Hi all!

Here in the Lower North Island of New Zealand, five quilt shops run a Shop Hop. It's a great way to visit other shops and see our beautiful countryside!

I took these photos yesterday on my walk in Fensham Reserve, near Carterton.

On this year's Shop Hop we are giving the participants three fat eighths at each shop, plus a pattern to use them. Each of us has chosen a different fabric range, and you can pick which range you want to collect. My choice is Moda's Grunge Blenders in rainbow colours.  How great to have spotted the rainbow on my walk when I had already been planning a rainbow quilt!

I just love the textures in these fabrics!

So I have been giving some thought to writing my Shop Hop pattern. Here it is, Candy Drops in two different colourways. This pattern will be available soon on Craftsy, complete with Grunge fabric numbers.

There are quite a few flying geese units...

June in New Zealand is when we have the shortest month, but whether it is hot or cold where you are, take some time out to complete your fifth clue in this year's Mystery Quilt.

Here are the step by step photos for you to follow along with your instructions.

If you are new to the Mystery Quilt, you can download the free guidelines from my Craftsy store, and then purchase clues each month. Visit www.craftsy.com/user/7013885.

Step 1: Fabrics 6 and 4

Step 2: Join to fabric 3

Step 3: Fabrics 7 and 4

Step 4:

Add fabric 7

Step 5: Join together

Step 6: Add fabric 5

Here are the four sections G1 to G4

Here are the extras for the double quilt:

Don't forget to post photos of your quilt in our facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/mysteryquilters

So now you are halfway through the Mystery,

Sheila

Hi Everyone

It is so much fun getting feedback on this year's Mystery Quilt as we go along. If you haven't done so, please do join our facebook group and post photos of your quilt.

Here are some of the photos that our lovely Mystery Quilters have shared. From the left, these are from Judy, Gail and Helen. Gail is doing our 1892 Reproduction colourway which features Moda's Collections for a Cause Millbook 1892 fabrics.

   

Isn't it great seeing the different colours that people choose? I can't wait to see the finished quilts - but I will just have to be patient and wait for November!

We are now onto clue number four. Here are the step by step photos for this month's clue. Follow your instructions (either in your Mystery pack or from Craftsy) for detailed information on the steps.

For single and double quilts:

Sections E1 to E4
Step1:

Make your half square triangle units of 4 and 5

Step 2:

Join the rectangles of 2

Step 3:

Join the longer rectangles of fabric 1

...

Here are the photos to go with the instructions for Clue Three of this year's Mystery Quilt.

You will need to have the pattern, either from your precut pack, or download Clue 3 from my Craftsy store.

I have been working on the Pewter and Linen quilt again, as this is the one of my colourways that has the most directional fabrics, so you can see which direction the stripes go if you have any.

Here's the first part, making C1 to C4

Then a simple step to complete the section:

I like to chain piece to make my sewing quicker - here's an action shot!

If you haven't done chain piecing before, do give it a try. You just follow one piece of sewing right in front of the next, and clip the thread when you are done. Use a scrap piece as a leader/ender and you will save a lot of thread, as well as stopping your machine from pushing the fabric down and getting all tangled up.

Right, that's C1 to C4 made, now onto D1 and D2

That's my single quilt pieces made, now onto the extra...

Hi everyone,

Well it is now March and after a glorious New Zealand summer, autumn is arriving. The tomatoes keep on giving, as does my single zucchini plant - one a day just for me. For us in the southern hemisphere, thoughts are turning to spending the cooler days and nights sewing, while all of you in northern climes are thinking of spring. Whatever the weather, there's always time to make a couple of easy sections for the Mystery Quilt.

I have started making some more of the colourways in my 2016 Mystery. One of these is called 'Pewter and Linen', and uses some gorgeous fabrics designed by Jennifer Sampou, from her Shimmer range.

If you would like to start making my Mystery Quilt, you can download the pattern in my Craftsy store.

This blog contains photos to help those of you who have purchased the pattern or who are making the ready-cut Mystery quilt from my shop, Quilters' Lane

If you are using directional or striped fabric for your Mystery Quilt, take a look at my previous...

Hi all

This week I have been dealing a lot with striped fabrics. I thought I would write a post about cutting stripes when you have to deal with triangles.

Often people shy away from striped fabrics, apart from using them in borders and bindings (which they are great for). One of the reasons is that they behave very oddly when you are cutting them into triangles.

Take a half square triangle, for example. The way the stripes go will depend on how you place your ruler.

If you put your ruler like this, you will get stripes leaning to the right (I call them 'righties')

However, put your fabric the other way under your ruler and this is what you will get - 'lefties'

Making quarter square triangles is even more confusing! If you cut a square and then cross cut into four, here is what you will end up with

Hm - two of the triangles have the stripes going horizontally, and two are vertical. How can we get around that without wasting fabric?

Make a Template

If you cut a...

Hello from a very sunny and hot New Zealand summer,

Yes it's here, time to start this year's Mystery Quilt!

There are two ways of doing this quilt; you may have signed up for our precut Mystery quilt packs, or you may be purchasing the clues from my Craftsy Store. These clues contain all the cutting and sewing instructions month by month. There are ten clues in total so our Mystery will conclude in November.

Take a look at my other blog posts to see the fun we have had making my previous Mystery quilts!

This year, I am making the Japanese Traditions colourway for my sample.

Here are my fabrics:

Fabric 1         Fabric 2       

 Fabric 3         Fabric 4      

Fabric 5         Fabric 6    

Fabric 7         Fabric 8  

In my fabric requirements I have...

Puzzle Mystery 2016 by Sheila Christensen

Join my facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysteryquilters/

Forget boring old sampler quilts, come and join me in my 2016 Puzzle Mystery Adventure!
You can make my Mystery quilt in one of two sizes:

SINGLE – 48” by 60”
Or
DOUBLE (QUEEN): 72” by 72”

What is the Mystery?

The 2016 Puzzle Mystery is available as ten monthly clues in my Craftsy shop. It is the same as the precut quilt offered through my bricks and mortar shop Quilters' Lane. Each month you will get a clue to parts of the quilt. With this Mystery you will be scratching your head right to the end wondering what the finished pattern is going to be!

Here are some pictures of my previous Mystery Quilts:
2013 Mystery Quilt

Blue Hawaiian Colourway

Sundowner Colourway

2014 Mystery Quilt - Jungle Fever and Summer Daze



2015 Mystery Quilt

Lime Zest Colourway  - Single Size

Opulence Colorway - Double Size

 
Sounds like fun! How...

Welcome to 2016. Have you thought about which projects you will work on this year?

Why not join my MYSTERY QUILT ADVENTURE

• Ten monthly parts
• Single or double size
• NEW - pattern download on Craftsy

Each year for the past three years I have designed a Mystery Quilt. Until now, the only way you could join in with this was to buy the precut fabrics from my shop, Quilters' Lane. This is a very popular project to do and having the fabrics precut is wonderful, every month you receive a package with all the parts ready to sew!

This photo shows one of the 2015 Mystery Quilts

The Mystery comes as either a single or a double quilt, and you can purchase the precut block of the month here

However for those of you for whom postage from New Zealand might be a little prohibitive, or who are keen to cut your own fabric, I have decided this year to offer the Mystery to you. There will be free quiltalong information here on this blog. The only requirement is that you purchase the pattern each month...

Last Saturday was the annual Big Reveal of the Mystery Quilt. It is quite nerve-wracking to finally share my design with everyone, knowing that they have invested time and money in making a quilt when they had no idea how it would turn out!

We started the day by showing the two samples that I had made, with help from Linda who did the binding on both, and Noeline Day who quilted the double.

So, here is the Vintage Roses Single

... and the Blue Diamonds Double

Once we had done the reveal, there was frantic activity while everyone got themselves set up to sew.

There were so many different colourways being made on the day - this one is called Graffitti Chic, and uses fabrics from Moda's Zen Chic range

This one is Lime Zest

Here it is completed

Pauline was busy making her Opulence quilt

Linda and Brenda had been testing out the instructions before the day. Here's Brenda's Kansas...