#13 Mystery Quilt Train Ride
 

Good morning. Is everyone packed and ready? Train leaves as soon as all of you climbs on board.

This train ride will take you on a journey to make a table topper of approximately 34” square, and can easily be made as large as you want it to be. As always, confident beginners to experienced quilters should enjoy the ride. And as always, I am available by PM is you have a question that you didn’t want to post on the board. Any questions will be cheerfully answered. And there are no wrong questions!

New clues will post once a week on Saturday mornings by 9:00 a.m. Pacific time zone, with week 2 posting on May 7th, and week 5 will be May 28th, when it all comes together and you have all you need to complete the mystery.

Today will be the first clue – fabric requirements. I am making a bedside table topper (to go on a 24” round table) that will match my new at-the-long-arm-as-we-speak quilt, and I have chosen grey and white. The floral marked A is the main fabric in my new king size quilt, and some of the fabrics used in this project were also in the new quilt. (I had also used a peach and gray batik, looked great in the quilt but didn't like it for the table topper.) Naturally, you do not need to use a monotone line of fabrics, feel free to use whatever you like.
Don’t feel stressed if you aren't keeping up due to life getting in the way. The thread will always be here and you can refer back to it any time. But all new clues will be posted on this Blocks of the Week and Month thread, so bookmark it for ease of returning to this spot.

And with that said, the club car is open and fresh coffee and hot water for tea awaits. Can’t wait to see what goodies appear on the snack table. For those who haven’t traveled with me, you may feel I give a bit more information than some sewers need, but I want everyone to be successful.

My fabrics chosen for this quilt top are shown below. Small to medium scale fabrics that don’t have a lot of empty space between the designs, solids and tone-on-tones will work best with this pattern. I have calculated my fabric needs on having 42” of useable fabric.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
Fabric A –¾ yard
Fabric B – 5-1/2” x 20”
Fabric C – ¾ yard
Fabric D – ½ yard
Fabric E – this will be your background fabric – ½ yard
Fabric F – this is the sashing – WOF by 8”. If, when you get to this point, you may want to use B – I had planned on using B for the sashing but “the dog ate my homework excuse” came into play, and needed to pick another fabric for sashing. However, I am glad now that I used a different fabric.

Can’t wait to see your fabric selections. I'm going to go to the club car and have a cup of coffee and rest a bit. I'm exhausted from getting ready. Will check in later this afternoon.

on board !

I'm here, too! Judy, could you put a ruler or something else on your main fabric--I'm unsure of scale. No rush--just if you get the chance. Thanks so much for doing this mystery for us! :)

Sunlite - you must have been hovering over your keyboard, waiting patiently ... You win the "first on board prize", which is your choice of work tables. Did you see the brand new one next to the large viewing window, with the fabulous Ott light and comfy chair?

Angelia - here you go, looks like I forgot to put a ruler on fabric before taking the picture. This one turned out darker, too, don't know why the background isn't white. Anyway, this goes along with what I said - prints are ok as long as there is not a lot of blank background -- some of the pieces will be small and you would lose design if there is too much space between the pattern.

I'm on board! Gotta get going and choose my fabric. Yippee!!! I just put some German Chocolate cake in the club car. You might want to have some with your coffee Judy. :)

How wonderful, another train ride! Thank you Judy, these are always such fun.

I can't go stash diving till next week, more's the pity, but I'm trying to remember... In the meantime, I'll go hang in the club car and grab some tea. I'm bringing two pies, a pecan and a buttermilk chess. A little sugar overload.

now that you all know where I am....come on by.....have chocolate, DARK chocolate to share...it is not in the kitchen or club car yet because I have not gotten that far yet...... BTW the view out this window is great right now! and you are welcome to enjoy the comfy chair (hand sewing or reverse sewing) as my back does not allow me to sit.:wave::sew:

I am having a hard time with the pics being black and white.

whispering to annt59.......the fabrics are black and white and greys

Ooooh, now I see!

glad you see they are gray and not blacks. I knew they would be hard to visualize.

I agree with annt59, its very hard to select fabrics using these pictures. Perhaps someone could post a colored set as a suggestion? For example if I chose a multicolored floral would I choose one of each of the colors as mates or would I choose one color using different shades of that color? For example if I chose a floral with pink, yellow, green and blue would the mates be pink, yellow, green and blue or would they be dark blue, med blue, light blue, etc.?

I am with annt59... maybe a colored set for examples would be better? Here's my question... if I chose a floral in pink, blue, yellow and green-would the mates be pink, blue, yellow and green or would they be dark blue, medium blue, light blue, etc.?

Looks like its posting double again! Sorry, I tried to remove one but don't think it worked.

I am hopping onboard for the wonderful mystery, camaraderie, food, and awesome pictures from everyone participating.

Thanks, Judy!

Connie

Looks like we're going to enjoy this train ride for sure!!! Thanks Judy . . . you are such a dear! Okay, I've tried that German Chocolate cake - of course, it was delicious. Had to refrain myself so others could enjoy:thumbup:

Aunt59 that was funny. I thought why did she print out in blk and white too. Then it hit me, Judy said she used greys. lol

I'm climbing on board. Will drop my stuff and head to the club car for some of that coffee and cake! German Chocolate is my very favorite! Oh, yes, and sewing on the mystery, too, of course! But I need a pick-me-up before going stash diving. Thanks, Judy for another opportunity for some fun sewing!

Thanks, Judy!

Okay I'll post my fabrics and maybe Judy can use it to give suggestions that might help you choose your colours. I'm open to suggestions too, thanks!
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thimblebug - very pretty choices. Love your floral. The way you have them laid out is good, but a suggestion: to swap B and C if possible? But either way will be fine. You probably will decide with next week's clue which way to go, after you see what you will be making..

Thanks Judy, B is an odd shaped piece of fabric left over from a bias binding so not sure if there would be 3/4 yards available... certainly not on the WOF, so will wait to see what directions for next week cutting brings. I have a paler pink, but it looks too dull.

Thimble - you'll be okay, I really like your colors, think it will be great.

ohhhhhhhhhh love this choice already, can't wait to see this together.

Enjoying this ride, but not sure if I'm actually making it or not. But it's always great fun to tag along. Sewed the binding on #12 yesterday.

I am kinda jazzed about the Black, Grey and White......will have to shop as stash has nothing in this ...... but I did see at the quilt shop a print that would work really well...and I loved it but did not buy any......had no idea what I would use it for.....hummmmm, the wheels you hear turning are not all train wheels.

Pretty colors, thimblebug

I won't be riding this train because of other priorities in the quilting queue, but I'll watching progress at various depots. I might even share some lemon cake that I plan to make tomorrow.

Wow! Almost missed the train! I was at the quilt show yesterday & forgot all about the train starting. Whew! I caught it! (I did win 2 ribbons....a blue & a red). Will go stash diving today.

Ok, I'm in! I missed the last one completely. It feels like I've been moving for 5 months. Oh, come to think of it, I have been moving for 5 month! But the house I moved from is under contract and supposed to close mid-May so then I'll be fully here. What a great way to mark that event by making a lap quilt.
I keep my fabric at a storage unit, so will go over today and make some choices.

Thank you Judy for keeping the train rolling. I left some breakfast tacos in the club car along with my homemade salsa. Enjoy!

On Board, got to pull fabric from stash.

Ok, trying again! The paisley is my "A" but not sure of the order of "B" thru "E" or what "F" will be. The colors from this scan are off... It's chocolate brown (not black) and there is no orange, its gold/yellow and red. The right side of paisley in the pix is correct, and its the same gold/yellow as the striped fabric. The tonal mates are also dark chocolate.

Oh boy----now I have to put on my thinking cap (that's a hard task in itself!) and decide where I want the finished quilt to go, then decide on my color scheme. Decisions! Decisions! Maybe I should just sit down and eat awhile to give my brain some food before I make my choices.

Here is my choices although since my A is in pieces I may have to change everything when I find out the cutting instructions.

I know what I want for A and E, but not sure of the others or the sequence. I'll decide sashing when we are further along. Judy -- help please?

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Both of those choices are pretty ladies. Here are what I'm leaning towards to make a sewing themed topper.My letters didn't show up in the picture even though I used a thin line black marker. But they are in order a-e left to right. The spools are about 1" Judy do you think I need something bigger?:confused:

Jan - wow, that paisley is fabulous!

Florence and Belfry - both of you have picked such pretties, love the way the colors play so nicely together. Belfry - I like the A to E the way you have them.

Mary great selection of prints. the scale of your prints is fine.

I can already see some fabulous toppers coming out of this mystery.

I think I have 2 choices here, what do you think Judy? A to E left to right[ATTACH=CONFIG]549064[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]549065[/ATTACH]

This will be my first time on a train ride. I might have a floral hiding in my stash. If not, mine might be allowed to grow a bit and use kids fabrics. I have a hard time keeping up with donation quilt obligations.

Will these fabrics work?
 

My stash did not produce a floral, but i found these ..... Will they work? the light one is a light green, but looking gray in the photo.