Welcome to QM's mystery quilt Hopes and Wishes designed by Paul Maloney of Blue Earth, Minnesota. Offered exclusively for our web viewers, this pattern will be presented in 8 installments, and each new offering will appear every other Thursday.

This patchwork quilt design works well with prints in two color families and a neutral. For all the illustrations, and for the finished quilt, we have used reds, white and blues--perfect timing for a Fourth-of-July quilt. The final part is presented June 12, 2003, so you'll just have time to finish the quilting and binding for the summer celebration. However, reds, greens and cream would make a beautiful Christmas quilt, and you would have plenty of time to finish for the holidays. Blues, browns and cream would make a cozy country version. As you'll see in the yardage box you'll need two values of one color, three values of another and a white or neutral. If you sort carefully, scraps of each color could also work well.

Choose your color combination and join the fun. Quick piecing techniques make speedy work of all the units. We suggest that as you finish groups of each unit and section, you put the group in a labeled plastic baggie.

Illustrations include tabs that show which direction seam allowances should be pressed. Following these will make units, sections, blocks and rows go together much more precisely.

Directions are for both the sofa quilt and the queen comforter.

Part 1: Yardage, diagrammed patches. Cut all patches. Make unit 1's-5's. 

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Part 2: Making units 6 through 10 and section A. 

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Part 3: Making units 11 and 12, and sections B, C and D.

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Part 4: Completing the units and constructing sections. 

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Part 5: You're in the home stretch! Assemble units into blocks and construct rows for the queen and sofa size quilts. 

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Part 6: The mystery is revealed! Make rows and assemble the quilt top to discover the final design. 

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Part 7: The favorite part of the process for many quiltmakers--the quilting!

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Part 8: The final element of quilting--Charm Tack Motifs! 

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