Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Mystery Quilts

Mystery Quilt Revealed

April 12, 2011 8:55 am ⋅

This past weekend I attended the 10th Anniversary Kaye-Woods-Quilting-Friends (Yahoo! Group)  retreat at Camp Beth Eden in Conway, Missouri.  This was my 7th year.  I had a great time, but I’m exhausted!  One of the activities which you can participate in is a mystery quilt.

A mystery quilt is where you are told how much fabric you need, then are given the cutting and sewing instructions, but not told how what you are making.  Hopefully the instructions are written clear enough that there are no frustrations and in the end you have a finished quilt top which looks like the original when it is revealed.

I wrote this years mystery quilt.  My friend Mary over at Quiltn’ Gramdma’s Blog tested the pattern for me.  After the pattern was tweaked, Terri who wasn’t able to make it to the retreat offered to post the patterns to the list for anyone who wanted to participate, but couldn’t make the trip either.  She also tested the pattern for me.  This is her quilt.

This year we had six ladies complete their quilt tops.

More about the retreat and the shopping I did later.  I’ve got to straighten up my sewing room so I can unpack.

Posted in: 2011 Mystery Quilt, mystery quilts

I Must be Crazy

December 7, 2009 8:11 pm ⋅


I just found out that Dorothy Young is doing a Christmas Mystery called Raising Cane. I’ve made several of her mystery quilts – Spring Breeze, Diamond Links and The Chain Event and have loved all of the quilts/tops. (Only have Spring Breeze Quilted). I’m in the middle of Carolina Christmas and I know everyone thinks I’m crazy with the list of quilting stuff I’d like to get done by the end of the month.

I must be crazy is the only explanation I have for why I’m even considering starting a new quilt before the end of the month.

Posted in: mystery quilts, Raising Cane

Carolina Christmas – On Temporary Hold

December 3, 2009 12:30 pm ⋅


Ok — I peeked at Clue # 3 even though I haven’t finished sewing Clue # 2. Boy am I glad I did.

Since I’m using “clear” pinks and blues, I opted for a bright white on white for the background. Thinking I needed 2 yards, I pulled everything from my boxes and just barely had enough. I thought I was going to have to cut into my snowflakes and snowmen that I’m saving for my redwork snowmen quilt. One or two strips each would still leave me enough, so I was OK with that.

However, it turns out we need more than 2 yards of background fabric, so I have to make a decision.

1 – use the creamy off white moving forward
2 – back track and remake some of Part 1 and Part 2 using the new creamy off white so there will be some bright white on white to use in the rest of the parts
3 – get over it and go buy some more bright white on white to finish the quilt (I still don’t have enough using all of the snowflake and snowmen fabrics)
4 – toss in the towel and use what I’ve made for something else.

I’m stubborn so #4 isn’t an option. In fact last night and DH and were discussing my options, that was nixed right away. #3 really isn’t an option since I want this to be from my stash and I don’t want to buy any more fabric this year. So that leaves #1 and #2.

Until I see the quilt put together I won’t know which way I want to go. In the end who knows what I’ll end up doing. But I have learned something. I need to focus on gathering some ‘shirting’ type fabrics — light backgrounds with bits and pieces of color.

Can’t wait to see Bonnie’s finished quilt.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas, mystery quilts

Carolina Christmas – Part 1

November 28, 2009 11:03 pm ⋅

Part 1 of Carolina Christmas was finished this evening. As I’ve checked out the pictures of what others are doing, I’m drawn to those that have scrappy backgrounds with tiny prints. This year my goal was to gather black prints – tone on tone, or prints on black backgrounds since I virtually wiped out my blacks when I made Orange Crush. I think next year, I’ll be looking for tiny prints on light colored backgrounds. Either that or start haunting the thrift stores for shirts. I simply need to remind myself that even if I have to pay “full price”, it’s still cheaper than a FQ at the LQS.

Now off to work on Part 2.

Posted in: Carolina Christmas, mystery quilts

Current Choices for Carolina Christmas

November 25, 2009 10:06 pm ⋅


I have continued to play in my pink and blue fabrics. Although I agree that the multiple greens added depth to the stack of fabric, I went back and re-read Bonnie’s description of her fabric choices.

a lighter yellow green all the way through to dark pine green
reds all the way from orange red to burgundy
ONE gold print to tie the scrappiness together

So, I’m going to pretend my blues are green, my pinks are red (a little easier) and my single green is gold. Won’t that be fun to read ‘green’ and have to remember to pick up the blue fabric. Clearly after I print out the pattern I’ll be taking a pen to it so I don’t get confused. My background will be one of about 6 or 7 different white on whites, all in about the same shade of white. I briefly flirted with a a single background, but the only 2 yard piece I have is beige and I decided I didn’t like it with the ‘clear’ pinks and blues.

Let’s eat turkey, then bring on the first clue. My fabrics are pressed, I know where my ruler is and I’m off to clear the cutting board so I’ll be ready Friday. – right after I drop my car off to get inspected.

Posted in: mystery quilts

Carolina Christmas or Double Delight!?

November 23, 2009 9:22 pm ⋅

Last week I was asked if I was going to participate in Bonnie Hunter’s new mystery quilt Carolina Christmas. I love Bonnie’s patterns, but my plate is full so, I said no.

However, quilters have been known to change their mind and I might be convinced to play along. With all the chatter on the Quiltville list I’ve been pondering colors. One of my personal rules is mystery quilts have to come from stash. I have lots of pink and green, so pink and green with a white background, but what to use for the 3rd color? My husband suggested blue (hey I have a whole tote of blue), but then he qualified it “icy blue”.

This is what I came up with:

When I found 2 hunks of the green totaling 3 yards I thought I’d use it to tie everything together instead of the selection of greens I had pulled.

It wasn’t until I started this post that I realized I was looking at the instructions for Double Delight! You would think that either the title boldly printed on the top page or the fact that printout is nearly a quarter of an inch thick would have clued me in that I had the wrong pattern.

Double Delight! needs a 5th color and I have no idea what I would use. So, at this time I don’t know which quilt I’ll be making, or if I’ll stick to working on something I already have in progress. I guess it will depend on how I feel about these colors after they sit together a while.

Posted in: mystery quilts