Easy Street Mystery Quilt, Part 1

Since I have finished all my holiday shopping, wrapped all the gifts, mailed out the holiday cards and decorated the house from attic to basement (NOT!), I have decided to fill my spare time by joining Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt Challenge, Easy Street  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html . I took a class with Bonnie Hunter this summer in Vermont and just love her http://pugmomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/07/vermont-quilt-festival-part-3.html. I have followed her blog for years and own all of her books. I think she is very talented, as well as generous. Her website is amazing, loaded with free patterns and all sorts of other good stuff: http://www.quiltville.com/

Here are the beautiful colors I am using for my purples, teals, and lime greens. I have raided my batik stash, although I had to purchase the lime green fabrics.

I was inspired by my friend Joannie, who is also using batik fabrics.

These are Joannie's black and white batiks.
I am envious...maybe she will share...

My friend Kim, who did Bonnie's Orca Bay Mystery, seen in several of my previous blog posts, encouraged us in this endeavor. So, the four of us, Marion, Kim, Joannie and I are all working on it. Joannie came over on Monday night to get started. So far, I have made 40 4-patch units (only 152 left to go) for step 1. There is A LOT of sewing in this quilt.

My black and white prints are kind of zippy! They were dizzying to cut! Apparently I am quite fond of geometric patterns. The little words on the fabric above, say "moo....moo", it is an old fabric and one of my favorites. All the black and white prints came from my stash. My grey fabric is Kaffe Fassett Aborigine Dots. Marion and I both purchased the same background fabric.

My quilt studio is decorated in zebra prints with hot pink accents and it is quite wonderful except when you try to iron black and white fabrics against a zebra ironing board cover.

Here is a cutting tip. I stack two strip units together in the opposite direction. When I cut them they are already in position to be a 4-patch unit, so all I have to do is pick them up and sew them. Here are two strips in position, I have pulled back the top strip so you can see what I mean.

Step 1. Stack in opposite directions.
Top layer is folded back for illustrative purposes.

Step 2, all cut and in sewing order!

Here are my next 100 4-patches, cut and ready to sew.

Yesterday, Marion and Kim were doing virtual sewing, while Joannie and I were at work. They kept sending us email messages with progress reports. Kim is a fast sewer, she probably has all of her 4-patches done.

Here are my three pug assistants, all sacked out on the zebra dog bed
in the quilt studio. Larry and Elvis are in front.
Romeo is in the back, trying to squeeze into the bed with them.

Must stop blogging, and get back to those 4-patches. I am really enjoying seeing everyone's progress.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy