Roll, Roll, Cotton, Boll. I'm Rolling!

Note: Please ignore this post if you don't want the latest Quiltville mystery quilt spoiled.

Neutrals, browns, greens and pinks

I thought I was going to pass on Bonnie's latest mystery quilt, Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, but I started looking through my gifted subdued stash and I think I have enough fabric to make the mystery. The quilt is huge (87" x 102"), gulp. That size should put a good dent in those fabrics I would have never bought myself. I'll be doing a happy dance to put them to good use and practice some piecing skills at the same time.

I cut my quilting teeth using Bonnie's helpful tutorials and joining in on three of her mystery quilts. As usual, her instructions are clear and concise and so far, none of the steps have been beyond my comfort zone. In fact, once I saw step three's string blocks, that's what hooked me. I love me some string blocks! I'm eager to see what Bonnie does with them.

Step one was 2" strips of green sandwiched with pinks and then sub-cut into 2" units. Scrappy is best because you'll need 172 of these. Yawn.

Step two was 3.5" half square triangles in pinks and browns. 120 of these babies went together quickly.

Step three, the one that hooked me in, is 60 string blocks that measure 8.5" square. Bonnie used telephone book pages for the foundation, but like everything, our telephone books have shrunk and the pages aren't big enough. I hemmed and hawed and finally just cut one sheet of copy paper 8.5" x 8.5" and used it as a guide to make sure my strips were long enough. Easy peasy and no pesky paper to rip off. I have 10 of these complete. Only 50 more to go. They may get much more scrappy toward the end. My stash is not bursting at the seams with neutral yardage. Oh well, what's a mystery without a little challenge?

I'd love to hear and see your progress if you've started this mystery. 

Look what one of my doll quilt swappers sent me. She knows I love playing with selvages. I think she does too! I love that my name is on the stocking. It must be a Michele D'Amore fabric selvage. The cute little stocking was stuffed full of selvages.