Easy Street Mystery, Part 1!

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Be sure to click the Easy Street tab at the top of the blog for "Other" parts if you are looking for the intro and yardage requirements.

It’s TIME!  Finally!

You don’t know how hard it is to sit on my hands when I am so excited to start a mystery!  It’s like remembering when my boys were very little, and watching them so anxious to dig into their presents on Christmas morning ---just HOPING that what they found beneath the ribbons and fancy paper was everything they’d dreamed of – had built Christmas morning up to be.  This is my gift to you ---and I hope you love it as much as I do!

As with previous mysteries this is a limited time release, and will be retired for inclusion in a future book -- so be sure to print each step as it is given. It will be pulled June 1st, and I won't be able to send you parts that you are missing.

As fun as it is to do this ---it also takes a ton of time and preparation months in advance to offer a mystery every year that takes weeks to present.  While I wish I could accommodate those who asked for clues ahead of time because they were going to be out of town for the Thanksgiving Holiday, or those who asked for me to please do it in January instead of November because it worked better for them --- I want you to understand WHY I do this when I do this.

I need to be HOME to do this.  I can’t handle the volume of mail and the detailed posts while on the road – and  this needs to fit my life or it just doesn’t happen. I am home from Thanksgiving to New Years.  I understand that there are those who can’t start until January ---so just print your steps and set them aside, or get a friend to print the clues for you if you don’t want to see them before you start.

For those asking for a side bar badge – just use the Easy Street photo code in the right hand side bar for now. After the reveal we will do an “official” badge, but to do so now would reveal too much!

There are those who asked would I please do the linky on Wednesday instead of the Monday following because they worked weekends and didn’t have time to sew before the Monday post.  My answer is this:  Work on the clues as you can, and if you can’t sew until Wednesday ---post your progress on the NEXT Monday’s linky.  You can post your progress on any step on any linky – you don’t have to post specific to that week, but what I can’t do is change everything to fit everyone else’s schedule, okay?

You must have a blog to link up next Monday on the linky.  More on that to come.  For now, lets get on to PART 1!!

My 2 yards of gray GREY!

This grey sat in my stash since *cough* 1990 something.  I always loved it, just never used it – so it became the jumping ON spot for this Mystery!  What are we making with it?

192 4-patches from 2” strips!

Cut 2” strips from background and whatever you are using as the grey.  My backgrounds are the black-on-white prints.  I can’t tell you how many strips to cut because scrap lengths vary.  You will need enough strip sets to cut  384 2” twosie  sub-cuts. 

Match the twosies together and sew 192 4-patch units.  As you are sewing, pay close attention to how these are feeding through the machine.  I send my pairs through all with the DARK SQUARE leading. This keeps the seam on the bottom going "with" the feed-dogs instead of "against" them so I don't get flipped seams from underneath.  It also helps keep that opposing seam junction nice and tight as I sew over it.

Why be consistent?  So we can pinwheel the seams on the back side all in the SAME DIRECTION instead of having some of them go clockwise, and some go counter clockwise…

Spin those seams like this!

For more info on how to spin those seams…look at the pics on my Florabunda post here:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/06/floribunda-re-post.html

4-patches will measure 3.5” square and finish at 3” in the quilt.

Because *I* had advance notice of what this quilt would be --- all of my 4 patches became a leader/ender project for a couple of months while I worked on other parts and other things!

Our first linky will start this coming Monday, Nov 26th.  You can add your link to it up until Thursday, Nov 29th at 11:59pm  If you miss adding your progress to that one, just add your post to the link the following  Monday!

Now GO SEW!

PS!  This blog is now PRINTER FRIENDLY!  Every post can be easily printed by clicking the printer friendly button below....look for it...it's a green bubble!  Try it out!
I'll still be doing my own printer-friendly pdfs for the mystery parts -- as I can scale down the pictures so they don't take so much paper and ink to print.  Life is Good!