . . . . split pea soup simmering in the crock pot. My mother always made pea soup on New Year's Day - it was a tradition her mother taught HER - that it was supposed to bring good luck in the new year. I say we need all the luck we can get in 2022 so pea soup it is. While waiting for the soup to cook, I'll be serving up some of these yummy hexies I made.

If you're not on Facebook, read about the group sew along on the Hexagon page on my website and perhaps do it alone -  www.countrylanequilts.com 

I'm making scrappy hexagons from a variety of reproduction or Civil War-type prints and will probably sew them onto light background squares. I prefer the look of  the hexagons lined up on backgrounds. Plus, it's a lot easier than connecting all of them with spacers. 

I actually love the scrappy ones better than the other ones I'd already made. I'll save them for a rainy day . . . .

I've got my "sophisticated" set up here near the sofa - My supplies are all in one place in a project box from the Dollar Store, paper plates keep my pieces organized. Hexie shapes cut out and waiting to be basted over papers. Wonder clips to keep 7 hexagons together for sewing into a flower. I'm ready.

Where's the remote?? 

Happy New Year! Stay safe and healthy in 2022. Have fun sewing hexies! Looking forward to seeing your hexagons in the Facebook group.