Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge
“Choose
Your
Own
Adventure” Mystery
Quilt
Month 4
April- Your
decisions this month are:
Film
Strip OR Applique
If you have made
the 12” center
block, this round will be
4” finished width.
If you have made
the 18” center
block, this round will be 6”
finished
width.
Decision 2 –
same as last month.
I am sure you would
like to never see another
half square triangle block
again, so
this is a place for your
eye
to rest
a bit. We have more of the background showing for this round.
For those of you that love applique, now is your time to shine!
You can choose any design that works
for
your quilt (I have an
example
here from Pinterest for you to see, above)
If Applique
is not for you,
no
problem! The
Film Strip border will still give us lots
of background to rest our eye,
but has NO HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES!!
There are 2 ways to make this
block (that I know of) and
I am giving the math for using
strips
instead of making a bunch of blocks.
Background: (Require 15” of
a 42” wide fabric.) Cut 8 strips measuring 1 ½” wide. From this
you should have enough for the 2 outside strips
on all sides. You will also need to sub-cut 8 pieces 2 ½” by 1 ½”.
Cut 1 strip 2 ½” wide and sub-cut into 14 squares.
Colour:
You
will need 32- 2 ½” squares. You
can
go scrappy
and choose different
fabrics for this, or use
one complementary
colour
and then you will need 2 strips 2 ½” wide (Require
5”
to 7 ½” of a 42” wide
fabric). However, that is tight,
so
if you don’t have 40”
as your width of fabric, you
might need to cut
one
or 2 more squares. This
assembly instruction is written
as if you are going scrappy.
You can either
make
strip sets and attach this when the set
is built, OR you can
attach them separately. I find
it easier to make
strip sets, so here is
how
I do that:
From
the 1 ½” background strips, cut 4
pieces 28 ½”, 4
pieces 36 ½”, and 8
pieces 2 ½” long.
Make the
middle section first. Start with
a 1 ½” X 2 ½” background and sew it to a coloured 2 ½” square. Alternate a colour square and a
background square so
you have 2 strips of 9 coloured
squares and end with the
1 ½” X 2 ½” background. Make 2. Use this
same method with 7 coloured squares and make 2 of these.
Attach a 1 ½” strip
to each side of the strips you just made. You should have 2 strip sets
measuring 36 ½” by 4 ½” and 2 strip sets
measuring 28 ½” by 4
½”.
Attach a 28 ½” strip set
to each side
of the quilt. Now attach the 2
remaining strip
sets.
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March
- Month 3
Your
decisions this month are:
Zig Zag 4 Patch or Pinwheels
If you have made
the 12” block, this round will be making 4” finished blocks.
If you have made
the 18” center block, this
round you will be
making 6” finished blocks.
Decision 2 –
same as last month. Will
it be a true round-robin
with full rounds, OR do you
want this
to be an off-set quilt where you do only 2 sides
each month.
Both of
these blocks are made with
the half square
triangle blocks.
Here
is my Quilt
Math for the 4”
finished
size using
the strip method:
I am not a fan
of the 7/8” measurements, so
I round up and cut down to a perfect
Half-squared triangle.
Cut strips of 3
inches in your
desired colours. I
am keeping mine simple with only 2 colours. From each WOF strip
you should get 13 squares. Both of these borders
Will need the same number of
HST blocks if you
are doing the 4” finished size.
You will need 96 HST units to
complete a full
round. This means if you cut
4 strips
Of each of your 2 colours (red and gold
in the examples here). Remember
– each individual 3 inch square will
yield 2 half-square
triangles! Sub-cut your 4 strips into 48 squares. You should have 4 extra squares if you cut
all of your 4 strips.
Draw a
line from corner to corner diagonally on
your light
fabric. Pair up your squares and sew
a
¼ inch on each side of the line. Cut along
line and press to
the darkest fabric.
Trim to your desired size
of 2 ½”. Arrange into
the pinwheel or zigzag block. You will
need 24 blocks.
Here is a website
that
will help with the quilt math as well
as step by step instructions: https://www.blossomheartquilts.com/2012/07/hst-tutorial-and-maths-formula/
4 at
a time HST
Method:
With this method you
are
working with BIAS edges. You will start with 4 ½ inch strips and you will need
3 strips of your
two colours. Refer to the website above for detailed instructions. This method
makes the blocks
faster,
but uses about
2 inches
more
fabric
and has a high risk of stretching.
____________________________________________________________________________________
“Choose Your Own Adventure” Mystery Quilt
February – Month 2
Have you decided yet? So many choices!
Your decisions this month are:
Decision 1. Half Square Triangles OR Mock Flying Geese If you have made the 12” block, this round will be making 4” finished blocks. If you have made the 18” center block, this round you will be making 6” finished blocks. Decision 2. Choose whether you want a true round-robin with full rounds around that center, OR do you want this to be an off-set quilt where you do only 2 sides each month. Tips: Both of these blocks can be made with the half square triangle (these will come up again in future months). The Mock Flying Goose will be half the size of the half square triangle in our quilts.
Here is a website that will help with the quilt math: https://www.blossomheartquilts.com/2012/07/hst-tutorial-and-maths-formula/
A Youtube tutorial by Karen Brown: https://youtu.be/kB4gzrRlLsM?si=TBIhPuufkVzAD52Q
Here are some examples to get you started: https://catbirdquilts.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/my-best-advice-on-using-half-square-triangles-in-borders/
re: January instructions:
January – Intro and Month 1
This quilt will end up being a square quilt, however, since it is a choose your own adventure – you can make it
any size you want!
We will be making a round robin style mystery quilt where you are working on your own personal quilt. No
passing it on to the next person and hoping that you like what you have to work with, or wondering what colours
you should use, or even wondering what in the world was going thru another persons’ head when they chose a
fabric! All the decisions and fabric are yours!
No two quilts will be same since everyone will be making different decisions each month.
Each month you will be making 2 decisions. This is the start of our adventure and you will be a deciding 2 things:
Decision 1. Choose whether to make a 12” or 18” finished block - any block – your choice! This will be your
focal point. If you decide to make a 12” block (12 ½” unfinished size), you will be making smaller blocks each
month so your proportions will stay smaller. If you make an 18” block (18 ½” unfinished size), you will be
making larger or fuller rounds. If you choose a 12” block your quilt will be 44” (making the same size
decision each month and doing a full round). If you choose an 18” block, your quilt could be 66”.
Decision 2. Choose whether you want a true round-robin with full rounds around that center, OR do you
want this to be an off-set quilt where you do only 2 sides each month. I do recommend making this decision
before you finish next months blocks so you are consistent
