Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt from Quiltville - 2014 - Step 1

I always look forward to Bonnie Hunter's winter mystery released on the Friday after the American Thanksgiving.  Since October when the yardage requirements and colour cards were released, I've been shopping my stash and augmenting with a few smaller bits of yardage to round out what I have.

I've also been analyzing some of Bonnie's patterns to see what are the most common components making up her blocks.  I've done this because I want to add some useful Accuquilt dies to my collection.  I have found my Accuquilt GO radically cuts down the cutting time for quilts.  And I really want to use it for this mystery quilt.  I concluded that there are many, many strips in various widths as well as squares in various sizes.  What I did find is that she commonly uses 2 1/2" strips and 2" strips to cut sub units from with the Easy Angle ruler (which I own).  I knew I couldn't go wrong with these two dies.

Clue 1 was released on Friday.  I was able to use my Value Die that came with my GO cutter for the 2 1/2" squares and the 2 1/2" half square triangles.  Here is my journey through Clue 1.  I'm not done yet.  I've got all my 'twosies' done but still have to join them to make the broken dishes.

Here is my value die.  I used the bottom two to create the broken dishes units for Step 1.

 I sub-cut my pinks and aquas right sides together and stacked them in 6s onto the half square triangle section of the die. It was not exact sizes like a regular rotary cutting job, but just enough to cover the blades.  I left the 4 1/2" die empty.  I added the black and yellow for the squares on the bottom of the die using the same principle of 'just a bit bigger than the size of the die".  This is my rough cut:

Sub-cutting to cover blades of half square triangles on the GO die.

Here is the sub-cut now covering the blades and ready to cut.

 

 There is very little waste this way, as you can see in the picture below.  

Here is my first test block.  Perfect 4 1/2".  LOVE my Accuquilt GO because of the accuracy.  No slipping rulers.  No "oopsies".  :)

And here is the back of the block with the center swirled but Bonnie mentioned last night that it creates bulk on the triangles to press this way and I have to agree.  I will be pressing mine open I think.

Here are some pictures of our Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery Launch 2014.  There were twelve of us in our group working on the mystery.  I brought some Grand Illusion colour appropriate cupcakes .

The girls:

 My chain pieced half square triangles at the ironing board:

 

And that folks was the adventures of Step 1.  I've got some work to do before Friday to get my blocks put together but am already eagerly anticipating Step 2 and wondering if I've chosen wisely with my dies and whether I'll have what I need for cutting Step 2.  We'll see.
Here is the link back to the linky party on Bonnie's blog:  http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-1.html

Until Friday then....

Mavis