I finally got to Clue #4 after a weekend of wedding festivities and celebrating Christmas with our daughters. I knew I was going to use one of the alternatives for this clue, just needed to decide how difficult I would make it for myself. Let me explain.
I am doing a controlled scrappy version, trying to keep from having the same fabric next to itself. Without knowing the final layout this can be tricky, but the more I mitigate the issue now the better my chances? Since I only had a few browns set aside for this mystery, I was thrown for a loop when the clue was just the one color. No background for this clue. Eek! I quickly searched the stash for more brown and ended up with only 4.
I knew string piecing would not work because there were too few prints to make it interesting. I knew the solid rectangle option could be a possibility, but then it would have been fairly dull. So obviously strip piecing would be the choice.
To make mine as scrappy as possible I charted out options for piecing 4 fabrics together into strip sets. I labeled the fabrics A-D and jumbled their positions within the strips. ABCD, ABDC, BCDA, BCAD, and so on. I cut strips and sewed together subsets of AB, CD, AC, DB, etc. Then I stitched those subsets together in various groupings. I am happy with the results!
Linking with Quiltville Mystery
Since I was already cutting fabric I pulled a group of Moda fabrics and got some strip piecing done using the October mini pattern. I love this fabric pull, Moda Mushrooms!!
Those 9 patches are made with 1″ strips!!!
Now it’s back to knitting on wedding shawl #2. I would like to gift this at Christmas, since I whiffed on making it for her wedding in March! Plus, it will be perfect with the sweater I bought her for Christmas!!!
Same yarn, same pattern, different color.
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Inquiring Quilter
The browns look great!
That will be a lovely shawl:)
Thanks, they are a little boring compared to the gold. I am up to 10 repeats of the border motif, only 17 more to go and then the body. Will I finish before Christmas? > >
You have a nice selection of brown fabrics; they will set off the other colours well, I think.
I hope so! Brown is just not a color most people have in their fabric collections. Thanks! > >
Hi Chris! You did well separating those browns from each other. And you got pretty darn far on the next shawl! It is a gorgeous, rich colored yarn. Happy Happy Wednesday to you. ~smile~ Roseanne
Thanks! I am hoping the next clue reveals some of how this is going to gather. I am impatient in that regard! > >
The browns will be so pretty in the new quilt! The new shawl is off to a great start!
I hope my colors work together in this mystery! If not I may never do another mystery again!
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I think I’m going to like this color even better than the last one. The browns look great. You are keeping up well. =) 1″ strips? Now you lost me. LOL
I can’t believe I am workiing on two projects using black and brown! I never use those colors in my quilts. New world for me I guess.
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