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Four Star Square Mystery Quilt
a free quilting pattern

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Part One

Part 2 is here - there are a total of 7 parts and all parts are on this Web site

I've been encouraged by the group of quilters who meet regularly in the Quilting Forum to offer up a Mystery Quilt all of our own. Since I've always thought it would be fun to design one I said "Yes". [If you don't know what a Mystery Quilt is read the mystery quilt article here with links and more about mysteries.]

Size? I hope you'll have some fun with this one - I won't spoil the mystery - but just so you know a little of what you'll be making: it's a wall quilt of 40" x 40" approximate finished size. It is suitable as a project to make larger for a full size quilt (and I'll talk a little about that at the end of the project).

Technique? It's easy and you'll learn a neat technique that I know you'll use again and again. If you are new to quilting you will be able to do this one. If you are an experienced quilter you will have fun and see a new opportunity here. You can rotary cut all the pieces easily, no templates are needed.

Fabrics? You could do the whole quilt with only 4, but I love scrappy quilts so I'll encourage you to use some variety for some of the fabrics.

Fabric A - lightest and brightest
This fabric should stand out from the others. A yellow-gold, yellow-mustard is what I'm using in my sample. But you could use a bright yellow, lime, fuchsia - if you use a printed fabric the bright color should be prominently visible. Fabric A is a good choice for a scrappy look if you have 3-4-5 fabrics with similar coloration but different prints.

Fabric B - deepest and darkest
This fabric will be a main background and should be deep toned, it could be navy, black, purples. A swirled deep-tone batik would be nice too. Fabric B is also a good choice for scrappy look, if you want to have a scrap look, use at least 4-5 fabrics for the B section.

Fabric C - A plaid or multi-print
This should be a medium value color fabric. I recommend a plaid, but a medium size print with several colors in it would be OK, too. Picking up a bit of the color from Fabric A isn't a bad idea - but this fabric must be intermediate in depth of color between A and C. My choice for my sample is the middle plaid shown here with the maroon background and gold and green lines.

 

Fabric D - a bold stripe
This fabric should be a bold stripe which contrasts strongly with A, B, C fabrics. The stripe on the right is my choice for my sample. There needs to be a clear contrast especially between the plaid C fabric and the D stripe.

 
How Much Fabric?
Yardage is given for 42" width fabric, strips are to be cut selvedge to selvedge. I've allowed a little extra, but if you often make "bad cuts" you might want to add 1/4 yard to my figures.
Fabric A: 3/4 yard light-bright, 1 yd for extra margin (good if mixed scraps)
Fabric B: 3/4 yard deep (good if mixed scraps)
Fabric C: 2/3 yard plaid or medium print
Fabric D: 2/3 yard bold stripe

How to Cut? (selvedge to selvedge)
Fabric A: cut 1 strip 4.5" wide and 8 strips 2.5" wide
Fabric B: cut 4 strips 4.5" wide and 2 strips 2.5" wide
Fabric C: cut 4 strips 4.5" wide and NO 2.5" strips
Fabric D: cut 4 strips 4.5" wide and NO 2.5" strips

I always wash and iron my fabric before cutting, but if you like to work with unwashed fabric, use all unwashed.

Part TWO of the Mystery is Here
[Further parts can be found : 3,  4,  5,   6,  and last is 7.]

Susan
Susan Druding

copyright ©1998-2005 Susan C. Druding
For Permission to use my pattern for your Quilt Guild or Group, please write me at quilting -at- equilters.com (replace the -at- with @)

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