sewingpup

oh my....I am so slow....now that I have the dies for clue 2 and clue 3, I am starting to make them....just got the first "set" for Clue 2 done. It took me all day so far.....first I stitched the wrong sides together....so rip, rip, rip......then, I stitched some of the pieces wrong side up....rip, rip, rip......Now I am struggling to "spin" the seams....any hints on that one folks? On a up note...looks like my blocks are coming out pretty much to size so I am not planning on doing much trimming.

SuzSLO

Bonnie gives the pressing instructions on page 3. To spin press, press the first seam to the neutral (even though it is probably a “light”) and then you press the next seam to the dark. This means the seams will be going clockwise on the back of the finished unit, allowing you to spin the center. Good luck!

joe'smom

sewingpup, on spinning the seams, you will open the unit and put a thumb on each side of the seam, and you will twist your left wrist away from you while twisting your right wrist towards you; that should pop the seam. I press the point of my iron right on the little 4-patch, and then turn over and press the unit gently from the front. (I then spritz on the front with Best Press, turn over and press on the back, and sometimes give a final press on the front to square it.)

pinkflowers

Regarding the discussion about the triangle tips getting pushed down into the machine plate....

Try using a smaller needle and lighter weight thread. I've had good results with a size 60 Microtex needle and 80 wt thread.

I typically find that just using a new needle that is the right needle for the job is a great help!

Teen

Those are pretty colors. Well done...

Teen

I’m doing the same int terms of colors and size. We’ll see what we both create. So glad you joined in and looking forward to seeing your units..

Macybaby

I haven't started on clue three yet. I spent the weekend working on three lap size christmas quilts. I sewed backing together so I could do them all on one run with the LA, and than half way through the top thread popped out of the tension and made a rat's nest and a mess, broke the needle and knocked the machine out of time. Luckily DH knows how to deal with that, so an hour later I was up and running again. I've got them quilted and trimmed and ready for binding.

I plan on doing Christmas baking this weekend, and DH wants to make another trip to Sioux Falls (2 hours away) Friday afternoon, so we'll see if I get to clue 3 before clue 4 comes out.

I didn't pull any fabric for this, I'm grabbing my "small chuck" fabric totes (less than fat quarter but large enough to get a couple of cuts out of) and my fat quarter totes and seeing if I can get everything cut using only them. I also have a couple of totes of 1.5" and 2.5" strips I can pull from if the size works out to do so. I have plenty of yardage if I run out of scraps, and that may happen with the oranges. Kind of nice using up some of the smaller leftovers since they keep multiplying on me.

QuiltingVagabond

I've been using scraps first too Cathy. But it's taking longer to cut each clue because I have to find enough for the set and lots of my scraps are not enough for a set. I have managed to keep up at least so far.

SuzSLO

Macybaby: I hear you on small leftovers that keep multiplying in the stash. The cutting requirements for Clue 3 seemed likely to encourage my scrap pile to grow. When cutting the required strips for each unique set from a quarter yard, I always needed all of 1 or more strips and just a bit more from the next strip. Which left me lots of scraps cut in strips. I figured this was intentional by Bonnie to encourage us to adopt her scrap savers system!

auntjo

Clue 3. Hard to believe I'm keeping up so far. I'm always so far behind - don't usually finish up til around April... Course, we are early in. Maybe it's because this one is for me, and the plan is to maybe combine blocks from this quilt with some other sea themed ones I've done this year, plus a couple other ideas that have been brewing all year since we moved into our new to us beach house (one year in).... Have no idea how this will turn out, but have ideas.