Guild's Mystery Quilt

I may have OCD.

Doing a mystery quilt is really hard for me.  I need to know what color is going where, what the pattern is, etc., etc.  

I've only done one mystery quilt in the past and I have to admit that I really ended up loving it.  It's just stressful while I am making it because of all the unknowns.  

Well, I am jumping in again.  

We needed 1 yd. very dark; 1 yd, med dark; 1 yd dark (I'm already losing my mind), and 3/4 yd medium.  Then there is the 5 yards of a light that is needed for the background.

Well, I happened to have a 5 yard piece of fabric that I bought for a backing for something else and it really didn't work, but I thought now would be a good time to get that used up by buying fabric for this mystery that matched this backing that I really love. 

These are the fabrics I picked out.  You can see the solid Peach Kona to the left (background).

Got my Ruby Beholder out to check on value since very dk, med. d, and dark seem to be so close.  

Also, took a black and white photo of the fabrics .  

I am pretty pleased with the order. 

What do you think about the long ago bought backing?  

First step:  Other than buying the fabric , we had to  cut out strips.  I am anxiously awaiting the next step because now that the colors are chosen, I am excited to get to sewing on this project.  

Clue 1::

November guild newsletter.

The order of strips to be sewn together is given.  I hopped on it right away. 

I feel like I could be on a roll, but now I have to wat until December  

Clue 2:

This is an easy one for December because they know we are super busy this month.

We just have to measure our first sewn strip to get our own personal measurement and then cut 12 squares with that measurement from the solid light fabrics.  I haven't done mine yet because...... as they know, I'm busy this month  :D

I'll get to it before long though,  

Done.

Clue 3:

This is in our January newsletter.

Lots of strips have to be cut from all the strip sets previously sewn together.  

As I was looking at these strips, I felt like I was getting a hint of what the quilt might look like, so I laid out a block to check it out, but I won't sew it together until the next clue is given because I certainly don't want to have to rip out.  

I put this in gray scale so as not to ruin the surprise altogether, but if this isn't the layout, I will be surprised.  

Now I am wishing I had bought a "light" print for my light fabric instead of a solid, but I will quilt it in a contrasting colored thread with an interesting panto to give it some character.  Of course, this is the way of Mystery Quilts.  You don't know what you are going to get until the end.  

We're getting close to the end.  I was told the next two clues will be given in the next newsletter which should be next week.  

Clue 5 & 6.

Oh!  This is painstaking.

Clue 7 & 8

As you can see, my earlier guess as to how this was going to lay out was correct.

Once the light sashing strips were added, it was ready for the longarm.

I used the Autumn Leaves panto for this one which coordinated with the leaves that were in one of the fabrics.  Because I felt the peach was just a little plain, I decided to do the top stitching in a  Glide thread  in the colorway Mermaid.  The backing was lighter, so I used a Cream Fil-tec prewound bobbin for that.  

To tone down the peach and frame out the rest of the quilt, I used the darkest teal to bind it.  

I do love the design of this quilt, but as I have said, I need more control over what is happening with placement of the fabrics rather than just going with the suggestions of light, medium and darks.  If we do another mystery in the guild next year, I may wait until I see where things are going before I buy my fabric.  Lessons learned.  I am not a fan of mystery quilts, but I will probably do another.  Go figure.  :D