In celebration of my Facebook “Scrap Quilting” group reaching over 1000 members, I have decided to host a super simple and fun mystery quilt a-along. This will be a three part series, starting with today’s Clue #1.

This quilt is designed to use up some of those colorful scraps most quilters have stashed in boxes, bags and drawers. It is really easy to stitch, no curves, or special techniques required. Are you ready to play along?

This week, we will be choosing colors and cutting pieces. Let’s start with the color squares. For these you will want to use your most colorful scraps. This quilt requires two sized color squares. You will need about 5 squares that are cut to 9″. This is for the “large” block. You can have more, or less, but not too many. The second square size is 5″. This is for the “small” block. You will need many more of these. I would suggest starting with 20+. This quilt is completely adjustable in size, so once you begin assembling the blocks, you may want more of the large ones, or more of the smaller ones to complete your desired size.

The background for this quilt should be light. White, cream, or a very pale blue or green will be great. You can do the background in scraps, as well, but I would not recommend it. Cut your background fabric into squares sized 4.5″ (large block) and 2.5″ (small block).

Every block you make will require one color square and three corresponding background squares (large or small). Keep large with large and small with small.

I am using my selvage fabric for this quilt. I made this “fabric” by stitching selvage edges together using a foundation fabric. You can see this technique in my video on foundation piecing.

If you are going to use fabric that has stripes, I recommend that you cut your squares with the stripes going from corner to corner. This very much enhances the final block design. You will thank me later. If you are using scraps of solid or patterned color, it really won’t matter how you cut your squares. It will look great!!

Here is one of my small squares that I cut from my fabric.

After you have some squares cut, the next step is to cut them in half both directions. Do this for both the large and small squares.

Finally, you will take two of these resulting squares and trim them down to 3″ or 1.75,” respectively.

Now, for each block in your quilt, you should have four color and three background squares. Large blocks will have two 4.5″ and two 3″ color squares, and three 4.5″ background squares. Small blocks will have two 2.5″ and two 1.75″ color squares and three 2.5″ background squares.

When stitched up, these blocks will be 8.5″ (large) and 4.5″ (small), so they can easily be moved around in the final top layout you decide on creating. You will need extra background squares here and there, so go ahead and cut some more of those while we wait for next week.

Thanks for joining in on the fun. I hope you all really enjoy the surprise quilt at the end.

See you next week for Clue #2!

~Deborah