Mystery Quilt Patterns

Make 472 (or 500 to give yourself some choices) half square triangles. These need to finish at 2” X 2”, so minimum cut square size is 3” X 3”. Don't groan.

Just do a few at a time.

This is a great time to find all the triangles that you trimmed from other projects and saved in that plastic bag and then forgot about. Or, head to your

stash. Or, find all your scraps of various sizes. As long as the piece is at least 3” X 3”, you can get 2 half square triangles out of it. Scrap squares can also

be bigger, and then you can square the block to 2 1⁄2” X 2 1⁄2”.

Color choices: You can choose to pair a colorful square with a solidish black square for all of your squares. Or just pair 2 different colors together.

I see this quilt done up in brights. That’s the color scheme. But you can also find a nice border fabric and choose all you fabrics to match the border. So:

Florals & pastels; red, white & blue; earth tomes; Halloween colors; Christmas reds, greens, browns & golds. If you don’t use 1 color (like a black) for each

half square triangle pair, you may want to at least put a dark + a medium and medium + light for a lot of the blocks. The contrast in tone will be nice. But

not all of the blocks need that contrast, so just mix it up, like any good scrap quilt! We’ll tie it all together later. Trust me.

Cut as directed below. Keep the PARTS in separate bags, labeled accordingly.

Cut 3 strips of medium red, 3 strips of medium green at 3 3/8 X WOF. Sew a red to a green, 3 times. Cut apart into 3 3/8 units. Sew units together into 4 patches. Make 16. Square to 6 1/4" X 6 1/4" PARTS A

1 strip of dark red (you can use the red novelty here) and 1 strip of dark green. 3 3/8 X WOF. Sew a red to a green, 3 times. Cut apart into 3 3/8 units. Sew units together into 4 patches. Make 4. Square to 6 1/4" X 6 1/4" PARTS B

Cut 2 strips of dark red (you can use the novelty here) and 2 strips of medium red at 9" X WOF. Sew a dark red to a medium red, 2 times. Cut apart into 9" units. Sew units together into 4 patches. Make 4. Square to 17 ½" X 17 ½". PARTS C

Half Square triangle time!

Cut 8 background, 2 dark red, 6 medium red at 9" X 9". Pair a background with each of the reds. Draw a line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the background. Sew a scant quarter away from both sides of the line. You will have 4 dark red/background and 12 med red/background half square triangles. Square to 8 ½" X 8 ½". PARTS D

Cut 2 dark green and 2 medium red squares at 9" X 9". Pair a dark green with a red. Draw a line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the background. Sew a scant quarter away from both sides of the line. You will have 4 dark green/medium red half square triangles. PARTS E 

Also cut 4 dark red squares (you can use the red novelty here) and 1 dark green square at 8 ½" X 8 ½". PARTS F

Also cut 16 background squares and 16 medium red squares and 8 dark red squares (not novelty) at 4 7/8" X 4 7/8" (you can be slightly generous here but try not to cut them at 5"). Cut on the diagonal once. PARTS G

Also cut 4 dark green and 4 background squares at 12 7/8" X 12 7/8" squares (you can be slightly generous here but try not to cut them at 13"). Cut on the diagonal once. PARTS H

Make 472 (or 500 to give yourself some choices) half square triangles. These need to finish at 2” X 2”, so minimum cut square size is 3” X 3”. Don't groan.

Just do a few at a time.

This is a great time to find all the triangles that you trimmed from other projects and saved in that plastic bag and then forgot about. Or, head to your

stash. Or, find all your scraps of various sizes. As long as the piece is at least 3” X 3”, you can get 2 half square triangles out of it. Scrap squares can also

be bigger, and then you can square the block to 2 1⁄2” X 2 1⁄2”.

Color choices: You can choose to pair a colorful square with a solidish black square for all of your squares. Or just pair 2 different colors together.

I see this quilt done up in brights. That’s the color scheme. But you can also find a nice border fabric and choose all you fabrics to match the border. So:

Florals & pastels; red, white & blue; earth tomes; Halloween colors; Christmas reds, greens, browns & golds. If you don’t use 1 color (like a black) for each

half square triangle pair, you may want to at least put a dark + a medium and medium + light for a lot of the blocks. The contrast in tone will be nice. But

not all of the blocks need that contrast, so just mix it up, like any good scrap quilt! We’ll tie it all together later. Trust me.

Make pinwheels from your half square triangles. See picture on right. You will need 125 (that gives you a few extra).

Cut strips, 1 dark, 1 medium or lighter at 2 1/2" X 8 1/2". Sew two pinwheels together and add the strips to the sides.

You will need: 59 dark 2 1/2" X 8 1/2" strips and 59 medium/light 2 1/2" X 8 1/2" strips

That's about 1 yard of each color. Make sure to keep the dark to the left and the medium/light to the right.