It's that time of year again!

No, not Thanksgiving. Or the winter-related holiday of your preference. Or even Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt (no shade, BH does good work!) Instead, it's the thing I've been eagerly anticipating and checking the website every day of November for:

MerryMayhem's New Year's Day Mystery Quilt! This year it's #147: "Let's Face It" ONE DAY Online Mystery Quilt! Yes, you read that right, it's a quilt top in a day! (Not counting cutting and selecting your fabric).

New Year's Day MYSTERY Quilt! | MerryMayhem.com

Or you can follow along at the MerryMayhem's Mystery Quilts FB page (not linked here b/c I'm not sure of the rules on FB linking). There are 3 quilt sizes to choose from with the yardage requirements for each size.

Part 1 has been released already, which gives the fabric requirements to make several different sized versions of this quilt and some of the cutting instructions. Part 2 will be released on Christmas Day, December 25, & going by past mysteries will probably provide the rest of the cutting directions, and maybe some sewing directions to get some of the time-intense foundational sewing done before New Year's Day. Because that's when this mystery turns from a marathon into a sprint!

On New Year's Days past, MerryMayhem will release 1 sewing clue per hour to allow Mystery Quilters to complete the quilt top on that day (although you can certainly save the clues that day & complete the quilt top at a slower pace... I got off track somewhere around noon and finished the next day).

Due to the time constraints and probably also just the pattern maker's personal style, these quilts tend to be less complex and have a lot less tiny pieces than Bonnie Hunter's quilts. Just a tip for anyone who, like me, might be a little intimidated to take on a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt... not that plenty of people don't complete both, of course!

This will be my 2nd year participating and I've been looking forward to this for a while! Now to go through my stash with those Part 1 fabric requirements in mind

I am graciously cut and pasting this with permission....so I didn't have to start from scratch. She calls it her Let's Face It quilt so you can use leftover 6" x 9" facemask novelty print fabrics, although you don't *have* to use novelties or her colors (I used Quilt of Valor fabrics for my last one). Would love to see your fabrics! Post away!

Thanks for starting this thread, I've been on the lookout for it

This is my 4th consecutive year participating in the Merry Mayhem Mystery Quilt, although it'll be tricky for me as I'm not a huge fan of scrappy quilts. She said a few duplicates among the scrappy fabrics would be okay, so I'm just mentally wrestling with myself over how many duplicates I can get away with & still consider it only "a few"

It will be a good chance to use up some of those fat quarters I bought when I first started quilting & hadn't learned I was a half-yard-or-more kinda gal.

This will be my 3rd year participating. Thanks for starting a thread to follow along with others.

I had already set aside my leftover fabrics from mask making. I’ll read the fabric requirements and hopefully I’ll have enough to avoid duplicates.

Here is a photo of a few masks I made. I mostly used batik fabrics.

Looking forward to this

Thanks for starting this thread! Even though I can't work fast enough to participate in real time, I love following the Mayhem and seeing what others are doing. I have really liked her patterns, and am planning on choosing fabrics.

After looking at the intro, my reaction is that her fabrics are kind of weird this time. The gold doesn't seem to go that well with the pink eyeglasses.

Can anyone explain what an I Spy quilt is?

Hi Joe'sMom, the phrase comes from the children's game "I Spy with My Little Eye...." My kids would play this visual scavenger hunt when we were on road trips, and we would have a list of things to "spy". When you found the sign or the color of car or whatever, you had to say, "I spy with my little eye (the school bus)." When it is a quilt, each "focus" fabric then has a different motif for kids to search for and find for the game. I've seen some insanely small cathedral windows I Spy quilts that are really amazing. Pinterest has a lot of photos of examples of "I Spy" quilts. Hope that helps! Hugs!

I thought the same thing but I think A & B are essentially going to act as almost a solid so I suppose we aren't really supposed to "see" the pattern on the gold fabric.

For those who, like me, aren't a huge fan of scrappy, someone did ask about it on the FB page & she replied:

So possibly something to keep in mind. Right now I'm eyeing 24 fabrics, which would leave me with 3 duplicates from each fabric. 4 different colors with a set of about 6-8 fabrics that are multi-colored. I'm worried my individual fabrics aren't interesting enough so maybe I'll just go with more # of duplicates from a smaller selection of the most interesting designs...

Yes that's my intention, I ordered a fabric from spoonflower for my flight attendant friend and was thinking of making this for her, as well as a QOV with a medium to large scale patriotic print, and then making the tone on tone red and blue. Decisions decisions.....LOL.

Thank you, Rebaquilts! That's a great explanation.

I thought I might take the easy way out and order some small pieces of novelty fabrics from Etsy for fabric C. They have quite a few entries for 9" x 11" pieces. It would be easy to cut them to size.

I noticed that she says fabric E could be the same as fabric B; I have a 2 yd. piece of fabric rejected for a border, so I was thinking I might use that for both.

I also considered getting a layer cake and having some coordinated prints rather than I spy prints, to be a bit more coordinated. Maybe that would work well for a QOV too. Decisions decisions. Hugs all and thanks for chatting about this, it will be fun!