Find Yourself on EASY STREET!

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I am SO excited that it is finally “Mystery Time”!  I look forward to this time so much every year.  It is the one big thing I feel I can to do to thank you for all the friendship and support you have shown to me over the past year.  A way to pay it forward, my way to give something back.

Running a mystery is like pedaling yourself out into the middle of traffic, hoping you will survive!  Will you like this new quilt? I hope so!  Did you ever have that dream where you have had to stand on stage and sing to a huge crowd of people, but in your dream you couldn’t carry a tune to save your life?  If there are oversights or mistakes, I ask you to be patient with me because YOU are my testers!

First off – this mystery will NOT be as intense as the last two years have been.  You can rest a bit easier on that factor alone.  I’ve worked really hard the past couple of years and so have you.  I thought we needed a fun break that will still use up a lot of stash in a very fun and beautiful quilt.  And that is how we find ourselves on EASY STREET!

Easy Street will finish at 84” X 84” BEFORE Borders. It will measure 96" X 96" after borders.  Borders are optional.

I am unable to redesign the quilt to fit any other size you want it to be.  If you want a smaller quilt, simply make half the units for each step that we do.  You can then decide after the reveal how big you want your quilt to be.

Let’s get right to it and get you excited about the colors, shall we?

Remember, you can change the colors to suit your taste.  You can go modern, you can go 1930s, you can go civil war repros.  It will ALL WORK.  What you are going to need is 4 distinct colors and a background.  If you don’t have a stash to work from, a variety of Fat Quarters should be sufficient.  One of the fabrics below is my “constant” and you may want 1 piece of yardage for that.

3 yards of Limey Apple greens!

This is the color card I picked up from Lowes!  It’s Valspar  6008-8

Photos don’t always turn out accurate color-wise  so I thought it was fun to pull the cards.  My fabrics are in the shades of the center and right hand color – the left hand one is too light.

3 1/4 yards Cool Aqua and Turquoise!

Valspar Color Card # 5004-10

2 yards of Assorted Purples!

Valspar Color Card 4003-10

and

Valspar Color Card 404-10

I used blue-purples and red-purples but kept to the darker shades of purple.  These will play up against the green and the turquoise, so make sure they are not the light light shades or they may recede.  Stick to the far right side of the color cards!

2 yards “Winter Flannel” Gray!

((Yeah, I cut it up before I remembered to take a picture of the yardage..LOL!))

Valspar Color Card # 4007-1

It’s even called “Winter Flannel” on the far right of the card…perfect match!

The Gray is one piece of yardage I have had in the stash since 1990-something.  I have a LOT of gray in the stash, only I rarely use it.  This was the time.  This Gray is our “CONSTANT” you will can do this part scrappy if you want, but I found it calming to have this be the one consistent piece in the quilt center.

Backgrounds!

4  yards black-on-white prints

There is no Valspar card for the black-on-whites, but I’ve used a ton of these in every pattern I had in my stash.  I’ve been collecting them for years, and the more fun, the cuter, the better.  It’s time to sew some of this whacky stuff up!  I chose prints where there was more WHITE BACKGROUND showing than black busy-ness.  These can tend to be busy so choose designs with lots of airiness to them!

Borders are optional and yardage for those will be given later.

Now for some “OTHER” necessary stuff.

Our first clue will go live Friday, November 23rd.  Clues will be posted every Friday until completion.  Plan on 6 to 8 weeks.  I’m still working on how to break this down in a way that will fit into the holiday routine for everyone.

There are some specialty rulers that have become STANDARD for the way that I work in my quilts, especially mysteries.  We will be using the Easy Angle ruler and the Companion Angle ruler.  If you don’t have access to these, traditional rotary cutting measurements will be given.  It is your job to do what ever you have to do to get the units to measure the size given.  Seam allowance will be very important in this process.

It is your responsibility to PRINT EACH STEP as it is given. A "printer friendly version" link will be at the top of each post.  ((It's at the top of this post too!))

As with previous mysteries, this one will be retired and pulled from the website on June 1st, 2013 to appear in my next book.  I will be unable to provide you missing steps after this point.  That’s the way publishing runs!

The internet is a busy place, and there will be quilters posting pictures of their progress on their blogs---We will be doing a LINKY so that those with blogs can share their progress each Monday following the Friday clue.  I love seeing how everyone is progressing!   If you do not want the mystery “spoiled” for you – don’t go surfing!

My other suggestion is to keep up with each step as best as you can each week.  When the new clue is released stop the previous one wherever you are on it ---and start the next step.  This should keep you familiar with what is going on and you will have SOME of each step ready by the time the mystery is revealed.

And what’s my #1 rule?!

You Got It!

I’ll be posting our first clue on Friday, November 23rd!  Now GO SHOP YOUR STASH!