January Mystery Block – Complete!
Happy Sunday everyone! I finally finished my Riley Blake January Mystery Block last night. Honestly, it wasn’t hard to do once I read the directions a thousand times. But I did find it time consuming because of all the squares and matching up you need to do. In the end that’s not really a big deal when I look at my first ever completed quilt block! The patterned fabric is the Hometown line by Sweetwater and the linen is from my leftover bin. What do you think?
I spent most of my time on these tiny triangles. The directions call for sewing 2 – 3″ squares together in assigned patterns (lots of them!) You mark a diagonal line with a marking pen. You then sew 1/4″ on each SIDE of the line you drew. From there, you cut the squares in half where you marked with the pen creating 2 triangles. Easy Peasy. The only problem I ran into is sewing thinner unlined cotton prints together. I am use to home decor weight with or without interlining so I found myself sewing slow to make sure the fabric didn’t bunch up. Why don’t quilters add a thin interfacing to the cotton before assembling? Bulk? Stiffness? This clueless quilter needs to know!
After I had tons of little triangles, I pressed them open to make two-colored squares. From there you have to go through every newly pressed square and trim it to 2 1/2″! That is what took the longest time because you want each square perfect. So the picture you see above is the trimmed squares set into a pattern (by row) and sewn together. From there all you had to do was follow the picture (thank goodness for picture directions!!) and assemble the rows. A good pressing on each side and I’m done.
I enjoyed this month’s block and cannot wait to see what next month has in store. Riley Blake has created a Pinterest board for the Mystery Block challenge, so click on over and you can check out what everyone else is doing. See you tomorrow!
Hi Cindy, the block turned out great – excellent fabric choices!!
I am wonder why your fabric is bunching up? Under the needle or the foot? Shouldn’t be. I wonder if you should change needles or if your presser foot tension needs to be changed. Yes, quilters stiffen their fabric with spray starch before they cut it and it helps keep the fabric from stretching out of shape. They recommend a product called “Best Press”. I just got some and used it for the first time this weekend and I’m happy with the results. Don’t know why I haven’t used it sooner! Janelle
I think it is the tension of the foot, which I changed. So after I redid some it looks good. I also just pressed it with spray starch 🙂 I’ll have to be on the lookout for the Best Press. Never heard of it either! I think another reason why it may not lay as flat as I want is because of how I pressed it. Is it common in quilting to press in one direction and not pressing the seams flat? I am so use to pressing my seams flat for the most part, so having them go to this side or that didn’t help the look.