Malted Mystery Quilt ++ Fabric Requirements

Welcome to the official kick off of the Malted Mystery Quilt!!  I am so excited to get started and I hope that you are too!   

Welcome to the official kick off of the Malted Mystery Quilt, the ninth annual Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt along!

The Malted Mystery Quilt is a free quilt-along that will run from July 2023 through May 2024 to make a throw sized quilt (about 66" x 66") with a set of instructions posted the first Thursday of every month.  The quilt pattern is at an advanced beginner level containing basic piecing techniques (no applique, Y-seams, or paper piecing).

The directions and all of the other information relate dot the mystery quilt can always be found on the Malted Mystery Home Page.   

HOW TO JOIN

This has been my most asked question, how to join in on the Malted Mystery quilt?  There is no official sign up, list, or cost to join in the mystery quilt along.  Each set of instructions will be posted to this blog as a post on the first Thursday of each month.

To ensure you do not miss any of the posts, you can do any of the following:

• Visit the Meadow Mist Designs blog on the day the instructions are posted or visit the Main Malted Mystery Page which will contain links to all of the posts.

• Join the Meadow Mist Designs Newsletter, the newsletter typically is sent out the day after the instructions are posted with a link to that month's instructions.

• Follow the Meadow Mist Designs blog via email. You will get all new blog posts (all posts, not just mystery quilt posts) via email the day they post.

• Join the Meadow Mist Designs Facebook Group. Links to the instructions are always posted in the group.

SHARE YOUR PROGRESS

Facebook: I encourage you to join the Meadow Mist Designs Facebook Group (if you have not already). We now have over 11,000 members in the group and I am so excited for the members to start sharing pictures of their fabric picks. If you want some feedback on possible fabric choices or have any questions during the quilt along, the Facebook group is an excellent resource.

Social Media: Please share your progress pics on social media with the hashtag #MaltedMysteryQuilt and tag me at @MeadowMistDesigns.

SPONSORS

We have a dozen generous sponsors donating fabric, thread, patterns, and more as prizes.  You can read all about the sponsors here.

EASY TO PRINT INSTRUCTIONS

Now that the Malted Mystery quilt along has ended, you can find a easy to print, full version of the pattern for sale in my pattern shop: Easy to Print Version of Malted Mystery Quilt.

PATTERN NOTES 

• Width of fabrics (WOF) for this pattern is assumed to be 40".  
• A scant ¼" (a thread width smaller than ¼") seam is to be used throughout the construction of the quilt unless otherwise instructed.  

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

Within the pattern, the following colors will be used within the pattern instructions.

FABRIC SELECTION TIPS

• It is suggested that a solid or a tone-on-tone print that reads as a solid be used for the background fabric.

• Due to the finished fabric piece sizes and piecing methods for the quilt top, it is recommended that fabric prints used have a non-directional design.

• Scraps or multiple fabrics can be used for any of the fabrics, but would be the most successful for Fabrics A-C.  Most of the pieces for these fabrics are less than 5 ½". 

• To help plan your fabrics for the mystery quilt, be sure that all fabrics that are next to each other have enough contrast between them.

Many thanks to the generous sponsors of the Malted Mystery Quilt!

Backside Fabrics | Quilting by Anne-Marie | My Sew Quilty Life

Busy Hands Quilts | Quilting Jetgirl | Aurifil

Fat Quarter Shop | Sew Colorado Quilting LLC | Meadow Mist Designs

Any questions? Leave them in a comment below or post them to our Facebook group page. I look forward to seeing everyone's fabric selections. The next set of instructions will be published on the first Thursday of August, the 3rd.

Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup - June 2023

  Welcome to June's Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup!

I have been busy behind the scenes in June with putting the finishing touches on the Malted Mystery quilt along, getting everything set and scheduled and planning for a newly released pattern launch of Looking Glass.

The Malted Mystery quilt along, a free monthly quilt along kicks off next week on July 6th, you can find all of the information on the Main Malted Mystery Page.

Here is a little sneak peek of Piper "helping" baste Looking Glass which is scheduled for a re-release next Friday.  This was an older pattern that I have now made 5 times!  The pattern has been redone with 2 additional sizes, additional instructions, and new illustrations.

Ready for the party?  

Here is a reminder of the party details:

• The linky party will open at 12:01am EST on the last day of the month and will be open for 5 days, through the 4th at 11:59 pm EST.

• For instructions on how to link up blog, Instagram, or pictures from your computer (there is now a way to just upload a picture without a web link) to the party, click here.  

• If linking a blog post, I ask that you please add a link back to the party.

• Please visit at least 3 other links (and preferably leave comments) to share the love and celebration :)

I hope you join in by checking out the posts or linking your favorite finish of the month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

 

Malted Mystery Quilt Starting in Two Weeks ++ Sponsors & Prizes

Only two weeks until the kick off of the Malted Mystery Quilt Along!  I am so excited and I hope that you are too!  You can find out all about the quilt along here including dates, the un-mystery quilt option, and the Facebook group.

HOW TO JOIN

This has been my most asked question, how to join in on the Malted Mystery quilt?  There is no official sign up, list, or cost to join in the mystery quilt along.  Each set of instructions will be posted to this blog as a post on the first Thursday of each month.

To ensure you do not miss any of the posts, you can do any of the following:

• Visit the Meadow Mist Designs blog on the day (first Thursday of each month) the instructions are posted or visit the Main Malted Mystery Page which will contain links to all of the posts.

• Join the Meadow Mist Designs Newsletter, the newsletter typically is sent out the day after the instructions are posted with a link to that month's instructions.

• Follow the Meadow Mist Designs blog via email. You will get all new blog posts (all posts, not just mystery quilt posts) at 10am via email the day they post.

• Join the Meadow Mist Designs Facebook Group. Links to the instructions are always posted in the group.

PRIZES GALORE!

Check out all of our generous sponsors and the prizes they are donating. All prizes will be given out randomly to those that enter the final reveal parade (finished quilt tops or finished quilts).  Be sure to scroll to the bottom for an awesome giveaway.

I want to thank all of our sponsors for generously donating prizes for this quilt along!  Without further ado, here are the sponsors in random order...

Aurifil

Large Spool Collection - 12 Large Spools

Aurifil is a favorite of quilters for their high quality, wonderful colors, and variety of thread weights.  Aurifil thread is made from the finest cottons grown in the Mako region of Egypt and manufactured in Milano, Italy.

Backside Fabrics

$50 Gift Certificate

Backside Fabrics specializes in wide quilt backing fabrics that are both beautiful and affordable.  I love wide back fabrics so I do not have to piece a backing and Backside Fabrics has the largest selection I have ever seen.  

Busy Hands Quilts

$25 Gift Certificate - 3 Winners

Myra of Busy Hands Quilts makes custom quilts and designs quilt patterns.  Her patterns include instructions for all sizes from wall to king, including two lap sizes, wherever possible.  Clear instructions with easy-to-read charts and diagrams are also a part of her patterns, as well  as fabric requirements using yardage and precuts when applicable.  She loves strip piecing because it saves time and she includes directions for strip piecing if it works for the pattern.  You can find all of her patterns in her shop, Busy Hands Quilts.

Fat Quarter Shop

$35 Gift Certificate

The Fat Quarter Shop features high quality quilting fabric for quilting, sewing, crafters and fabric lovers of all ages. They have all of the latest prints as well as a huge selection of solids, patterns, notions, quilt kits.

Quilting Jetgirl
2 winners of 2 pdf patterns each

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl is back as a sponsor for the fourth year in a row! Yvonne blogs at Quilting Jetgirl. She has been quilting for 20+ years and credits quilting with helping her feel balanced and connected to both her local hometown community and a larger global community. Her patterns are available through her shop.

Quilting by Anne-Marie

$90 longarm quilting voucher

Quilting by Anne-Marie offers custom and digital edge-to-edge long arm quilting services to quilters nationwide. Whether you're modern, traditional, or somewhere in between, Anne-Marie will work with you to select a design to complement your quilt. She strives to provide excellent customer service in a timely fashion.


Prize details: $100 will cover many designs of edge-to-edge longarm quilting of mystery quilt (or equivalent size quilt). Winner responsible for shipping (both ways) and batting.

Sew Colorado Quilting

Voucher for Malted Mystery quilt quilting (or similar sized quilt)

Sew Colorado Quilting, LLC Voucher for longarm quilting of mystery quilt At Sew Colorado Quilting LLC, I'm focused on collaborating with quilters to finish quilts through digital edge to edge quilting designs. Quality at a reasonable cost is my priority and I love working with a variety of experience levels. I've quilted for fabric designers, first time quilters and every level in between.


Prize details: Voucher will cover many designs of edge-to-edge longarm quilting of mystery quilt (or equivalent size quilt) and batting. Winner responsible for shipping (both ways) and batting.

Meadow Mist Designs

2 pdf Patterns - 2 Winners

Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs focuses on producing innovative patterns with clear instructions by combining her technical writing and math skills with her love of quilting. She loves teaching computer aided quilt design and basic quilting skills to others. You can find all of her patterns in her shop and she just published her second book, Just One Charm Pack Quilts.

2 pdf Patterns

Heather Briggs is the owner and quilt pattern designer for My Sew Quilty Life. She designs one-of-a-kind beautiful quilts using traditional piecing methods for any level maker. She loves a beautiful romantic color palette that tells a timeless story especially with floral based quilt designs and designs incorporating cute details like bows.

Sign-up for the Meadow Mist Designs Newsletter to make sure you don't miss any 

Meadow Mist Designs happenings!

 

Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup - May 2023

  Welcome to May's Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup!

My Just Two Charm Pack Quilts books are here!  Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered a copy or purchased one from Amazon (the book is the #1 new release in Patchwork right now).

I spent most of my time in May signing and packing up books.  Here is a picture of about a third of books dropped off at my post office.

Ready for the party?  

Here is a reminder of the party details:

• The linky party will open at 12:01am EST on the last day of the month and will be open for 5 days, through the 4th at 11:59 pm EST.

• For instructions on how to link up blog, Instagram, or pictures from your computer (there is now a way to just upload a picture without a web link) to the party, click here.  

• If linking a blog post, I ask that you please add a link back to the party.

• Please visit at least 3 other links (and preferably leave comments) to share the love and celebration :)

I hope you join in by checking out the posts or linking your favorite finish of the month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

Bonnie and Camille Postage Stamp Revisited

I'd love to revisit a charity quilt I made a few years ago and give you some tips for a fun and easy way to create a scrappy postage stamp quilt.  

Over the years, I collected and used many, many Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  So many that I actually had a scrap bin just for their fabrics. There were bits of jelly rolls, charm packs, and fat quarters.  To use up the scraps, I decided to create a postage stamp, scrappy quilt.  I really like how this quilt is scrappy yet cohesive because all of the colors go together well.

I cut up all of the scraps into 2 ½" x 2 ½" squares (so they finished in the quilt at 2" x 2").  I used the scraps as leaders/enders (small pieces of fabric placed under the presser foot to start and end chain piecing).  The Crafty Quilter has an excellent blog post all about leaders and enders. 

I typically press all seams open and pin at every intersection. For speed on this quilt, I pressed all of the seams to the side to nest the seams and did not pin (and my points were surprising pretty decent).

I did have one little oops where two dark red squares were right next to each other.  This was bugging me so I appliqued on a little heart onto one of them 💛 (I stitched the heart down while quilting.)

To keep the quilt top organized, I sewed the squares into 4x4 blocks (8 ½" x 8 ½") then sewed the blocks into the quilt top.

QUILTING DESIGN

Whenever the piecing of quilt top has a grid I always try to use that grid in the quilting design.  It eliminates the need for marking the quilt and helps keep the design more precise.  You can see another grid design in my Board and Batten quilt.

I was considering an orange peel design on another quilt and decided to test it out on this one.  For the orange peel quilting design, I simply used my free motion foot and working from the top of the quilt to the bottom, making a curve in the fabric square and trying to pass through the seam intersection.

My orange peels were far from perfect but I think that it works for these bright and busy prints.  

I decided that an orange peel was not the way to go for my other quilt.  The squares are all solid and the thread is going to blend with some of the squares and have some contrast with other squares.  I decided that the orange peel design was going to look too busy and that all of my oops and bobbles while quilting would show up too much for my liking.

I donated this quilt through the Greenville Modern Quilt Guild's charity program.

Quilt details:

Size: 32" x 40"

Pattern: Postage stamp made from 2" (finished) squares

Fabrics: Quilt top - assorted Bonnie and Camille fabrics

Quilting: Orange peel design using cream Aurifil thread in 50wt