Welcome to the first session of the mystery quilt.  We'll be combining embroidery and piece quilting in this project.   (If you don't haveanembroidery machine, I can provide an applique which can be substitutedforthe embroidery.  Contact me at mickisews@aol.com if you need the applique.)

This quilt block is made with two colors:  one light--which is the background color--and a dark color.  I would suggest that both colors have very little detail.  This block would also work nicely as a stash cleaner for the dark color, but you'll want the light color the same in all of the blocks.    I bought three fabrics on a fabric crawl with my sister in an Amish quilt store; the cracked ice fabric will be the binding andbacking for the quilt.  My fabrics did not scan very well; the darkfabric is a dark brown with a small golden brown fleur de lis; the lightfabric hassmall splotches of reddish brown and red.  The golden brownfleur delis isthe same color as the lighter brown in the cracked ice.

I have done a yardage calculation for a laprobe, based on using 42" widefabric.  The quilt block can be set side by side or tiled diagonallyacross the quilt with plain blocks of the light color between the pieced blocks.  I plan to tile my quilt and do more embroidery or redwork in the plain squares.  If you tile the blocks, you'll need to piece six blocks; if you make thequiltwith blocks side by side, you'll need to piece 12 blocks.

Fabric for a tiled laprobe sized quilt: You need at least 21 inches of dark fabric and You need 50 inches of light fabric which includes the plain blocks Fabric for a side by side laprobe sized quilt: You need at least 48 inches of dark fabric and You need at least 6o inches of light fabric Stash cleaning quilt: You need a strip that is 9 7/8 inches by 36 inches perblock You need the light fabric for either a tiled or a side by side quilt If you want to make only one block, you need 9 7/8 by 42 of the light

This week we're going to cut the strips for the quilt.  The strip directions below are per block.

• Dark fabric:  (1) cut one 9 7/8 inch square and (2) one stripwhich is 3 7/8 inches by 15 1/2 inches

• Light fabric:  (1) cut one 9 7/8 inch square, (2) one strip which is 3 7/8 inches by 15 1/2 inches, and (3) one strip that is 3 1/2 inchesby 22 1/2 inch

Since I am making a tiled quilt with six pieced blocks out of 42" fabric,  I will cut the following:

• Three 9 7/8 inch squares from the dark and light fabric
• Three strips which measure 3 7/8 inches from the dark and three strips which measure 3 7/8 inches from the light fabric.
• Three strips which measure 3 1/2 inches from the light fabric

That's all for tonight, folks.  See you next week for the second set of clues!