Merry Mayhem's Mystery Quilt #146: Ups & Downs
 

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:

Merry Mayhem's New Year's Day Mystery Quilt! This year it's #146: Ups and Downs

https://www.merrymayhem.com/new-years-day-mystery-quilt

Or you can follow along at the Merry Mayhem's Mystery Quilts FB page (not linked here b/c I'm not sure of the rules on FB linking)

Part 1 has been released already, which gives the fabric requirements to make several different sized versions of this quilt. Part 2 will be released in late December & going by past mysteries will probably provide cutting/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, Merry Mayhem has released 1 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 usually get off track somewhere around clue #5)

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 3rd year in a row participating and I've been looking forward to this for a while! Now to meticulously go through my stash with those Part 1 fabric requirements in mind :)

Vadalia thanks for the heads up. I saved the instructions. I will be doing this one. This will make my third Merry Mayhem mystery quilt.

Thanks for posting the info. I always look forward to these days of sewing.

Thank you for hosting this. I too look forward to this every year. Have printed out the fabric requirements. I plan to sew along with you.

Thanks for posting. I was just looking for this a few days ago.

Thanks for the Heads Up on this Mystery Quilt. This will be the first time I participated in the Merry Mayhem and I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you, vadalia! I printed out the instructions, but found them quite confusing (I often need to read things several times). I did the last two Mayhems and thought the patterns were really nice, so I will plan on printing the clues even if I don't sew along.

Welcome to everyone, from first timers to veterans!

joe'smom, I don't think it would be a problem to ask about anything in the instructions you found confusing. Sometimes the instructions do include errors or something worded not super clearly. I already had to do some math to figure out if the cutting directions for the light fabric meant to cut 8.5 in x WoF strips in addition to the 8.5 in squares or if we were sub-cutting the WoF strips into the squares. For anyone also wondering about that, I believe we are sub-cutting the strips into the squares but if anyone thinks differently please let me know!

So nice to have something scrappy this year. It makes fabric selection so easy!

Thanks, Vadalia!
Am I understanding that we are to cut 18-8 1/2" squares each from both scrappy and from background to end up with 36 blocks? (For lap size).

Watson

Yes, Watson that is correct. i had plans for a queen size but cutting 91 squares of each is way too many. I think I will stay with lap size.

That's how I read it as well, yes.

LOL And here I am wondering how few different med/dark fabrics I can get away with using & still having the pattern work (I'm very much into "controlled scrappy") Although I guess if there was ever a time to go hog-wild, it'd be with a mystery quilt :)

Post 14 reported

Thanks for the information on the Merry Mahem 2022 Mystery Quilt. I look forward to doing this one! I fell short of completing the other BOM one I started. I guess working on a quilt in condensed timeframe is more my speed! I printed off the directions and will get prepped for Dec 25.

Has anyone done the math for one of the quilt sizes? For the lap size it's a 48x54. If you minus the 4.5" outer borders & the 2.5" inner borders the center would be 36x42. It's in a 6x6 grid which make your blocks 6.5" x7.5". It almost seems like a waste to make 36 8"x8" half square triangles. Or is my math wrong? I have to make all those half triangles to cut them an oddball size.

Queenbarbiej, your math does check out although I believe those blocks aren't likely to just stay HSTs. That seems like it'd be overly simplistic given that the mystery is a multiple-step process that usually hits at least 7-8 clues. Plus the fact the blocks are likely going to be different lengths versus widths makes me think it won't be just straight-forward HST w/ bits trimmed off.

I just came upon this thread this morning but printed the first instructions a couple of days ago…This will be my third Merry Mayhem mystery so I must have been on her email list from before. I have enjoyed the previous mysteries and agree with Vadalia that they are simpler to tackle than BH’s. I also like that you get the fabric and cutting instructions early so that you can piece and sew on New Year’s Day. I think I am going to use a layer cake as an option noted in her instructions and find some coordinating fabric from my stash.

Vadalia, thank you for hosting…I look forward to seeing everyone’s variations of the Ups and Downs mystery quilt.

I printed the first two pages, but I won't be home until the 28th. I'm sure someone will post the link here so I can catch up. I wish I had a layer cake, but I have plenty of fabrics. Maybe I'll use some bright florals from 10 years ago. I'll probably need to purchase the background. Most of my fabrics are just a yard and I'm looking at the lap size.

Question; The fabric requirements says, 'Squares, both light and med/dk. The cutting guide indicates using only the med/dk. When do we use the light scraps? I'm guessing the cutting guide should have read 'Light and med/dk'.

Do you mean where it says "# of 8 1/2” Squares, both Lt & Md/Dk" on the 2nd page? I believe that's in reference to needing that number of squares from the light background fabric, as well as the same number of squares cut out of a scrappy selection of Md/Dk fabrics. So for my Quilt of Valor size, for example, I'll cut 32 light background fabric squares as well as 32 squares out of Md/Dk fabric.

On another note, I've compiled a few different colorways for myself to choose from for this mystery but for some reason I'm getting an error message uploading them :(

You're correct. 18 of each lt/dk would make 36 squares. Thank you.

The cutting and marking are done. Now for Dec 25. Because I have more green than anything else, it'll be, you guessed, green!

Didn't have enough of any one light so it has 3 lights. Has 18 med/dk. A very dark green for the accent.

Ooooh, how exciting and brave to do scrappy lights! :thumbup:

Less than a month to go, yea.

In a surprise (well surprising to me) move, I've got all my squares cut out and diagonals drawn on the backs. I had too many good potential fabric combos & was letting indecision paralyze me from actually getting started on the cutting, so I let my mother pick out my fabric instead. I'm very impressed with her selection, although there are a lot of directional patterns I hope work out (it's not like MM advised against directional patterns or anything) I just hope 4 different fabrics is enough for the scrappy part.

I'll try to see if I can post pictures of her selections later today, hopefully whatever error I was getting before has been resolved.

So nice to find this thread! I planned to do this quilt this year. I have the cutting list printed, but haven't cut anything out yet. Plenty of time before Christmas and step 2.

I plan to use scrappy lights instead of a single light... so will have a totally scrappy quilt. It may be a mess, but oh well.

Vadalia, thanks! I'm going to jump in this year. Or should I say next year? :)

That's the spirit! I think a mystery quilt is the perfect time to take some risks because you always have an in-built excuse if you don't like the final product- "oh well, that's just how mystery quilts go- you win some, you lose some" :D

Welcome to all newcomers! So glad to see you!

I'm unfortunately still having trouble uploading any images :(

Thanks for getting things organized, vadalia! This will be my third Merry Mayhem. I was able to use fabric in my stash for the last two. Hope I can this time also.

Attachment 636726
Whoo! Hopefully this worked- turns out I got a better phone camera and it was making the images too large to upload. And of course it'd be too easy for the error message to just tell me that :D

These were my mother's fabric picks- light in the middle with the medium/dark scrappy collection around it. I think she made some great choices there!

Ooh, yes…love the fabrics your mother pulled together for this mystery Visalia. Looking forward to seeing how your quilt stitches up.

I haven’t pulled any fabrics together yet as I am on a tight schedule to finish a tshirt quilt for my son in California. He is a firefighter and I have been storing his tshirts for a couple of years and thought it would make a nice Christmas gift.

Cool fabrics, Vadalia. Your mom has a good eye!

Vadalia, great fabric selection.

I will start fabric selection next week.

Thank you all for your kind words, my mom relays her thanks as well.

Boy, my desire for December to NOT fly by like October & November seemed to sure is at war with my desire to get that Dec 25th Step 2 :D

Wishing you all good luck with your fabrics!

Part 2 is up on the Merry Mayhem website so I printed it this morning. I’m not sure if I am supposed to post the link here or not so I will leave it up to our thread host Vadalia.

I have some unfinished wrapping to do this morning then DH and I will open our stocking gifts from one another. We have a few misfit friends coming for a prime rib dinner at 1 o’clock so I should have a few minutes to spare in my sewing room. 🤗

Merry Christmas everyone.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, jmoore! I don't think there's any problem with posting the link as it's the same one I posted in the beginning (she just updates that one page) So a reminder link doesn't hurt anyone, is my stance :)

https://www.merrymayhem.com/new-years-day-mystery-quilt

This step sees us making HSTs, not surprising. What is a little surprising to me is that, if I've done my math right, we've arrived at the final block size length-wise but still have another inch to trim off the width. I'm somewhat a newbie quilter so I'm curious as to what all blocks you can make with HST that cuts down on the width but not the length. Maybe a modified form of half rectangle triangle is the only one I can think of- any others?

Vadalia, my guess on pattern is for the 1/2 squares pattern = is an up and down design, like a zig zag type. Tomorrow I will dig out fabric from scraps, then cut, mark and start sewing the 1/2 squares. I thinking on very scrappy. I have lots of fabric that could work for this mystery.

only 6 more days before the mystery begins.

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope it is as magical and religious as you envisioned.

Merry Christmas everyone! Have a safe and happy holiday.

Finished my 64 HSTs yesterday afternoon…I am using a Layer Cake called Songbook (by Moda) along with additional fabric from the collection that I have been lamenting on how to use. I am doing the QOV size.

Pretty fabrics, JMoore.
Yesterday I made mine. I need to trim them down today. It's raining, a good day to sew. I'd rather see snow.