Winter Mystery Quilt Weekend 2012

Winter Mystery Quilt Weekend

December 28th & 29th, 2012

"A Quilt for All Seasons"

Start by choosing one of the four season’s (all four season’s quilt patterns are included in the instructions, but I suggest you choose one for the weekend). If you would like for the quilt to be more generic and not directly coordinated with a season, choose Winter (or possibly Spring) and put in whatever colors that float your boat. Summer would also be great for a little girl… just sayin’.

Each individual season’s quilt is 65" x 65". For a fun, king size quilt, you might like to make all four (in colors that don’t clash, of course) and sew them together to make a king size QUILT FOR ALL SEASONS! If doing all four with the intent to combine them to make a large King size quilt, think of your finished quilt as a large four patch. Plan your backgrounds and coordinating fabrics accordingly.

For each of the four season’s, Fabric A is the background color. It touches all of the other fabrics and should not, therefore, be too similar to any of the other fabrics.

Fabric Requirements

You need 1/2 yard for binding and 4 yards for the backing of each individual season’s quilt. Below I have provided examples of fabrics that would work in the quilts. These are the fabrics I would pick for my quilts, but feel free to alternate from my examples. If you have questions about the fabrics you choose, please feel free to email me. I am here to help!

The cutting chart will be released late next week. It is short and easily completed in a short evening or morning (assuming you pick one of the four).

Spring

Try a floral for Fabric B. I like green for Fabric C, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use another color.

 

Summer

Summer is good with a large floral background (Fabric A), and coordinating solid/tonal colors with it. I like a dark neutral for C… grey, black, brown.

Autumn

 
Think Autumn colors: golden, dark purple, burnt orange, crimson, woody brown.

Winter

 
The fabrics should gradate in value. That is, Fabrics A-D can be lightest to darkest or vice versa. I like it in cool colors (blues, turquoises, purples, or aquas) with either a bright white or very dark background. Another color way I enjoy uses a red background and gradating yellows for B-C.

 
**NOTE** Your background (Fabric A) can be pieced of several different fabrics if you wish but your fabrics should be similar in colors, tones and values. As an example of a pieced background that would be appropriate for this design, take a peek at this quilt that forum member Denise "scraphappydenise" made - the block backgrounds show exactly the kind of "look" you should aim for your quilt.

Jess and I hope everyone has fun with this new pattern and look forward to seeing YOUR quilt!
Cindy

Next weekend’s mystery quilt is 79” x 89” – perfect for a full size bed and just in time for Autumn. By the way, Clothworks (a fabric manufacturer) is profiling this pattern on the COVER of their sales boards for International Quilt Market in Houston. Whoop!! So tell your friends to join us next weekend for a sneak preview of this design, one month before shop owners even see it! Just have them visit The Quilt and Needle to sign up.

Here’s a generous estimate of what you need, including borders and binding (I’m trying out a way to save some fabric, but this will definitely cover it):

A – 2-3/4 yards

B – 2-5/8 yards
C – 1-3/8 yards
D – 1 yard
E – 7/8 yard
F – ¾ yard

How to pick your fabrics:

Major hint: Fabric A is the background fabric.

A and B can be two shades of the same color (ex. A is a dark grey and B is a medium grey). They do NOT have to be drastically different, but some difference is preferred.

Using black for B is a really cool idea. J

Personally, I am not jazzed about a single jump-off-the-quilt-and-smack-you-in-the-eyes POP color for this particular design. If I absolutely had to pick a place for a pop color… I guess I would put it at C. And I would use yellow. But that’s just me! Yellow is my fav color afterall. (Don’t take me too literally here, C does NOT have to be yellow. I just like yellow and think the world would be a happier place with more yellow in it!)

You can use three different fabrics for D, E, and F, OR you can use one fabric for all three!

If you want to make this scrappy, use dark scrappy colors for A, and light scrappy colors for D, E, and F (or vice versa). For best results, do not make B or C scrappy.

Prints… hmmmm… If you have a large print you like for this, use it for A OR D, E, and F. It wouldn’t work as B or C. I designed this pattern using tonal fabrics that read almost solid. Solids would work really well, as would any line of blenders. Varying smaller prints with blenders would be nice too, it’s just not going to show off this cool design quite as well.

Why yes, a monochromatic color scheme would work well!

I have attached a pic of a few color ways that I like for this design as an example (these would have been my kits if I’d carried them this time around). The images show the fabric examples in order, A-F. Y’all, a ton of variations would work with this pattern. If you want me to take a look at the fabrics you choose, just send me a pic. I am here to help!

 

The cutting chart will be released early next week via email. Subscribe at The Quilt and Needle.

 

Piece out,

Jess

 

Sweet! New mystery quilt kits are up! What are YOU doing July 28-29? I'll be Mystery quilting with my friends online. ♥






Looking for something easy and fun to make for your last minute Father's Day gift? Look no further!! You probably have a five yard bundle in your stash that is perfect for this "easy peasy" pattern! You can purchase the downloadable version and receive the full color instructions right away. You just can't beat that!

http://quiltwoman.com/Easy-Peasy-Quilt-Pattern-Downloadable.aspx

Piece out,
Jess

Awesome Quilting Tip 6-12-12

Use the blank back of your cutting mat to cut your fabric. This forces you to measure with your ruler, rather than the lines on the mat (which are more likely to be distorted and less accurate). Have an awesome quilting day!
- Jess

March Mystery FUN!!

How are you spending your spring break? Join us for a super awesome Mystery Quilt! Register here for your Spring Mystery Quilt! The Cutting Chart, including Fabric Requirements, will be e-mailed to you as soon as you register. The instructions will be mailed throughout the weekend (March 17-18). This is one of our best mystery patterns ever! You don’t want to miss out on this unique experience!  You can also take advantage of special pricing for pre-ordering all four of the 2012 Mystery Quilt Patterns here.