2013-M01 "Oh My ..........!" Mystery

Has anyone chosen fabric for their mystery yet? Things are quieter here this week and I am eager, lol

to be honest Karen ... no i haven't ... but i will get into under the stairs and have a look .... Robert will be home in the next day or two .. too much rain for him to work so it could be as early as tomorrow ... and Roxi is back to work tomorrow ... so i may not even get the house to myself for a day or two like i had hoped ... never mind ... there is not that much to go thru anyway ... but i am sure i will find something ... somewhere ... not spottie's unfortunately ... he who has all the cash has said NO ... so ..... i will behave myself and do what i can with what i have ... and ... i really do have stuff i can use .... i am sure of it ...

and sometimes they are the best quilts Bobbie, the ones we make without more buying? I just wish I collected fabrics in batches,,,,

I am still in my own bad books here and am not buying anything new either. Shopping out of my stash so goodness knows what mine will look like too! Maybe wait for the cutting list Bobbie before you make any hard and fast fabric decisions? You might leave the borders and binding off altogether until you see the finished top? I did post about using a light background and having a darker contrast a page or two back Bobbie when you were talking about maybe making it scrappy........... did you see that post? Might help with colour choices when you find yourself under the stairs?

First off, thanks Bobbie for your newsletter,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,or I would have missed
this, Evelyn, please sign me up for your mystery. I've only ever done one, and I
did enjoy it very much. Lorna

Hi Evelyn I love a good mystery.............. so will look forward to this one

quilty hugs

helen:flower:

no problem Lorna ... i am just sorry i didn't get the news out a bit sooner ... hopefully everyone will still have time to play if they want to ....

Thanks Lorna and Helen, will add your names to the list right away.

Lorna please personal message or email your email address you wish me to use so I can start sending you the instructions beginning with the Purchases List PDF.

Helen, thanks and I have your email address and you should have received your first email from me?

Girls, please post here and let me know when you have received your first email with the Purchases List PDF attached.

On the list.........

Evelyn
Bobbie
Karen
Wendy
Jen
Lorna G
Helen P
Michele

Please let me know if I have missed anyone?

I now have fabric!!!!!!

But because I can't "see" what I really need I have no idea if it will work. I can only really work by "seeing" what I want to achieve......... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Do I take it the border goes around what ever (blocks?) then the binding goes around the border????????

yes wendy ...... borders generally go around the blocks when all put together ....

and ... .......... binding goes on last ..... after all the quilting and trimming is done ............ [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... like this ... oh .. and look right thru the 6 pages if you can .... there are a couple of colour photos which are a bit better than the drawings ...


and if this sounds a bit strange ... it shouldn't .... cos some folk don't do binding ... they do the sew inside out and flip method then quilt it ... ....

i don't particularly like that way of doing stuff cos i stuff it up .... but some quilters do prefer it ...

Woo Hoo!! The cupboard has been relocated!!!

Yes, funny about not being able to 'see' what we are doing when it comes to sewing mysteries Wendy. Sorry about that but it is part of the fun.

I can't give you a diagram either, cause that would be cheating slightly, but if it will help, I will talk you through an arrangement that might help you audition your fabrics.

Be aware, the following suggestions are for help with choosing colours/fabrics only and are NOT what the block/patch sizes will be so please do NOT cut any fabrics until you see the cutting list next week!

Fold the background fabric into an 8" square. (Note the background could be either dark or light. What matters most is that the other two fabrics added should be a high contrast to the background so they appear to hover over the background.)

Now fold the high contrast fabric into a 6" square and lay that over the background square so the background shows all around. It doesn't matter if you lay it as a diamond in a square or a square in a square. You are just working out a colour scheme and not the block and what ever I tell you here will not give you any hints as to what the finished block will be.

Lastly, fold a 2" sq of the accent fabric and drop that over the other 2 fabrics in any position you like so long as it touches both other fabrics.

Your fabrics should be about: 50% background, 40% high contrast and 10% accent.

Now imagine 4 of these blocks across and 4 down so the top will measure about 36" sq.

Is this helping?

Finally, imagine what fabric you would like to use for the border around the 36" sq top (knowing it will butt up to the background fabric on all 4 sides) which could be the contrast fabric, the accent fabric or another fabric altogether. Now choose the binding fabric.

Alternately, you could draw 4 squares across and 4 down and use pencils to work out your colour scheme based on the above?

Yes, the border goes around the blocks and binding goes on the finished quilt.

Don't stress too much with colour choices and feel free to change the colour arrangements after you see the cutting list which will go out to everyone in a weeks time on 1 Feb 2013. You may even choose not to put the binding on at all, and finish the quilt edge in an alternate method that suits you better.

I expect everyone's quilts to be different and am looking forward to seeing pictures of them all in the gallery when they are done.

ha ha ha ha didn't read all that - sorrrrrrrrrrry - what I have will have to do..

I AM NOT BUYING MORE FABRIC!!!!!!

Come to think about it I have declared once my spotty closes at the end of next week I am NOT buying anything - NOTHING - zilch - till I have finished the quilt I am working on and done two that are lying around here and the 2 new art quilts that are arqueing in my head.

Then I will think about it ............

Sorry Wendy, I thought you needed help with choosing fabrics from your stash. I wasn't suggesting you go shopping elsewhere. Hoping others might find my previous post helpful.

Noooooo Evelyn - I didn't take it any other way than you being helpful really.

My problem is I can't get much help from reading - I need to see things. Got into 'trouble' in another life becauseI couldn't mark uni assignments on line - well not very well anyway. I had to go back and forth through the hard copy if you wanted the best mark.

Ha ha ha the rant was to myself........... I have too big a stash - of everything.

I am about to launch into a 'thing' using a lot of yarn, all types of yarn and when I started pulling out what I had ... well I could run a Spotty out of here. I really have to stop.

Evelyn, my e-mail address is, (thanks and edited out now as this forum is open to the world. ) also, this is going to sound very silly, but what is PDF, now ladies be kind. Tons of hugs Lorna

Files get coded in order to be send across the air waves and PDF is the most common way.

Hope this helps Lorna.

Hi Evelyn just confirming I received the pdf and have placed an order for fabric from iddy biddy designs at proserpine so shouldnt take too long to arrive . once the flood water has gone down especially here we have received 434mm of rain and are flooded in at the moment. oh well thats the wet season for you..........

quilty hugs '

helen psuns out now

Lorna G. wrote:

Evelyn, my e-mail address is, (thanks and edited out now as this forum is open to the world. ) also, this is going to sound very silly, but what is PDF, now ladies be kind. Tons of hugs Lorna

Thanks Lorna and I will be sending your first email today with the PDF file attached and information to help you regarding it's use.
Please let me know when you have received it back in here? I know you are on the FQ Birthday list. That list is in PDF format. If you can open, read and print that birthday list, you will be able to do the same with my instructions PDF as well. Hope this helps?

Sorry Wendy, no pictures (yet) to help, but you could try printing my previous 'big post' to you and following the instructions from a hard copy? Not long now till I will be sending out the cutting list, but it won't have too many pictures in it either sorry! ha ha

Thanks Helen, glad it got there safely and that is such a nice place to go shopping too!!

A big welcome too to Michele who has contacted me and asked to join as well.
Your first email will go out now and please let me know here in the thread that you have received it?

On the list.........

Evelyn
Bobbie
Karen
Wendy
Jen
Lorna G
Helen P
Michele

Please let me know if I have missed anyone?

Ooohhh, I have a free week coming up!! Thought I was getting a 3 day free weekend but all this rain means no trip away for the OH apparently.

PDF stands for portable document format .... you create a file ... say in Word and instead of printing it to your printer you electronically print to the PDF Creator .... these programmes you can get free online ... and install them to your computer ....

they just make files etc easier to send into cyber space cos not everyone has Word or Excel or even Publisher ....

i like to scan magazine .. quilting ones of course and then print all those pics to a PDF ... much easier to transport (in a bus) and you can still print off a pattern if you want to have it in paper form ....

i still have not picked my fabrics ....

thanks Bobbie, I sent a note to my son, and he told me it was the same as my adobe reader. Now I do understand. I use it all the time, I just never say that I I'm, putting things into it. Thanks for you help also. Lorna

Our children come in handy occasionally with technical questions sometimes lorna don't they? But sometimes they talk 'too fast' for me to keep up with the conversation, or is it my ears get tired listening and shut off and I miss most of the conversation? Either way, maybe it has a tad to do with my age as well? But only a tad mind you!!! haha

awwwwwwwwwwwwww didn't my answer count????????????

oh yes Wendy your answer was good, but, he was fast, or should I say first, thanks Lorna