Intro to Mystery 2011! Orca Bay!

**Click HERE for printer friendly version!**

It’s here! It’s finally here! And I’m so excited that you are planning on following along with me!

A lot of thought and planning and sewing time has gone into this year’s mystery – and over the years the mysteries have grown in popularity! There are new quilters joining us every year, some who have never done a single mystery before, so I want to take some time to lay some ground rules here!

Those of you who have sewn along with me before KNOW what my number one rule is, right?

NO WHINING!

((This picture was taken in Cordova, Alaska in Val’s office! My guess is she has need of this sign too! LOL!))

If you want to play, play, if you don’t – don’t! I’ll tell you right up front that I do intense piecing…..lots of pieces, many of them small. This is a labor intensive quilt. One WORTH the piecing!

I can not guarantee how YOUR personal fabric choices will turn out. I am not able to personally approve your fabric choices and/or your colors. We do have a great Quiltville Friends group on facebook, and you can post your pictures and questions there, and I’ll help where I can. We also have an active email list on yahoogroups called Quiltvillechat. There are quilters world-wide there who are in the same boat as you are. There is help there.

This year’s mystery quilt is “Moderately” sized for me! It’s 74.5” X 84.5”

I will not give additional yardage requirements if you want to change the size. If you want it smaller, do half the units required. It’s a place to start. You might have to make MORE units once you decide on a layout, but you’ll be well on your way --

If you want it bigger? Start with the recommended amount before you forge ahead. You might decide that 74.5” X 84.5” is sufficient after all!

I am reminded of how some quilters last year, deciding the first two or three steps were “SO SIMPLE” decided to do TWO quilts….uhoh! Then things got really intense! Just because a step is easy THIS week, doesn’t mean it will be NEXT! :c) In other words, do two at your own risk! LOL!

If you are not sure how things are going, wait it out a week....see how things are progressing, and then make some choices to change what you are doing. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures around blogland of what other people are using and that might inspire you!

This quilt,---as were the others--- is NOT a race. Some may finish the assigned unit, and post it on their blogs within 4 hours of release. Some will take longer. Just do what you can. If you don't want to know what the mystery is going to look like however, do NOT go blog hopping. I can't guarantee that you won't have it revealed by someone else if you are browsing. If you see it, you see it. It's not the end of the world! Keep sewing.

On my trip to Cordova, Alaska, I was BLOWN AWAY at this view outside of Teri’s window…just there off her deck. This is her backyard, Orca Bay, part of Prince William Sound. As I worked on this quilt, I couldn’t get the colors of this photo out of my mind, and so I’ve named this quilt Orca Bay.

Choosing Fabrics:

I am suggesting 3 bold colors that stand out against each other, plus background.

In my case, I’m using:

Reds! from pinky-coral red to orange-y red to fire engine cherry red all the way through to the darker spectrum of purpley-burgundy reds. Look at the sunset colors above!

Blues! from light sky blue all the way through to royal blue. Love those brighter shades! If I had my druthers, I’d avoid a “lot” of dark navy…it might disappear against our next fabric:

Blacks! I raided my 1.5” , 2” and 2.5” bin for the blacks needed for this quilt. Where I ran short, I ran to my FQ drawers and pulled more variety.

Neutrals! You know by following previous mysteries that my idea of “neutral” is a wide one! In this case, neutral means anything with a white/cream/beige background…but it can have little printed doo-dads on it. It might have green leaves and blue flowers, it might be white with black music notes on it. Look at the background color of the fabric…if there is enough “neutral” showing through, you can use it here. Dig deep and use it up! I avoided any of the really "TAN" kinds of neutrals in this quilt..keeping them toward the lighter spectrum.

Wanna see my variety? These are my Fat Quarter drawers, and some of these fabrics have never seen the light of day since I bought them and stuffed them in here. It’s time to make them play!

Reds and Blues in every variety!

Neutrals and Blacks!

How much are you going to need of each? Well, this is what we figure to the best we can….

Reds: 3 yards

Blues: 1.5 yards

Neutrals: 3 yards

Blacks: 2 yards

These are GUESSTIMATES and I’m guessing them to be more than ample. If you want to know how hard it really is to guage yardage for scrap quilts, listen to what EQ told me we needed..it came to 17.5 yards---for just the quilt TOP--- which is a bit OVERKILL! LOL!

The Big Question!

The one thing that everyone has asked, is if this year’s quilt will include “STRINGS” like last year! Why, yes it will! And that’s all I’m going to tell you!

If you “HATED” the strings, never fear, I’ll give you dimensions when we get to the putting the units together to cut these areas out of whole fabric, but I’m hoping that you’ll consider playing along! We had so many last year who fell in love with the string part, and it really makes for a unique looking quilt!

To me? The string units "MAKE" the Quilt!

If you want to get your strings ready…….you might want to do some sorting. I’m using strings in two color families:

Here is my bin of red strings..and a bin of blue strings.

**Note** These strings are included in the yardage above, they are not additional!

For me, the definition of a string is any strip of fabric that is still wide enough to be used! That said, I like my strings to be at LEAST 3/4” wide. If I take a 1/4" seam on each edge, there better dang well be 1/4” showing in the center for my efforts! I prefer strings in varying increments from 3/4” all the way up to 2” and everywhere in between, but I don’t think anything wider than 2” qualifies as a “string”. It’s too bulky, chunky and makes it look like you were trying to get off easy! 2.5” strips can be cut in half to be 1 1/4” strings. I’m much happier with the smaller scale.

Strings don’t have to be even or straight….they can taper from wide to narrow…they can bubble out on the edge….let’s use this stuff up! I’ve had a ball with it and I know you will too.

Other things required for this mystery:

Specialty Rulers.

You will need the Easy Angle ruler and the Companion Angle ruler for half square triangles and quarter square triangles. Most of my mysteries USE these rulers with great results. Get them. You won’t be sorry! If you prefer any other method, the finished size of the unit will be given, and you can use whatever method will give you that finished size.

An old phone book!

I do my string piecing on paper, and then I remove the paper. These units need the foundation removed because of the thickness a foundation is going to add to the seams. It is not hard to remove paper. I kind of enjoy it! You are free to do these as you wish, but I don’t want interfacing, dryer sheets, extra muslin or any other kind of foundation in my quilt.

How this runs:

Every Friday, starting November 18th, 2011 I will release a new clue for the Orca Bay mystery. I’m thinking there will be 7 to 8 parts depending on how I divide it up.

My suggestion is to keep up with the clues each week, doing SOME of each, even if you can’t do them ALL. Stay with each step. You can always go back and do more later, but this way you are staying involved with the project and watching things come together.

Print your clues as they are released. This project is going to be featured in my next book to be released in July of 2012, so I need to pull all the directions on May 1st. They will not be available after that date until they are in print. Start a binder, put all of your steps in there, keep them together! I will be unable to send anyone spare missing parts after May 1st!

Most of all, have FUN with this project! Quilting should not be so stressful, it should be something that fills us, not something that frustrates us!

I’m happy to have you along for the ride! Are you ready? First clue goes live on Friday, November 18th, 2011!