Old Town Mystery Part Two!

It's Black Friday!
I hope everyone in the USA (And those outside who celebrate Thanksgiving) had a wonderful day with family, friends, furry favorites.
And even if you were alone by circumstance or choice, I am so glad that you are back here with me again today to move on into Part Two of our Old Town mystery.
We spent the day with our son Jeff and his extended family - and today as this posts I am on the way to New York to begin my Craftours holiday adventure to England.
I'll be keeping tabs on things while I am in England and Part Three will post while I am traveling.
If there are any hiccups, I hope you will just take a back seat and relax and know that I'll take care of things when I get back home.
Click to view All My Tours and join me in my 2025 line up to discovering the crafts, culture and cuisine of Iceland in June, a celebration of quilting & textiles in France, Germany & Switzerland in September, and the treasures of a Bavarian/Austrian Christmas in December.
In January of 2026 we'll be somewhere warm with an exclusive arts & crafts experience in Morocco followed by the culture, crafts and traditions of Romania in June. September 2026 has us exploring all the quilting inspirations of India. I am so excited about this whole line up over the next couple of years and I hope you'll join me.
Space is limited, and there is an early booking discount if you reserve your spot before Jan 1, 2025. Don't miss out!
And before we get to Part Two, I want to be sure everyone knows about this:

While Bonnie's Away Pattern Sale!
From right now until the morning of December 10th when I wake up after my return home, ALL PDF Patterns in the Quiltville Store are 30% off - no coupon code needed!
The price mrked IS with the 30% off.  What you see is what you pay.  The regular price is usually $12.00. They are showing at $8.40 right now.
So this isn't just a Black Friday sale, a Small Business Saturday sale, a Cyber Monday sale - It's a Bonnie Goes to England sale.  
This is the deepest pattern discount I do all year, so if there is anything you've been wanting to pick up, now is the time to do it.  You won't see patterns at 30% off again until next year.
Click HERE for Part Two PDF.

Our arrival in Poland!

Not part of our group - LOL!

While exploring the Old Town area of Krakow, we walked right past a wedding party and I couldn't resist snapping this happy photo.

Culture and Tradition is evident in this photo -even down to the embroidered town and gorgeous cake wrapped up with a bow.

September in the marketplace.

Of course there was a plethora of Polish pottery!

I mentioned these donuts in Part One! Oh my!

More culture in the evening.

Click to Play:

And this was only the first day!

Gathering for our welcome dinner.

There is more to share, but I know you want to get back to sewing -

Let's Make 244 Four-Patches!

Units will measure 2 1/2'' unfinished and finish at 2'' in the quilt.

I know it is a big number, but these are small units with short seams and they go fairly quickly.

I am throwing this in now because it's also a good Leader & Ender unit to use in between the lines of chain sewing your other units for nearly the entirety of this mystery.

It's not a race, they don't need to be complete in a week.  So set yourself a goal of just sewing them for an hour a day and see how far you can get. Or less.  It doesn't matter.  Just sew. 

I'm working from scraps so the number of strips to cut doesn't matter.  What matters is the number of subcuts I can get from the strip sets I've sewn.  

My neutrals and my reds are super scrappy, so if I found I didn't make enough strip sets after cutting them into units, I just made some more and keep count of what I have.  

Short strip sets will give you more variety.

That said, you can get 26 subcuts from a 40'' width of fabric length. You can get 14 subcuts down the 22'' side of a fat-quarter.

I’ve talked about this many times before, but I know we have many newbies who are joining us for the first time.  Please read my article on Making the Cut which includes photos and more instruction to help you.

Cut a bunch of red and neutral fabrics into 1 1/2'' strips.  You may even hit your Scrap User's System to see if you have any of these colors in this size on hand.

Stitch a couple of neutral/red strip sets, press toward the red and MEASURE.  Strip sets should be 2 1/2'' tall at this point.

If they are too narrow, scant your seam a bit and try again.  Too wide? Fatten it up and try again. Do what you can at the sewing stage to bring you to unit size.  

Some sliver trimming and squaring is normal, but if you have to trim absolutely everything because they are all too big, that is a sign of a seam allowance out of control.

Make several strip sets, enough to get 488 sub-cuts – but don’t sub-cut yet.  Wait for it, wait for it…..

Sub-cutting into already matched pairs!

Adventures in Speed Slicing!

Match a red/neutral strip set with another red/neutral strip set with right sides together: red on neutral and neutral on red with center seams opposing.  You’ll feel the seams nest.  Nested seams actually help hold the strip sets steady!

Make 244 sub-cuts at 1 1/2’’ wide. Since the pairs are right sides together, they will be ready to sew. You are building your variety for your four-patches as you cut. Job done!

You save 1/2 of the cutting time this way, and there is zero time spent matching unit to unit as they are already paired.  It's a win/win!

Chain piece in lengths of 10 units!

Notice that all of the RED squares are going under the needle first, and that the top seam allowance is pointing up toward the needle?  THIS IS IMPORTANT!

We want all of the seams of the four-patches to circle or spin on the back side of the four-patch in the SAME DIRECTION.  That means they all need to go under the needle in the same orientation.

The feed dogs will work in your favor if you send them “Dark Square Leading.”

Test your first couple of four-patches to see if they measure 2 1/2."

I keep my piecing in easily countable lengths of 10 per chain.  That means after I feed unit 11 under the presser foot, I'm clipping off the chain of 10 from behind the presser foot.

This helps me to keep count, and also keeps my lengths no longer than my ironing board so I can stop the tangle that happens when lengths of units are too long.

We need to spin those seams.

Hold the four-patch between your fingers like this with the center seam going across.

Take a good look at the seams on the top and the bottom of the four-patch.  The top and bottom seams are anchored by the center seam that goes across.  We can’t change the direction that these two are already going because they are stitched in place.

Imagine you are looking at a clock face.  The top seam is 12, to the right and below is 3, the bottom is 6 and the left side is 9. 

Hold both layers of 3 o’clock DOWN with your thumb.

LIFT both layers of 9 o’clock , reverse pressing half of the long center seam.

A few stitches into the seam allowance will open in the center, blossoming those little seams into a mini four-patch in the center.  Press.  Repeat for all four-patches.

Now, no matter where these four-patches fall in the quilt (And you don’t know where or how!) seams will nest with each other and play nicely with other patches in the quilt.

Spin pressed, and clipped in batches of 10 to keep count. (plus a few extra)

That's it for this week!

I may not be blogging daily while I'm in England, but you can catch me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date with my Craftours adventure.

Part Three will be posted on December 6th. I return December 9th.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Quilters - check your bobbins!

Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!

 

This mystery pattern is given for personal use only. 

No part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical including printing or photocopying for sharing, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author.

Please no uploading and saving of this file with intent to share, email or distribute, either digitally or in hard copy.

It is a reader appreciation mystery, something I give back to my readers for their support over the years.

Please help me continue to design and show your support by sending your friends to my blog to print their own copy. 

Please check out my other designs found in the Quiltville Store where my books (paperback) notions, tools, and other goodies along with my digital patterns are found right at your fingertips. 

©2024 Bonnie K Hunter. All Rights Reserved