The Great Summer holiday mystery

The Summer Mystery has now finished and the instructions have been removed. However I have left the tutorial here for you as there are a lot of good tips and tricks in the last 10 posts – just use the category to find all posts. You can now download the full pattern as a working Quizzle from here.

Get your machines out girls and start raiding that stash.

This is the first post in a step by step mystery quilt project from Hugs 'n Kisses over the summer holiday break. Join with me as I take you step by step through a simple traditional quilt making process. You will finish with a quilt with a finished size of 65 “x 65” (165cm X 165cm) - a nice lap quilt size.

This will be a great way for new or beginner quilters to work along with me, learning some new tips and skills whilst sharing your journey with everyone else in blogland... of course more experienced quilters are also welcome to join in and I shall highlight just the important bits for you so you don't have to scroll through all the extras.

If you are fairly new to quilting or extending yourself from simple stitcheries to quilting then you may want to sign up for a free 6 part e-book which is a quilters bible, lots of tips, information and instructions about quilting, applique, fabric choice, sizes, cutting etc etc... you can sign up here

Now if you don't like mysteries, couldn't wait til Christmas to open your pressies, can't wait until the final instalment to see your end product then you can download the pattern here right now.... you can even play with the colours and see how your fabrics will look before taking that first cut..... BUT don't spoil your fun unless you really have to... you can always download the pattern and play at the end....

You have a week to gather the supplies below: I will post the first instructions next Monday so you have plenty of time to prepare, share this link with your friends so they can all join  you, get some family meals in the freezer, stock up on snacks and get sewing room organised...after the first instalment I will post as I have time, every few days or more so subscribe to the feed, bookmark the blog, add to bloglines, whatever you need to do so as not to miss out. Once we are finished all the instructions will be removed so you need to keep up as best you can. The download link will still be available.

requirements:

• 1 ⅔  yd (1.6m) light background fabric (FABRIC A)
•   1 ½  yd (1.4m) med/dk feature fabric - this could be a large floral or conversational fabric (FABRIC B)
•   1 ¼  yds (1.2m) Darkish fabric - needs to contrast with background fabric well (FABRIC C)
•   ½  yd (50cm) medium fabric (FABRIC D)
•    ⅔  yd (60cm) Dark contrast fabric (FABRIC E)

•    4 yd (3.6m) backing fabric
•    70” x 70”  (1.8m X 1.8m) batting
•    Cotton thread to blend for piecing - cream or mid grey colour is good
•    Machine quilting thread to match
•    Pencil, quilters ruler, cutter & mat - If you are starting out a good beginners kit is a 6 1/2" x 24" ruler, a 45mm rotary cutter and a medium sized cutting mat

Now for a mystery it is very hard to choose fabrics sight unseen so here are a few tips:

you could use five different colours all of the same value - eg all brights

you could choose five fabrics of one colour but with different values eg. pale blue, blue/white stripe, garter blue, navy blue, pale blue/navy blue spot... when you put them together you can easily see the contrast between them.

you could choose several colours with lights, mediums and darks included.

The most important thing is that you can see contrasts between the fabrics so that the design will show up.

These are the fabrics I am using and I purchased them from here. They are all from the 'Ava Rose' Range by Free Spirit Fabrics. Lovely summery colours.

1 ⅔  yd (1.6m) light background fabric (FABRIC A)

1 ½  yd (1.4m) med/dk feature fabric (FABRIC B)

1 ¼  yds (1.2m) Darkish fabric (FABRIC C)

½  yd (50cm) medium fabric (FABRIC D)

⅔  yd (60cm) Dark contrast fabric (FABRIC E)

So off you go and start preparing. Put the badge on your blog, (don't forget to link it back to here), spread the word, tell all your friends to pop in and join in so as not to miss out... we are going to have some holiday fun..

hugs, Helen