A mystery no more
Well, Mystery Quilt V is finally finished! It was a learning experience. This was the first time I have made a quilt full of blocks made up of entirely bias edges. For the most part they didn't stretch too much; I was careful not to play around with them. However, there were a couple that were a little out of control.
I don't have much room in my sewing space, so I unfolded my cardboard table protecctor and placed it on my cutting table. I needed the space to be bigger than my cutting table, so I supported the cardboard with the end of my ironing board and the top of the computer chair. Basically, this imprisoned me at my sewing machine. I arranged all my blocks and my sashing squares. I thought it all looked pretty good so I went about putting it together. I actually had to leave the room and come into the room from the other end to access the first row of blocks. Somehow in the process I got the second row of blocks mixed up a little but oh well. I didn't notice until I was showing my husband the first two rows put together and he said "those two blocks are pretty similar to each other." Darn. I left it that way, though.
Today I did the bottom half and the borders. The bottom half went swimmingly, I must say. I put the two halves together and added the top and bottom borders without incident. I had to join two strips of fabric for the long borders, so I moved my needle position. Unfortunately I forgot to put it back for my 1/4-inch seam so I sewed the entire long border with a too-wide seam allowance. I ended up ripping out a five-foot seam. Nice. Not a happy moment.
Anyway, I guess it came out alright in the end. I'm not entirely happy with it but it works. My husband doesn't really like it - he gave it the look that says "I don't want to say I don't like it, but I don't want to lie either" followed by a little nod. He is very wise sometimes. Anyway, without further ado, here it is:
A couple of close-ups:
Tentatively I am calling it "A Cup of Tea by the Water" because the jelly roll was the Green Tea Bali Pop and the blue reminds me of the water. I will be using the dark blue parts of the jelly roll for the binding once I quilt it.
It was fun and a learning experience. Thanks to Sandy for being our fearless leader!