What Constitutes A Mystery Quilt?
 

I have never made one so forgive the dumb question. Is it because you do not know what it will look like when you start sewing? Or is there some other thing about the design? How do you know if you even want to do it if you have no idea about the finish?

Yep. :thumbup:

Exactly why I've never had any interest in doing one.

I will say if I were to do one, it would be one of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts. I believe she does one a year, and they're gorgeous.

I think you have to have an adventurous spirit to do a mystery. A big part of the fun is not knowing what it will look like. I've participated in two mysteries. The first one was years ago on the About.com quilting forum. I made two quilts at the same time in different colorways. I hated them both, not because of the pattern but because of my fabric choices. I was a new quilter then and had a lot to learn.
My second mystery was a few years ago it was Bonnie Hunters' Orca Bay. Now that one was so much fun but lots and lots of pieces and repetition. I still haven't put the borders on the quilt and it has 3,672 pieces. Bonnie loves her scrappies lol.

Cari

I have never been interested either, because I want to see what I am making.

I have done two over the years. I actually didn't care for either one of them when finished. In both cases I chose fabrics and colors that I really liked. But, in the end, the pattern (mystery) did not do justice to the fabrics. I don't think I will do another one. One was proposed at our guild for next year-but I declined. When I see the reveal I hope I won't be sorry.

This is my fear as well and the reason I've not done one. I'm confident in my color choices but I don't know if that would be the case with scale/etc. when I have no idea of what the quilt will look like in the end.

My LQS also does a year long sampler program. When the initially announce it each year all you see are swatches for the various colorways (usually 4). I learned early in that process to wait until the last minute to sign up as well once they had the completed samples on display.

I have only ever done Bonnie Hunter mysteries. I googled her past mysteries and liked most. I always choose my own color pallet and am pretty confident in my color eye, and my design ability to change anything I don't like at the end. I like the camaraderie of doing it together. Doing the same thing over and over is not my strong suit so it helps me to keep going.

I have always been leery of doing one myself because I was nervous of not choosing the right colours or running out before the end or not understanding something, so I started out doing just the one-day mystery quilt that was done on New Years Day. It was fun and it wasn't hard to follow along, so I am going to do the Mystery Train Ride on this site.
We will see how that turns out!

Watson

I’ve seen many which I never participated in m couldn’t wrap my head around it. This year New Year’s Day I found a one day mystery quilt project and jumped in— did it. It was fun and I like the finished quilt.
I may not seek out, ever do another one, but I’m not ignoring the possibility.
I think everyone should keep an open mind, when you see one read about it, think about it- no spark- continue on.
One day you might come across one that strikes you as ( could be fun)

Heck, every time I start a quilt, it turns in to a "mystery quilt". Am I going to finish it using the same idea I started with, add more blocks, even finish it, etc?:)
Seriously I'm like a lot of others, I like to have some idea of what the quilt looks like.