Mystery Quilt-a-Long: A Pattern Emerges…
Good morning and welcome back to Quilter, Tailor, Seamstress, Spy—The Inbox Jaunt’s Mystery Quilt-a-Long.
If you haven’t started yet…don’t worry, there’s plenty of time to catch up. I’ve added a Tab on the Top Menu Bar with each week’s clues. If you need to review, you’ll find everything in one place…
There is no stitching required this week. We are going to use our detective skills to search for patterns…
GRID MARKINGS
In our last episode we used an ERASEABLE MARKER to add a few notes in our grid:
- an ‘X’ in the upper left corner
- the message C50 in the center square…
- our signature in the bottom right corner
Today, add the following marks–again with an ERASEABLE MARKER!
- the message ‘P50′ in the block two spots to the left of C50
- the letter ‘M‘ in the upper right hand corner
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS.…….
PATTERNS
There are many ways to make a pattern or template for quilting. Today, we will discuss a simple method using readily available materials.
THE SPOOL PATTERN
On any sheet of paper, draw a rectangle, 1-1/4 inches wide by 1-3/4 inches tall.
If you have graph paper it’s even easier…
Draw a diagonal line out from each of the corners. (Do not fuss too much about the angles–Perfection is not required here. –We’re quilters, not architects!)
Connect the lines on the top and on the bottom to create a spool.
Cut around the spool…
A quick, rough cut around the shape will do…..We will be more precise later. 
Glue the paper pattern onto a piece of tagboard, manila file folder, a shirt or cereal box, or anything you find around the house.
This time cut accurately around the spool.
That’s it! A perfect pattern emerges!
If you’d rather not draw the motif…you may download the Spool Pattern HERE.
MORE TIME?
If you have any spare time this week, practice doodling and/or quilting these motifs:
Happy sleuthing!
(Hmmm…The Chief Minister was Xed out with the scissors on the 50th Floor Patio???)
(aka Lori C K)
PS…All clues, tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to share, re-blog, pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
hemmmmm…. the mystery thickens… I will make my pattern today!!! and get around to signing my masterpiece! J.
Carolyn Keene 🙂 … also Franklin W. Dixon, Victor Appleton, Carolyn Hart, Carole Nelson Douglas, Rita Mae Brown, Louise Penney… Struck a chord with me!
Fun!! I will be catching up today!! (on many things actually!) Just finished the binding on that football quilt…man that’s been a project! One of my favorite quilts I’ve made so far. Everyone loves your football design!! 🙂
About the signature – I’ve practiced – and it’s long and I can’t get it to fit in the almost 3 inch space. If my Capital letters are down at 1/4 inch, I can make it fit, not real readable at that size. Maybe that would add to the mystery? Would it look too wierd if I put it at a diagonal? the m and the n’s are wide letters.
That would look great! Go for it!
Phew! I’m still trying SO HARD to master the zig zag! Must. Catch. Up.
Remember you can switch to a wavy line if you prefer! We want this to be FUN!
Fun,fun,fun
Q: Will all your upcoming mystery designs lend themselves to a horizontal format instead of the vertical? I’m wanting to make a pillow cover instead of a wall hanging.
Having read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries growing up, I can’t believe I never knew they were all written by ghostwriters!
I’m enjoying all of your tutorials and am looking forward to adding all of these great designs to my fmq skills. Really, who knew the zigzag was so hard?
Have you given any clues to the length of the mystery? I already can’t wait for Wednesdays…
I didn’t know that either!
The lady who stayed in the summer house next to ours in NH was one of the writers! Being a fan and an avid reader, I loved trying to tease plots and stories from her! But she deflected my questions quite well while showing me how to crochet. Now it’s time for me to quilt!!
That is so cool, Pam!
You are a very talented lady, Lori. Appreciate all your effort that goes into these tutorials. I am a slow quilter.
Question about the spool pattern length. Is the whole thing 2 1/4 in length as it looks like with the graph paper? I was concerned because after doing my template I looked at your already done pattern and it looks 1 3/4 total. Or is it important? Quilters are used to being fussy about accuracy. ; – )
Quilting my signature was a lot of fun! Quilting letters was something I’d never thought of before. And we already have cursive “muscle memory” etched in our brains. 🙂
Two friends from Belgium train hard to follow this quilt mystery.
We will do it!
In French, we call doodle “gribouillis” . Cute ?
Thank you for this adventure!
Cline and Bruna
Thanks for joining in! Love “gribouillis”!
I have a silly thought each time I see those scissors. They remid me of something in a thriller book with a mystery tied to the odd looking scissors. Not only do they look antique but overly large for sewing. Are they by some chance a really good pair of scissors that you prefer or a prop?
They are just a prop. They are old scissors I picked up at an antique store. They are very pretty though.