Keep Clam! I'm in Renton, we still have an Ivars down at Lake Washington. I haven't gone to see the clam lights yet this year...

I'm sort of the same about Alaska as you are about the Seattle area. I grew up there from ages 10-23, or 1970-1983 and have lived down south ever since. But I love it here and I'm here by choice, even though I have eventually acclimatized, I still consider this the tropics -- it's green all year round even if it has been "terribly cold" the last couple of weeks it's just been rain!

Just want to point out that a specialty ruler isn’t needed for cutting the quarter square triangles from the 2.5 inch strip. I keep seeing people saying they don’t have the right ruler. All you need is the corner of a square ruler since you are cutting a 90 degree triangle. Using the corner of the square gives you the same thing. Since we know the strip width, that is all we need to know to get the correct sized triangle.

very interesting and why didn't i think of that? Ok do you have any suggestion for the 1/2sq triangle? I'm just not not thinking clear enough today.

I think it would be the half-square triangle that has the 90 degree angle, not the quarter square triangle?

They both do. It’s a matter of orientation when cutting from a 2 1/2 strip for all pieces as Bonnie does. When you cut from a strip for a hst you are cutting with the 45 degree angle at the top. The qst triangles (the ones we are not sewing) as cut from a strip utilize the 90 degree angle at the top.

You can certainly use a different strip method to use the 90 degree angle at top for the hst as Bonnie shows in the clue week when we did just the Hst. I think the showed it using the folded corners ruler.

While you don't need a specialty ruler for the HST, you do need to be aware that the strip size Bonnie uses will not work with triangles or squares, it will not be correct! With the specialty ruler it is placed so the top of the strip is even and there is only one dog ear. You have to compensate for that other dog ear.

You need to "snub" off the top of the point in order for it to work. You can just take a piece of tape and cover off the end of the point on your ruler. Unfortunately I'm having issues with my scanner right now and can't show the diagram I did.

The rule for making right triangles is to add 7/8ths to the desired finished size and not our standard 1/4". Many people just call it 1" and trim a sliver off or adjust their seam a bit fatter.

With my scraps, it makes more sense for me to do it by squares and not strips, I'm not making many repeats. For other people (especially using just one fabric), strips might make more sense.

With my vision, it works better for me to cut and piece larger and size down, I'm using finished size plus 1.25" to make two HST from each square.

No specialty ruler is needed for the QST. Just make squares as she says and slice as an X. If you don't have enough fabric to cut the squares and have to cut them as triangles, we can work with that.

Ok. We have one set done. We had one practice go with the specialty ruler and were able to figure it out by strip set #2. Hubby is figuring if we do 8 sets a day we can get through this clue. He is not loving this one.

we did the math wrong for clue 3 and only made half as many as we need so we’re also playing catch up on that one. I have them all made, just need to trim now.

I love looking at everyone’s blocks but haven’t been able to motivate myself to start. I am saving the directions. I was going to do single colors and am thinking I want to see the quilt before I start.

My Bee in Bonnet Vintage QAL has been sitting around half done and the blocks and layout has been published so I am going to finish that before I start something new.

This looks like fun and I love mystery's. For some reason, when doing any type of mystery, I seem to be able to keep up with projects, probably my herd mentality.:cool: Doesn't matter what craft, knitting, cross stitching... I do better in a group. What with clue 5 coming out shortly I have been able to save up my clues for possibly doing it in the future. Looks like a good scrap quilt... and I've got three somewhat large boxes of stacks of my scraps to play with so I'm always looking for a good one. Can't wait to see what this turns into.

Drat! Coming down hard with a cold. Got my clue done yesterday which is good because my head is foggy today.

Came back to my post about the specialty rulers last night too late to edit/clarify. When DoomBuggy says you don't need a specialty ruler for the QST part of the strips, that's true as far as it goes, but for that size of strip you need to account for the missing ear of the HST. So when I'm referring to "not having the specialty ruler" it has nothing to do with the QST, but with the HST. If I cut my strips that small to begin with, I'd just use the point of my square as DoomBuggy suggested. But since I'm making my strips larger, it doesn't work quite so well. Sure, I could pull out another piece of tape but for me and the way I think, the process would just be very cumbersome and rife with chances for mistakes.

I guess there are two basic ways to do this step, the "one strip" method where you get all your cuts for one unit from a single set of strips (and should have the specialty ruler for the HST). And the "two strip" method that I used, no specialty rulers needed.

My current saying is the quilt we make depends on the fabrics we have. For people with yardage or good fat quarters, the single strip method is probably pretty darn sweet -- as has been mentioned you need about half a yard so you can just slice and dice your strips together. Bet you get going good after the first set or two! With my mish mash of pieces and my desire to especially use up small pieces, it just wouldn't have worked.

For the "one strip" if I was to do it that way, I'd probably start by cutting my strips to my over large size and then cut off my squares to make the HSTs. Then I'd trim down the strip to Bonnie's dimension and cut the QST.