So, I decided to jump in. First, I went to my EQ software to give the layout a rectangular rather than square finish. 18 rather than 25 full pinwheel blocks will give me a finish of 65" x 86" rather than 86" x 86".
Bonnie has asked that we not post EQ layouts of the quilt blocks, so as not to give away proportions of her pattern which will go on sale later this winter. The pattern is FREE until she removes it from her blog sometime in February. I played with the basic block sizes until I was close to what I think will be a good size for me.
Once I figured out how many of each block type I needed: full blocks, half blocks for setting on point and the corner blocks, I started to cut the fabrics I had pulled. My goal was to cut all I needed as a kit, so I can take it with me to retreat in March and use parts as leaders and enders during my sewing times in the next couple of months.
I'm a color renegade and rarely stick with the original colors in a mystery. This is no exception. I used raspberry last year, and my supply is limited. With my stash reduction plan purchasing more raspberry at this time didn't make sense, since I have so many other scrumptious colors in my stash.
I settled on a two color scheme of browns, and light teals or aquas with a touch of butterscotch and a creamy pale yellow as my neutral. This was my thought process: a) I had about 6 yards of this background fabric in my stash which has been aging to a wonderful vintage. b) I had a bunch of strips leftover from previous projects in both sizes needed of browns. c) I had several of the teal / aqua fabrics that I did not use for a previous project. (I believe they were from "Grand Illusion", a previous Bonnie mystery that I didn't start.) d) I also had a few yards of a darling little gingham looking print that is the butterscotch.
It took me about 9 hours over 3 days to get all the components cut. I started with the components needing the larger strip size, and using as many of the strips I already had, I only needed to cut from my yardage about a dozen different browns to add to my variety and existing strips. Win! Very little yardage was used... Loss! The stack of browns is still just as tall as it used to be....
The light teals and aquas were in a variety of yardage pieces and fat quarters. I had to make strips for this color, but as I was cutting the larger strips I also planned ahead and cut one or two of the smaller strips to use for the smaller components. I used some of all the pieces that were in the color range that I have. result? I still have a stack of aquas nearly as tall as previously. How does that happen? I cut for days!
After all that cutting, I am now left with a fewer brown strips, but I now have a stack of aqua strips in both colors to put into my strip bins....
Oh, and I have this little bin full of pieces too small to put into my scrap
 |
| As I cut, I place pet cushion scraps in one bin, and "crumbs" in another. This is the pet cushion bin. |
 |
| Nothing larger than 3/4" here ( those went into the crumb bin to be used in projects) More on crumbs later. |
I also use the pieces at the ends of strips that won't make a full component, but that can be trimmed to 2 1/2" squares, 2" squares, and 1 1/2" squares and trim to those sizes to be stored for later use. In previous mysteries I have used these pieces in clues. Unfortunately, I did not have enough of either color to use for any of my clues this time.
I had to see how my fabrics are going to play together so stitched up clue #1
 |
| Clue #1 Aquas and Browns |
To get the variety you see above, I cut my original strips in about 8 - 10" lengths, mixing them up as I went using the aquas with a variety of 4 different browns.
