My first quilt was a Mystery Quilt at Summer Quilt Camp in Radford, VA.  I do have the top finished, but have not yet quilted it.  Since it was my first real quilt, I didn’t want to quilt it until I had more practice.  I think I know what I want to do to quilt it now.

To be honest, as a new quilter, if I had seen what the full quilt looked like, I would have been afraid to do it!  But by tackling it in bits & pieces and with the help of the staff at camp and other experienced quilters, I was able to successfully make a very nice, holiday-themed quilt top.

So, I have an attraction to Mystery Quilts. I follow a number of blogs in the quilt community.  Many very experienced & talented quilters share their skills through Online Mystery Quilts.  Sometimes I try to participate and other times, I will save the steps to attempt later.

I am way behind in the Craftsy Quilt of Valor Mystery Quilt-a-long.  There are 6 Steps which were posted once a week on Wednesday and the last one was posted September 19th.  First, I was late assembling my fabrics.  Then I got most of the fabric washed, ironed and cut, but other things interrupted me.  When I started stitching the pieces, it didn’t go together very well and I had to take the first block apart.  So I took a break and walked away from it.

Last night I got back to it. I worked on one of 8 Star blocks. One problem I had with the first time I tried this block was that a number of pieces were on the bias and were very stretchy.  After stitching, the block turned out wonky. This time I used Mary Ellen’s Best Press Spray (I love that name! non-paid endorsement) and stiffen up the pieces a bit.  This allowed me to stitch without stretching.  I stitched slowly, ironing every seam as I went using Best Press Spray every time I ironed.

So here is the Star Block for the Craftsy Quilt of Valor Mystery Quilt-a-Long.  I only have 8 more of these blocks to make.