Mystery Quilt and Fabric Choices
Long ago we belonged to a quilters guild and we participated in a mystery quilt. Given to us at sign up were the fabric requirements, and shopping we went. Each month we received an envelope with instructions for completing one block. We successfully completed all the blocks and the quilt, but I have never been happy with our choice of fabrics.
Just because fabrics go together overall doesn’t mean you will like/want two or more of them to be a focus. Above is a picture of our mystery quilt and here is a close up:
Mystery Quilt
I’ve never liked the dark colored red next to the pinkish-red. While each red is fine with the green and navy, I don’t care for them together.
To illustrate this point a little easier, I am going to share four pictures of the same quilt:
Fabric Choices
This pattern was shared by Sew in Love (with fabric) in a recent blog post. Called Changing Lanes, you wouldn’t believe that these were all made from the same pattern. The fabric placement and even the choice of colors completely change the look of the quilt. In the blue quilt, I wouldn’t want the second color from the left to be next to the third color from the right. To me they clash, and I wouldn’t enjoy the result.
Similarly, in the black/gray quilt you would see very little difference in patterns if they were lined up in tone order like the first sample. The light grays would show up mostly as one with little variation.
So, if I had a re-do on the mystery quilt I would make a few changes. But I do still enjoy the quilt very much and it is my go-to-quilt when it is chilly. By the way, I would like to make the Changing Lanes quilt in any of the color variations. ~smile~
I have never done a mystery quilt, but I’ve enjoyed looking at what others have done with them, particularly Bonnie Hunter. Thanks for sharing the photos of the different versions. It totally does make it look like they came from different patterns.
Good Morning! Thank you for your visit and kind words. I guess I’m more experienced picking fabrics now that I think I would never make those same choices . . . but who knows! LOL
I love doing mystery quilts. But it can be a trick to get colors that play together nicely when you don’t know where you’re going.
Hi Nancy – you are absolutely correct! We learned that the hard way, but it is a lesson worth learning. Since then, we chose colors that go all together – not just ones that go with a few. Maybe sometime we’ll have to remake that quilt again. ~smile~