**uh oh - check for a correction in step 2, it should be 6 squares of light and 6 of dark**
Finally! I am back - I missed me, so I won't even ask if you did -- Gee this has been a miserable cold -- which really has not ended yet! Something that I do wonder about, not to do with colds but to do with relationships... Why is it, when I have a cold (perhaps you too?) does my husband insist on snuggling, or gathering up my carelessly dropped and used kleenex? How many times did I tell him to keep back? How many times did I tell him to not touch the tissues? How many times did I tell him to not finish up the bit of 7-up in my glass? And when he starts to cough now and then, why does he say no, if I ask if he has caught the cold???
This little Thanksgiving Mystery is done in only two parts. If it was me, I would wait til tomorrow to find out if I want to actually make this project -- but that sort of spoils things -- I'm not very good at Christmas either!! I just don't see any point in torturing myself... Anyway...
Before we start sometimes it helps to know what some of the end will be – even though it is a mystery, in this case, this mystery, as with some mysteries we are told what happened at the beginning so that the mystery them becomes How or Why.
The end of this mystery turns out to be a table runner that will measure about 18” wide and 48” long – a nice size for a dining table or perhaps as a dresser “scarf”.
So we start with a selection of 5” squares. One Charm pack will do nicely as most charm packs, I think are 42 squares. If you are cutting your own 5” squares from stash fabrics, you actually need 40 squares.
You will also need a sashing fabric that either contrasts or co-ordinates with one or more of your charm pack fabrics – in my case I chose a fabric that I also used in some of the 5” charms, the lightest fabric.
Step 1. From your stack of 5” squares or charm pack, make two piles, one light fabrics and one dark fabrics. Some of the squares may be on the edge of light or dark or even exactly in between and since this is a mystery, I will leave the decision of what goes in which pile completely up to you, the maker.
Step 1 A. Now choose 8 squares from your stack – any 8, light or dark or medium is fine – perhaps this is a good use for the medium value fabrics that you are unsure of if they belong in the light or dark pile? Well, thats what I did with those, not really darks and not really lights...
Set these 8 squares aside, til later.
Step 2: Now choose 12 6 light/medium charms and 12 6 dark/medium charms. Randomly match one light, to one dark, lay two fabrics together and draw a line across diagonally exactly from one corner to the opposite corner using a pencil then sew 1/4” from that line on each side fo the line. Cut them into two following your original drawn line, Press the newly created half-square triangle open with the seam pressed toward the dark fabric.
You will now have
Step 3: Now choose 10 more light squares and 10 dark ones.
Cut all the squares in half horizontally, so that you have 10 light rectangles that measure 2 1/2” x 5” and do the same with the dark squares. Now match light to dark and sew light to dark to make 20 sections that when sewn will measure 4 ½ x 5”
With these 20 pieces, again randomly match them and sew them so that you then have 10 short strips, each section sort of looking like “piano keys” and 4 pieces sewn together that will measure 8 ½ “ x 5”. Then trim up each set so that they measure 8 ½ “ long x 4 ½ “ wide. (that means to take about 1/2 inch off one long side or a 1/4 inch off both long sides, measure carefully)
And that is it for today.
