I’m going to present Step 3 of the Mystery Quilt in this post. I actually finished Step 4 and delivered the quilt top to Esther’s on Saturday. By doing this my name has been entered for a $50 gift certificate drawing. It’s been a very lucky week for me, let’s ride that wave. I’ll be back at the store tomorrow to take pictures of the other quilts, then a final post on the last step of making this quilt.
Links to Step 1 and Step 2. Step 3 required joining one of the small half-square triangles (Robin’s Egg Blue) to the 2-square units I completed in Step 2. You can see 48 of those units in the picture above. The other set of 2-square units got the same treatment with the addition of a small square on the opposite end. 48 of those appear in the bottom of the picture above.
The inaccuracy of my piecing was beginning to show at this point. As I stacked the completed units I noticed varying sizes of finished lengths. Anywhere from 1/8″ to 1/4″. Anytime the difference goes over 1/4″ I begin to worry. Compensating in the final piecing for anything that wide is tricky. The biggest problem I encountered was a general flaring out at the end of the seam of the half-square triangles. I’ve concluded this was caused by the small nature of the triangles I was piecing. It was very slippery as I was sewing and I had a hard time controlling the units under my presser foot. I think going slower and using a stilleto would help. I don’t have one of these but I’ve seen them used on quilting shows. It gives you control over the fabric in places that are too small to hold with your fingers.
The next step was to join the 2-square unit with a single triangle to the black triangle. This unit then pieced to the 2-square unit with both an end triangle and the small square, creating a larger triangle. These triangles were then pieced to the full background fabric triangle to create a 6-inch square. This step resulted in 48 6″ squares (6 1/2 including seam allowance).
The final instructions state “The units should measure 6-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ (raw edge to raw edge) when sewn”. Oops. A picture of all 48 units:
