Magnolia Mystery Quilt-Along Announcement

I am very excited to announce that the next mystery quilt, the Magnolia Mystery Quilt will begin in a little over two months on July 6th! 

The Magnolia Mystery Quilt is a free quilt-along that will run from July 2017 until February 2018 with a set of directions revealed the first Thursday of every month. New for this quilt along...there will instructions for two quilt sizes, a lap sized quilt and a queen sized quilt.

We will kick off the quilt-along in July with the fabric requirements and some helpful hints to pick fabrics and colors (you will have an entire month to gather fabrics before the cutting instructions in August).

Here are some more details about the upcoming mystery quilt...


1. A little about the design

I would place the design for the Magnolia Mystery quilt into the modern traditionalism category of quilts.  Compared to the previous mystery quilts it is a little more modern, has a bunch of negative space (background), and has simpler piecing.  The quilt design (I think) looks good in a wide variety of fabrics and prints all the way from very traditional to very modern. If you are unsure about participating you can always get a sneak peek (see #5 below). My testers and reviewers have said they love the design and hopefully you will too :)

2. Quilt-along instructions

The monthly instructions will be posted to this blog as blog posts (and can always be found in the Mystery Quilt tab above).  Instead of having to sign up for e-mail list to have the pdf's e-mailed to you (like in the previous mystery quilts), I will be attaching a link to the downloadable, easy to print, pdf versions of the instructions right into each monthly instruction blog post.  I will be posting in June more about the downloadable files so that everyone can easily get the files.

3. Blog button

I have made a button for the mystery quilt :) If you decide to join in on the quilt-along and have a blog I would love it if you posted the button.

<div class="magnolia-mystery-quilt-button" style="width: 150px; margin: 0 auto;"> <a href="http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com/p/magnolia-mystery-quilt.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPmPF9F3oXSme_Ls3k4WQyQBb6Eut5VtgWuUO9uYhQOEo8av430Etja7BoR3zYdpq0sTYCXioMvFcIeaXccs-rWwyLgumQfr2NTVDlFdqjex0vs_RuSOvjbsPlvc-urYiE4Ju3kX0dEQ/s320/Magnolia+Mystery+%25282%2529.jpg" alt="Magnolia Mystery Quilt" width="150" height="150" /> </a> </div>

4. Prizes 

We will have prizes! Prizes will be given out randomly to quilters who submit finished quilts or quilt tops to the reveal parade in February 2018.  I am working with sponsors to finalize the prizes and will be posting more about the sponsors and prizes as the start date to the mystery quilt approaches.

5. The un-mystery quilt 

Want to join in the fun but making a mystery quilt is not your thing? If you would like to see the final pattern to decide whether to join in, or to help pick colors; simply e-mail me at (MMDmysteryquilts at gmail dot com) and I will send you a sneak peak (the only rule is that you have to keep the design completely to yourself as to not spoil anyone else's surprise). 

** I will begin sending sneak peeks on June 5th, not before **


6. Facebook group 

We have close to 2,000 members in our Facebook Group (Meadow Mist Designs Facebook Group) sewing together! Join the group today so you can share and see everyone else's fabric, progress pictures, and finished quilts.


7. Previous mystery quilts 

The instructions for my previous mystery quilts are located in the (totally revamped) Mystery Quilt tab above (and are always available so you can start them at any time). 

Foothills Mystery                        Midnight Mystery                         Meadow Mystery 

    

All patterns are also available as downloadable digital pdf files from my Etsy shop for those that would prefer a single, easy to print versions of the patterns.

I think that is everything for now. I hope that you are planning on joining me for a fun mystery quilt! If you have any questions you can leave them in a comment below or e-mail me at MMDmysteryquilts@gmail.com, I look forward to quilting along with you!

Soft Botanical - Mosaic Contest Entries

A few days ago, I saw on my Bloglovin feed that Stitched in Color was having a fabric mosaic contest sponsored by Gotham Quilts. Rachel gives a theme and some inspirational photographs and then you get to go play, creating different fabric bundles from the fabrics at Gotham. I think that making digital fabric combinations {almost} satisfies my fabric tooth as much as buying actual fabric!

The theme this time was Soft Botanical and Rachel pulled together some beautiful inspirational photographs.

When I heard the theme, my mind first went to some tiny and soft floral prints, but I could not find any prints like that at Gotham so for my first bundle I started with a larger floral print and then pulled in some complimentary blenders and some green to balance the composition...

For my second bundle I started with a pixelated print that had some greens and blues and reminded me of a floral in a way.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of Soft Botanical and will hop over to Stitched in Color's blog to see the other gorgeous entries.

Ruby Roads Quilt

I would love to show you my latest quilt finish today, a quilt I am calling Ruby Roads.

The story of how Ruby Roads came to be...

My local traditional guild, the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild, hosts an annual quilt challenge.  This year, we had to reach into a bucket, pull out a random letter, and make a quilt based on a block starting with that letter.  I picked the letter "R".

I pulled out my favorite quilt block book, "The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns: 4050 Pieced Blocks for Quilters" (affiliate link) by Jinny Beyer. From there I just went page by page skimming the blocks starting with the letter R until a block called Ruby Roads caught my eye.  Ruby Roads is an older block dating back to the early 1900's.  I changed the block a little to arrive at my block.

My cousin is having her first baby (a girl) in just a few weeks so I figured that my Ruby Roads quilt could serve two purposes: my guild challenge entry and my cousin's baby quilt.

I thought that putting the Ruby Roads block on-point gave the block a great (and totally different) look. Below is a picture of the block set horizontally on the left and on point (at a 45 degree angle) on the right.

Next, I added some half blocks along the edge of the quilt design and some sashing between the blocks to give them a little separation and breathing room.

Now that I had my quilt design set, I got to pick fabrics :)

I had just gotten a fat quarter bundle of Les Fleurs by Rifle Paper Co for Cotton & Steel and its delicate florals and prints along with its feminine but not overly girly color palette seemed perfect for the design.

Once the quilt top was finished I basted it with a backing of a Tula Pink print called Pit Crew in Orange Crush from her Slow and Steady line I had. I have a bunch of yardage of the print and the pink matched the pink from the Les Fleurs print almost perfectly.  Here is a quick picture of the finished quilt top after basting.

I had a difficult time figuring out how to quilt the quilt. I first was considering a dense, custom quilting design, but due to time constraints and the desire for the finished quilt to be soft and cuddly for the new baby, I went with an all over paisley/swirl kind of design. I think that it adds great texture without taking away from the piecing.  I used a soft white (2021) Aurifil in 50 wt for the quilting so that the stitches would blend into the quilt top.

I did enter Ruby Roads into the guild challenge.  It did not win any awards, but I think that my cousin will love it. The quilt is packed up and ready to mail out to my cousin to welcome her new baby girl!

Do you have any interest in making this design? If there is some interest, I can write a pattern for both a baby and queen sized version of this quilt. Thanks!

I am linking up to Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, Whoop Whoop Friday @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, Fabric Frenzy Friday @ Fort Worth Fabrics Studio.

Meadow Mystery Quilt - Winners!

Did you see the 266 quilts and quilt tops in the Midnight Mystery Parade? If not, please go check them out, they are awesome!

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

I have been blown away by the response to this mystery quilt and want to thank every one of the quilters for using their time and fabric to quilt along with me over these last 10 months. The prizes are being given out randomly to quilters who submitted quilt tops and finished quilts for the reveal parade.

Without further ado, here are our 25 winners, randomly selected using random.org:

1. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Quilting Jetgirl
   #5 Taunya S. 


2. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Quilting Jetgirl
   #160 Kate S. 


3. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Meadow Mist Designs
   #43 Linda Au. 


4. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Meadow Mist Designs
   #165 Peggy C. 


5. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Meadow Mist Designs
   #30 Frances B.


6. Two (2) digital quilt patterns from Meadow Mist Designs

   #84 Jennifer S.

7. $100 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop
   #152 Sue Bu. 


8. Quilting of your mystery quilt (or other lap quilt) of a semi-dense all-over quilting pattern design by Jan from Quilting Among the Groves.
   #9 Cathy J. 


9. Three (3) digital quilt patterns from Busy Hands Quilts
   #64 Donna V. 


10. $50 gift certificate from Westwood Acres
   #136 Donna B. 


11. The Crafted Applique book from Buzz in Bumble
   #88 Judy V. 


12. Eight (8) fat quarters from Just Sew Now

   #207 Marcelle R.

13. One (1) digital quilt pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts
   #13 Detra B. 


14. One (1) digital quilt pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts
   #53 Gail H. 


15. One (1) digital quilt pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts
   #159 Rhonda H. 


16. One (1) digital quilt pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts
   #196 Kathy M.

17. One (1) digital quilt pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts

   #168 Patty M.

18. A 2018 Quilter's Planner from Late Night Quilter / Quilter's Planner

   #52 Cheryle S.

19. Two (1) digital quilt patterns from Whims and Fancies

   #260 Nancy L.

20. Two (1) digital quilt patterns from Whims and Fancies

   #74 Lisa G.

21. Two (1) digital quilt patterns from Whims and Fancies

   #98 Anja

22. Mini Barn Quilt bundle from Mini Barn Quilts

   #233 Heide D.

23. $25 gift certificate from Bear Creek Quilting Company

   #245 Nancy C.

24. Ironing board cover from Oliso

   #134 Barbara R.

25. “Mark Lipinski” Basics Collections (12 Large Spools) set from Aurifil

   #46 Teddie G.

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Meadow Mystery Quilt Reveal Parade ++ Day 3

Welcome to the 3rd and final day of the Meadow Mystery Quilt Parade! Due to the number of quilters participating, I have broken up the parade into 3 days, April 5th-7th. The prize winners will be posted on April 8th.

Here are all of the previous days' links:
Day 1 quilts
Day 2 quilts
Day 3 quilts ← that's today :)

We have 266 versions total and they are all beautiful! Thank you so much to everyone who has been taking part or following along in the Meadow Mystery Quilt!  The entrants were free to change up the design any way the liked so in addition to seeing hundreds of colorways, you will see tons of different borders, alternative layouts, and ways of expanding the design.

Grab some coffee or tea and some cake and take some time to look through over the last 90-ish wonderful versions of the Meadow Mystery Quilt people have made.

Just as a reminder, the mystery quilt instructions can be found for free in the tab above and they will never be taken down so you can start at any time. (I also now have the entire set of instructions for sale as an easy downloadable pdf).

Without further ado...here are rest of the wonderful Meadow Mystery Quilt finishes!

181. Cheryl B. from Greenville, South Carolina

182. Barbara D.

183. Barbara D. (another one!)

184.  Monica S. from McMinnville, Oregon

185. Stephanie A. from San Diego, California

186. Pia Marie P.

187. Margaret W.

188. Kelly F.

@Chicagokfox

189. Heather B. from Auckland, New Zealand

190. Janet L.

191. Vicki C.

192. Julie K. from College Park, Georgia

Quilts and Costumes

193. Dagmar T.

194. Jan K. from Mitchell County, Texas

Colorz Outside the Lines

195. Linda C.

196. Kathy M. from Richland, Indiana

197. Izzy J. from Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Dizzy Quilts

198. Alice Z.

199. Sue S. from Los Altos, CA  

@theqiofquilting

200. Ilene V. from Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Clothworkers

201. Julie R. from Auckland, New Zealand

@julie_m_roberts

202. Jen R. from Portland, Oregon

A Dream and a Stitch

203. Bev T. from Whittier, California

204. Alison V. from Federick, Maryland

Little Bunny Quilts

205. Trisha A.

206. Liz H.

207. Marcelle R. from Luxembourg

208. Charis W. from Lakewood, Colorado

209. Charis W. from Lakewood, Colorado (another one!)

210. Leslie K. from Mahomet, Illinois

211. Debbie L. from Woodstock, Georgia

212. Lauren D.

213. Julie W. from Oakland, California

214. Jacqui B. from Auckland, New Zealand.     

215. Ashlynn M. (age 11!) from Columbus, Indiana 

216. Maxine W. from Adelaide, South Australia.

Clothworkers

217. Caroline M. from Lancashire, England

218. Steffi E. from Cottbus, Germany

219. Linda A. from Saratoga, California

220. Janine L. from Denver, Colorado

221. Garnet U. 

222. Kathy R. from Parker, Colorado

223. Kathrin B.

224. Lorna J. 

225. Jeanne S. from Tulsa, Oklahoma

226. Leslie L.

227. Jane L.

228. Libby D. from Georgia

229. Aquila B. 

@aquilta

230. Mary P. from State Line, Mississippi

231. Jean P. from Thompson, Manitoba Canada

232. Sarah G. from San Jose, California

Sarah Goer Quilts

233. Heide D. from West Bloomfield, MI 

Heide's Quilty Hugs

234. Emily O. from Fort Collins, Colorado

235. Portia H.

236. Suzanne D. from Santa Clara, California

237. Diane L. from Box Elder, South Dakota

238. Pam K. from Greer, South Carolina

239. Kathy T.

Both Sides of the Pond

@kmtrott1958

240. Chris S. from Garland, Texas

@thecolorfulom

241. Jen B. from Malvern, Pennsylvania
Binge Quilting
@bingequilting

242. Jen B. from Malvern, Pennsylvania (another mystery quilt!)
Binge Quilting
@bingequilting

243. Roxann H. from Airdrie, Alberta

244. Vasudha G. from Houston TX

245. Nancy C. from Virginia

246. Kim W.

247. Liz B.

248.  Liz B. (another mystery quilt!)

249. Kerry S.

250. Branda D. from Bethel, Oklahoma

251. Ragna R. from Norway

252. Jodi B. from Fargo, North Dakota
@fargoquilter

253. Jennifer T.

254. Jennifer W. from Pahrump, Nevada
RV Quilting

255. Nancy D. from South Carolina

256. Margaret W.

257. Ann P.

258. Bonnie B.

259.  Angela W.

260. Nancy L. from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

261. Michelle H.

262. Victoria S. from Cheyenne, Wyoming
Fabric at Work (Facebook group)

263. Rosemary L. from South Kingstown, Rhode Island

264. Cindy B. from Aston, Pennsylvania

265.  Lisa J.

266. Ingrid W.

What did you think about the 266 Meadow Mystery Quilts on display?  Thanks to all of the participants and be sure to check back tomorrow for the prize winners.