Has anyone decided to use BH's colors, EXCEPT for the black? What are you using instead? That just seems like a lot of black to me.

Michelleoc--I am leaning towards using a navy in place of black. I love the yellow, teal, green and pink but do not like to use black. I wont really decided until I see some of the pieces come together to get a better idea of the block design. If the design didn't call for black, I would be happy to follow along as a mystery but I'm not comfortable with forging ahead with black.

I popped into this thread and now I want to give it a try! But....I don't really understand what a Mystery Quilt is? Can someone point me to or give me a good description? I did read through the intro on Bonnie Hunter's site and, since it was on the way from picking up my DD from school, stopped at a Lowe's for the colour chips.

Steps are given for the quilt one a a time but you don't know what the final quilt will look like. I think you have to be familiar with the designer so you can decide if you like his/her style. Check out Bonnie's website www.quiltville.com to see some of her quilts. There are a couple of her past mysteries on the free patterns tab but most of them have been retired and put into her books.

This will take you to images of past mystery quilts. They look challenging!

Gosh, those are quite intricate! I may not be up for this...but I guess I won't know until I try.

With regard to fabrics, the ones I've seen in this thread are all scrappy. Does anyone think using Kona solids for the six colours would work out? I'm leaning in that direction, as my stash is light on these colours.

Bonnie said in the intro, that the quilt would work using just one fabric for each color. If six blenders will work, I don't see why six solids wouldn't. It would just be a different look. But let's see what someone with BH experience thinks.

miss_sonja: come on, join in. I've never done a mystery quilt either. Her quilts do look very challenging but I'm looking at it as learning new skills. As for using solids, I think that would be really nice. It makes me think of the peacefulness of Amish quilts.

So, to those of you that have done MQ before, any tips for us newbies?

I think there are going to be a lot of us first-timers this year. I'm also going to do it--a first time mystery quilt. I've never done mystery quilts before because I always wanted to know what pattern I was doing before I started.

I think solids would work very nicely. When the top is done you could do a lot with the quilting if you need or want to.

For newbies: I followed Bonnie's suggestion to do as much as you can each week when the clue is released for that week. The next week, when the next clue is released, just put the first week aside and move on to the second clue. Keep doing that as each clue is released. At least then you will be keeping up with what she's talking about and you'll have a little bit done of each step. So when she gets towards the end and you are starting to assemble the blocks you can see what the block(s) look like.

To keep myself organized (and it worked even though I'm not a naturally organized person) I kept each week in plastic bags. I happened to have the zipper kind that curtains or linens come in and used those. When I put aside an unfinished week (in order to move on to the next clue) I wrote myself a couple of notes and stuck it in the bag with the fabric to help me remember where to pick up again at a later date. Example: "have completed cutting all 2" squares and have sewn 30 out of the 45 four patches. Need to sew 15 more four patches to finish this clue."

It was a fun project and Bonnie has said this won't be as intense as last year - so I think this will be a great year to try it!!

I pulled my fabric for this quilt. This will be my 4th (? or 3rd) Bonnie mystery - started with Orca Bay, and I've done them all since them. I don't do scrappy (although based on my scrap bins I really need to start), but I managed to find fabric in my stash for each of her colours. I was going to switch the colours, but when I pulled them I loved the way my fabrics looked together, so I'm going to forge ahead with these. I have never done a full size Bonnie quilt - I usually end up making about 1/2 the blocks.

This time, that's my plan going in. I don't need another 88x88" quilt, but a nice lap would be perfect. Hopefully that will also correct the fact that my yellow is an ombre - so I'll only use 1/2 the fabric to try to keep it looking like a single shade. And I have 2 turquoise fabrics that work, but only 1/2 the requirement for each of them.

Fuzzy math, as you said. 1/4 is a good place to start, but you should expect to need more of some units, and fewer of others, depending on the layout. And you won't know exactly what you need until the very end. Remember you'll need a lot more than 1/4 of the border units (and you never know what's a border until the end).

Last time I made 1/2 the units I had a couple extra of one block, and had to make 2 or 3 more of another. But that's partly becuase when I do "1/2 of the units" I cut about half the strips for each set and make as many units as that will do. So if Bonnie called for 45 2" squares, for example, I would simply cut 1 strip and get 20 2" squares out of it, for my intial set of blocks. I figure I have less waste that way, and no partial strips to carry around for the length of the mystery.

I was going to shoot for 44x66? Lap sized I hope... I'm a total newbie to mystery quilts...

Cindy, thank you for those hints. Making reminder notes sounds like an excellent idea!

There are so many good - ideas and advice - here that I think I will start this as well. I doubt I will make the quilt 88x88, but like some of you a nice lap quilt would be nice. If as I do this, I decide it is just what the Dr. ordered, then I will work on making it bigger. I know one thing, between BH and all of you, I am going to learn a lot! Love the idea of plastic bags (I too cannot throw away those zippered bags from sheets, pillows, blankets, etc.) and adding notes. I have used these in the past but just shoved everything in there and can't figure half of my mess out, lol.

ok so here is my plan (Thank You, by the way, Kristakz) so I will plan to make whatever is called for in about 1/2 the WOF pieces to be cut and then reserve the remaining fabric (in the same zip bag, TY Cindy) rather than having it escape into the dark reaches of the stash. Then in theory with the instructions and the blocks and the remaining fabric.........................I think I have a plan......yea ! Thank You.

I certainly don't need an 88x88 quilt that I haven't even decided if I like the pattern and have no one to give it to anyway. At my age, life is short and you don't waste time! It sounds like an amusing way to do quilting, but from the previous posts it is unclear whether you have to make a full-size quilt to get all of the blocks you need for a half-size quilt.

Do you think it might be fun to join with another person and each make half the blocks? That way we don't waste the material or the time. It would require trading fabrics and might get confusing. But at least we would each get a quilt of a reasonable size. Maybe one or two blocks short?

I have never done one of these, and I am not willing to do a quilt twice bigger than what I need as I have better things to do.

Ideas?

Bonnie says this in her introduction for this quilt: "I will only be providing directions for ONE SIZE of quilt. If you want it smaller, make 1/2 the units. If you want it bigger –wait until we are done and add an extra row. " I think making 1/2 is definitely safe - you aren't going to have a pile of one kind of blocks leftover. But you may need to fill it out with a few extras.

That said, doing it with a friend would be great fun, I think.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=497124&stc=1Here are my fabrics. Do any of them scream "Oh, my gosh, what was she thinking?!?!" If so, please let me know. My yellow is brighter than she described, but the awnings were actually a kind of bright lemon yellow color and I don't like that color! Thanks in advance for input.

BTW, anyone that shops in Rosie's in San Diego - she's put aside a bunch of fabrics specifically for this MQ.

Those are really nice Michelle - the only one I would question is the darkest green if it was placed next to the black, but all good otherwise.

Love your fabrics Michelle. I am looking forward to this MQ. The colors BH chose are definitely out of my comfort zone so it will be great fun.

Lovely collection of fabrics, Michelle! Should make a beautiful quilt...

I'm going to try it and use solids. I'll have to try a few LQSs for the right colours-online is too iffy.

You ladies have gotten me so excited about this MQ! I have never done one of Bonnie's but I am so addicted to MQ's. I printed out the first set of instructions the day she posted them. I just found this thread this evening and read through all the posts. I just pulled all this from my stash. Hopefully I can get the paint chips to make sure my colors are close. My nearest Lowes is 90 miles away. I don't have much for pinks so I substituted the orangey red. I'm thinking poppies instead of geraniums or whatever BH was thinking of with her pinks.

Michelle, I love that dot! I keep going back to look at it. (All the other fabrics are beautiful, too.)

That's what happened with me, Pam. I read the thread and was swept up in the excitement. I had never thought about doing a mystery quilt before.

I decided to do Bonnie Hunter's MQ also. I love, love the colors and have gotten most of them maybe all except don't have enough black. Doing this instead of LQS BOM.

Nice fabrics, Pam...

Call your local Ace Hardware store and see if they carry Valspar paint. Ours does. Maybe you won't have to go so far to get those paint chips, after all.

Me three! Ditto!!!

I've abandoned the Kaffe idea but it dawned on me her colors are similar to a baby quilt I just finished and I can 'hotten' them up with similar tiny-prints
here's a pic of the quilt - no purple allowed, alas :( But I wonder if that would fly instead of black....) (and yes I wish I had trapuntoed the squares to puff them out :( )
http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=497200&stc=1

Sue: Such a beautiful quilt, the border fabric could not have been more perfect.

Lots of places carry Valspar (or any other brand) but they won't have the same stock numbers. The big stores have their own stock numbers on paint and carpet, etc, so if you are comparison shopping you get a little stymied :)

That said just print off the first part of the mystery we have, and go by those color cards she showed.

I'm thinking of about 60 x 72 so will work with half and see what I need.
Since Bonnies is a square quilt I will have to make it work if I can. Sometimes you can't just leave off a row or add a row and keep the pattern as it is intended.

Question? What color thread would you use for piecing this?
Black? White? Grey? off white? does it matter?

:)

SueSew, what a lovely quilt! That narrow sashing adds so much!

What did you mean about purple not being allowed? It certainly worked well in your baby quilt. The 13th picture in Bonnie's intro shows the green wall, the pink couch, the black and white floor and there's a painting on the wall with blue and purple. If you cover up the floor, you can imagine how the palette would look with purple instead of black.

susiequilt, I would avoid using a thread dark enough to be conspicuous with the whites, so will probably use my go-to neutral, which I would call a warm beige.

Joes' mom wrote - What did you mean about purple not being allowed? It certainly worked well in your baby quilt. The 13th picture in Bonnie's intro shows the green wall, the pink couch, the black and white floor and there's a painting on the wall with blue and purple. If you cover up the floor, you can imagine how the palette would look with purple instead of black.
Good idea! I thought we were supposed to use black...I will check the photos of that area again and print them and play with the colors. Another good clue here!

Really? I did not know that. I thought they were Valspar's numbers.

They are Valspar numbers: http://www.valsparpaint.com/en/explo...-selector.html. It looks like Lowe's probably has the largest selection of Valspar cards after looking on the Valspar website.