I Caved

I debated whether to participate in Kevin the Quilter's Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt mystery. I'm not really a scrap quilter and I don't have a scrap users "system."

I don't need another big quilt. But I emailed Kevin and asked about making a smaller version with fewer blocks (not tinier pieces), and he suggested making half the quantity called for and adjusting later if need be.

So I caved. I'm in. His mystery calls for two colors with good value contrast; he's using browns and light neutrals. He says all shades of the feature color, light, medium, and dark, would work. But brown by definition is already a dark color; "brown" is the name we give to the dark shades of the  orange family. So a light brown is still at least a medium value or darker.

I looked through my scraps and my stash to see what I have that might work. I chose blues, with a few teals thrown in. I'm going with medium and dark shades so there will be good value contrast with low volume neutrals. I considered some light blues but I didn't like them with the rest of the shades - they stood out too much.

First clue: four patches. I need 92 but I cut enough pieces to make 120, so I may end up with a few extras. Here's the pile of twosies to be chain pieced into four patches.

There's a bit of everything in this pile of scraps - batiks, tonals, modern prints, Civil War repro prints, solids, yarn dyed wovens, Grunge, dots, stars, and even some construction trucks.

Mysteries and working with scraps are not my usual thing, but whenever Kevin has pushed me out of my comfort zone in the past, it's been beneficial for me. Whoo-hoo, clue #1 is complete, what's next???