Alright! Here we go!
I know I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I had already dabbled in some of the clues to this mystery, so forgive me in advance if this post seems like a yawner.
As a refresher, you can click over to Quiltville if you want to print out the clues and make your own version of this quilt. As of today the whole mystery has been revealed so you can now see how beautiful this quilt is going to be when it is all finished.
One caveat though, after only a few dablings I can tell you there will be blood there will be lots of hours spent sewing…
and lots of spools of thread…
and lots of cutting…
and lots of…well…just lots of…whatever goes on in your head while you work. Okay?
Now, for Clue #1 Bonnie threw us all an easy bone to chew. She deliberately (that little sneak!) lead us on to believe we were going to be making something really super quick and EASY! In fact it was so sneaky she gave us the border finale to work on first!
I gathered my pinks and greens, made my 2″ strips and sewed them together.
I cut them apart into 2″ pieces again as seen at left in the photo.
I had a great time and this went together so quick.
172 sections are needed for this first step and I’ve sewed all the strips.
I’m about halfway cutting these out.
Bonnie also mentioned that we should look through our work in progress and have a ‘Leader/Ender’ project on hand to help with…well…the leading and ending.
Don’t know what leading and ending is? Truth is I didn’t either until I started reading up on it. Basically, when a quilter is piecing (unlike in garment sewing) they don’t like to pull and cut the threads each time they start and stop on a piece. So instead of cutting the thread they throw in another piece of fabric…or a pair of fabrics to sew in the beginning and one at the end. Pretty clever!
So for my ‘Leader/Ender’ project I’ve pulled out this beginner’s nightmare lovely double pin wheel project I pieced way back around 1995 when we lived in the Gnome Upgrade house. 
It’s just lovely don’t you think? Well don’t look too close! It has been sitting in a bin for…oh…how long has it been since 1995? FIFTEEN YEARS!!?!! WoW!
This was my first project I ever did with a rotary cutter. The instructions made it sound so great. Fast, EASY! Well I sure went fast and whipped this thing up in a hurry but I just didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
I had no idea I was supposed to ‘Square UP’ the blocks before assembling them into bigger blocks. I thought everything was all just supposed to go together.
And the trial by fire with the bias edge…Oh! That was brutal! 
Look at these points!
I didn’t have the will to finish it and I certainly didn’t have the strength to just give it away. I knew there would be a day when I would figure out how to fix it. AND TODAY IS THAT DAY!!!
And THIS is going to be my ‘Leader/Ender’ project. I can’t wait. I’m going to have this finally finished!
But I have to take it apart. Not all the way, just down to the building blocks, true up the squares and re-sew them together. I’m so thrilled to finally have a plan for this project that I just don’t care that it’s going to slow me down on the Roll Roll Cotton Boll. It will all be worth it!
Stay with me!
~Cathy
Sewing.for.Life! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.