Cat's Meow Mystery Quilt Introduction to Step 1 and a Few Notes

I am making the sample of the Cat's Meow Mystery quilt for this Thursday's meeting of the Mayflower Quilters' Guild.  Now, since it's a mystery, I can't show much but I wanted to draw attention to a few things I found helpful when completing step 1.

In step 1 you pick your three fabrics:  a light background and a medium to dark main fabric as well as a dark or strong contrast fabric and then you cut and sew various width of fabric strips into strip sets as directed.  I think my strip sets show that my light fabric is nice and light and my two other fabrics are definitely darker but also have enough contrast from each other as well.

Note #1 - This is to emphasise that all the strip sets' seam allowances are all ironed towards the dark or contrasting fabric which will make further construction steps easier.  (I had to search for this detail.)

Note #2 - Some of the light background strips are not sewn into strip sets, but are cut up into various lengths as is.  After I had sewn my strip sets and had some single strips left over, I thought I had made an error and had to read back through the instructions to find out it was OK and what to do with them.

Note #3 - The first light and contrast strip sets become four patches.  If you nest two of the strip sets right sides together before cutting, the pieces will already be paired for chain sewing and you will also only have to make half as many cuts since you will be cutting two strips at once.

Note #4 - To reduce bulk when pressing the four patches open, you can spin your seams.  See how all the seams on the back of the block are pointing in the same direction as you go clockwise around the block and a little four patch appears in the centre of the back of the block.

Note #5 – When you join your four patches to other blocks, make sure you look at which way they are turned in the diagram before you attach them or you could end up with a different design.

Note #6 - Strip set #4, which has two narrow contrast strips on each side of the main fabric is just long enough to cut out the required number of pieces (12 x 3.5" =  42") so be careful, ask me how I know...  All the other strip sets have lots of wiggle room .

Step 2 will be given in April and Step 3 with be given in May.  Step 4 will be to bring your completed quilt to the September meeting for the chance to win some prizes!  I will also provide the link to the Mystery Quilt pattern after Step 3 is provided so people can't go and peek at the final result and spoil the mystery.  I just noticed that the striped edges of my design boards match my fabrics.

Edited 15/03/2018 to add Hint #5 and correct Hint numbering