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!

Whoo Hoo. I'm on board. Breakfast tacos are in the club car, and the coffee is made. There's also a nice assortment of teas for those so inclined. Let the fun begin!

Thanks, Judy. (Yes, you know me!)

Group D caught my eye first but I am voting this way:

Like the best-B

You will use-B

Thanks for hosting another Mystery Train.

Connie

I love group "A"!

My favorite is B and is the group I think you used.

I'm changing my mind, I prefer B, but think you used D

Oh Judy they are all sooo pretty. I think the B maybe or the C. No the B. I'm sure the B. Wait maybe the C. OK the B for sure I think. lol.

Yes, indeedy, exactly the person I had in mind! LOL

I like all the choices but A. So I know, make one of each, lol. Welcome aboard everyone. Raspberry coffee cake in the club car.

I like C the best but think you used D. Judy would this pattern be suitable for a baby quilt. I need a baby quilt for my grandson due end of April so if I could make this quilt for him it would be killing two birds with one stone.

Canny, yes, this would be perfect for a baby quilt, just make sure the prints are small. Like I mentioned, it will finish at 48" long without sash and border, so if, when finished, you think it is too big, you can leave off one row, and make a pillow or wall hanging to match the quilt.

I like the C group and think it's the one that you used. It looks like Spring!!

Most of my fabric is stored off site, so once it warms up a bit I'll head over and pull some.
I like B the best, but am guessing you used C.

Judy -- love your new avatar. Does the center block have a name?

Here are my fabric choices along with a part of a block where I have used these 3 fabrics:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]565179[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]565180[/ATTACH]

If I need to change out my blue solid, please let me know.

Connie

My amazing son has finished his MFA in Boston, traveled to Vietnam as a Visiting Scholar, returned to NYC and packed up for a move to Oakland, Ca. Along the way, he got a teaching offer, in Hong Kong! Back in Oakland, he is finishing his novel and driving for Uber. And looking for an apartment. I will look for masculine-ish fabric and make this wall hanging
for him. With a wish for affordable rent and a secure lease!! Thanks Judy!!

It was a free pattern from Moda called Double Windmill and was done with light and dark solid blue, and white. I am a scrappy person, so that is what I did. Each block in the quilt had a different light background, and I sashed the blocks to make them stand out.
this is the first one I mad,e kind of blah, so I went all scrappy but forgot to take a pix of it.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t282007.html click on this link to see the blah one LOL

I like B best, but I think you will use D. Thanks for the new mystery. Quilting on the border of mystery # 14. Finished # 15 (table runner) in early December. Looking forward to this one.

Being drawn in....
 

Thanks for the invite Judy ~ I may be being pulled into it already; I can see that you have lots of fun with it. What do you think of this combo? Are the prints too large?
I think you will go with B and that is my favorite too - especially the lightest one.

I hope to quilt along on this Mystery Train.

I like both B and D. Would prefer B but think it will be D. Have to go look at my stash now!

I'm onboard and looking forward to a fun trip. I like all the examples you shared and I think you chose C.

Connie, if you blue is the medium, I think you will be just fine! Love your TOT background in this block

Carol Your fabrics are beautiful. I think when you see the first clue, you may agree that they are a bit large, but then you may like the look of what you will be making with the first clue. You will find that I give very little away at to clues of the mystery, but am more than happy to advise on fabric. :)

Aren't the fabrics great so far. Here is my maybe choices. I wanted yellow /blue but didn't have enough. So these are greens. The first one is pastel green the second a white background with blue and green flowers and the third is a medium green in the same family of green as the first. :)

I love A, but I'm guessing you chose D.

Hope to finish assembling En Provence tomorrow. I'll look at fabrics after that, though I have some ideas in mind. Will this one work scrappy? By color or value?

I like D the best but I think you will use B and I believr B might be the most popular.

Hi everybody. I'm here, but no idea what fabrics I will choose yet. No idea what Judy will choose either.

I am on and will pick fabrics as soon as I finish assembling En Provence tomorrow.

Baking the pecan pies, but I'll be on board soon! :wave:

And I vote that you used B.

Oh, and I vote you used D, which is the one I like best.

Paintmejudy: Yes my solid blue is my medium and the TOT fabric is the same in both pictures but the true color shows best in the block. I'm so happy I picked up several yardages of the TOT at a fabric yard sale.

Thanks for your reply. :)

Connie

I'm going with C all the way around.

What is TOT?

It is Tone on Tone. We use that to describe a two-tone fabric that has two shades of the same color on it, such as white-on-white.

Judy, I plan to join this train, I just have to find some fabric in my stash that will work.....and I love the "B" fabrics in your samples, so I think that is what you used.:)

(Whew) glad I didn't miss the train leaving the station...I'll be rummaging through my stash after church. I love Carol's fabrics and will be curious if she ends up using them after next week's clue.

I like Judy's combinations in Group B and C and hope she picked B.

Judy, would this mystery be a good pattern for a quilt of valor? I have a veteran friend I want to make a quilt for. As someone else suggested it would be serving two purposes at once. But if not, that's ok too.

I have another question. When you said you will save about 9" for sashing, did you mean for a first border? Or are we to figure fabric for sashing between the blocks as well?

I think you will be using set B.

I love those fabrics too and have waited for the just the right pattern - this may not be it. But I pulled these out now. What do you all think? As usual I'm having a hard time making a decision. The one combo is rather drab and perhaps there is no "medium" but I do like that print...too large a print too? The teal combo may be the final unless I dig deeper. I realized that I don't have large enough pieces of small printed fabric as even that seems a bit larger than Judy shows in her samples....hmm does that mean I have to go shopping?

[QUOTE=Carol in WI;7736278]I love those fabrics too and have waited for the just the right pattern - this may not be it. But I pulled these out now. What do you all think? As usual I'm having a hard time making a decision. The one combo is rather drab and perhaps there is no "medium" but I do like that print...too large a print too? The teal combo may be the final unless I dig deeper. I realized that I don't have large enough pieces of small printed fabric as even that seems a bit larger than Judy shows in her samples....hmm does that mean I have to go shopping?[/QUOTE

Carol in WI I like your fabrics but I would have made them into different sets. Try trading out the gold and the white. The first set would be floral (med), olive(dark), and gold(light); and the second set would be dark blue, light blue, and white. What do you think?

Breakfast Tacos were great. Thank-you. It went great with the hot chocolate. Which I brought and left several packages in the club car.

I'm going to be working on this mystery at the same time I will be finishing Bonnie's mystery. Of course I am several weeks behind. Normal for me. I decided to make the large quilt on Bonnie's mystery.

As for this mystery. My New Year's Resolution is to keep up with your mystery each week this year and try to post pics as I go along. So in the next couple of days I will be picking out my fabric. I plan to make a small throw. Which makes it easier to keep up.

Thank-you Judy for hosting another mystery for us. I so enjoy the train ride and reading how everyone is doing.:wave: