Quiltingboard Forums - 16th Mystery Quilt Train Ride Begins Now!

Good morning, and Happy New Year! Are you ready? Let’s get this train ride under way! Settle into the club car for a snack and beverage while we say hello – A big welcome to all returning passengers, and to all new mystery train riders. Confident beginners and experienced quilters will enjoy this trip. Clues are posted Saturday morning by 8:00 MST and you will begin cutting and sewing next week. The last clue will be given on Feb 11 with all the directions needed to complete your quilt.

Making this quilt, as the directions are written, will make a lap quilt or wall hanging approximately 36” x 48”. (Borders for the quilt are not include in the below 3 fabrics.) It can easily be made larger with 1 or 2 additional borders, or by making double the number of blocks with sash and a border. Or some of you (yup .. I know who you are. LOL) will just make 4 times the number of blocks and make a magnificent large quilt. I am confident you will be pleased with the result. My quilt will be donated to the charity I sew for, with the addition of sash and border. But my daughter (my beta group!) wants me to make her a big one in all purples.

Instead of using A B C as fabric designations, I am just calling them light, medium and dark, as you can see from the photo of fabric groups I’ve sampled out. Make sure you have contrast between all the fabrics so the pattern will leap out at you. I kept mulling over what to do, and finally made a pick from one of these groups. Let’s have a little vote – Vote for which group you like best (A B C or D) and vote which one you think I used! You’ll see my choice next Saturday.

Small-scale prints or tone on tone will work best. Some may say that my light is not a small scale, but yes, it is if you look at the density of the print. There is no surrounding background that will end up reading as a white when the fabric is cut into. You will need the following:

1-1/2 yards of light
1-1/8 yard of medium
1 yard of dark

I would suggest a sashing, perhaps a solid of a darker color, to separate the blocks from the border. For this quilt that I am making, I am allowing 8 or 9 inches to cut into 1-1/2”wide sashing strips. I like this size that finishes at 1” wide, just enough separation of colors without distracting from the quilt pattern. Naturally, you can use whatever you wish.

If you are adding a border, use either one of the fabrics in the quilt if you have more fabric, or an entirely different fabric. You may want to wait until the end to decide on a border.

Next Saturday, you will see what I chose, and I will show you the border and sashing I used.

Post your fabric choices if you have any questions about using them and I will try to help. Post them if you don’t have questions so we can all see everybody’s beautiful fabrics!

Will check in with you, early this afternoon to see how you are doing. Have fun!