Mystery Quilts were what got me started way back in the ’90s.
Now for a bit more about my quilt design process and how I started designing quilts, specifically mystery quilts. It was a long and often bumpy road, but so worth the journey. I am showing my age, but I might as well celebrate it. I started my quilt business in 1999. That was when I felt that I could do something with my creativity. Mystery quilts played a huge part in the process, rewriting the directions sparked the beginning of the quilt design process. In saying that, we will go back a bit further, so you will understand why I do things the way I do. Lucky you, if you keep reading. haha
Never say Never
Before I tried my hand at quilting, I used to say that I wouldn’t be, couldn’t be a quilter because it took so much time to finish the project. Oh, that comment is going to come back and bite me hard. I’ve been a crafter for as long as I can remember, but I can usually finish my projects in a day.
There is a history with my impatience. I would be hard-pressed to finish a quilt in a day unless I only did small projects such as table runners, pillows, wall-hangings, and even these can take more than a day if they are intricate. I am glad that as I age, I enjoy the journey as much as the finished project.
There is just something to be said about bed-sized quilts.
My first two quilts were for my boys. They were straightforward designs, AND my seams did not match up – even though I had only used 4-patches. I approached quilting like I did crafting. If I was a little sloppy with crafting, I could hide it with lace or ribbon or something. It is kind of hard to hide mistakes in quilting. My focus at this point was to finish the project quickly. I hadn’t started loving the process yet.
My first quilts were tied.
I found that I could hide some of my mismatched seams this way. I guess where there is a will, there is a way. Looking back, I didn’t care that my seams didn’t match up – I loved the creative process. At this time, I was cutting squares out. It became apparent I wasn’t careful with my cutting.
I hadn’t invested in quilting tools that would make the whole process easier and more accurate. It didn’t bother me that my squares weren’t all the same size. I had so much to learn. My boys loved their quilts, but they were so rough compared to my work now. To the right is an example of my directions for creating 4-Patches.
I also admired the look of hand quilting, the beginning of the conversion to hand quilting – it would be more than a decade later.
Scrap quilts spoke to my heart, especially mystery quilts.
There is just something to be said about scrap quilts. In the beginning, I wasn’t brave enough to use ALL THOSE COLORS AND PATTERNS together. Little by little, I learned to unlearn those rules about colors and patterns. You know the ones – you don’t wear pink with red, you only wear one pattern at a time, and you never put brown and black together. Don’t get me started on plaids with prints. When I first started quilting, I had an excuse for purchasing fabrics – I didn’t have a stash yet.
Some suggestions will help your quilt sparkle and not scream chaos, but we aren’t covering that now. I will share another post in the future to go over what I have found to help me when it comes to color and print selection.
My next project was for me.
I wanted a king-size quilt for my bed. There were two patterns I couldn’t decide between – Log Cabin and Irish Chain. The illusion of curves with the Irish Chain and the different layouts you can get with the Log Cabin was what made these patterns speak to me. I made two tops, so a reversible quilt. Following directions hasn’t always been my strong point. I didn’t follow the rules in this situation, and it felt great. I didn’t care that the quilting pattern wouldn’t make much sense on the Log Cabin side when I focused on the Irish Chain side.
I based the quilting pattern on the Irish Chain side. I tried my hand at hand-quilting on this quilt. In the area between the chains, I hand quilted – but oh was I impatient. It took me forever to finish those areas. (see: Wholecloth Quilting for a recent project) I decided that the rest would be machine quilted (I played with free-motion quilting during this time). It was at this time that I decided that hand quilting would never be for me. Oh, those absolutes I had in my twenties. I am learning there are no absolutes in life. There are always exceptions. If you read my post on hand quilting, you will see that hand quilting is indeed for me.
As I was machine quilting, I learned that there would be wrinkles if I didn’t secure my layers! Naively, I thought I could hold the layers together. But I refused to take it out and re-do it. Each of my mistakes leads me to learn how to do things better in the beginning.
I’ll share my information on layering and preparing to quilt in another post.
But please listen to this – my way of doing things may not work for you – and that’s ok.
That was a big lesson I had to learn. How others did things didn’t work for me. I had to find what was the best for me – just like children have different learning styles in school, I had another way of making things work for me. And guess what?!!? – it doesn’t matter how you do things – if you are happy with your results – how you got there doesn’t matter.
Understanding that I didn’t have to do things the way the directions were written was an eye-opening revelation for a perfectionist and so liberating. Just enjoy the journey. When I am teaching beginners, I tell them there are no rules – just suggestions. You need to find what works for you. I am here to help you explore a variety of ways to create quilts. You get to keep the suggestions that work for you.
Now where the mystery quilts come into my story.
I stumbled onto mystery quilts on the internet – way back in the internets infancy. There used to be quilty chat rooms. I don’t even know if this is a thing anymore. We used to share quilt websites and mysteries that were available online. We would also share mystery quilts that we found published in the quilt magazines—such a great network for sharing. Keeping a list of quilt magazines to check out the next time I was in the magazine area. Subscriptions to my favorites but others I just bought the one magazine I wanted.
I LOVED that I could complete each quilt step in a short amount of time. Two weeks between steps fit my personality just fine. When the mystery quilt steps were posted each month or, in the case of some magazines – quarterly! If the pattern didn’t grab my attention quickly, I would lose interest in the mystery.
My only complaint was the mystery quilt directions – My Quilt Design Process Starts Here.
As a beginner, I was often frustrated with the directions. Quilt patterns were often written with an experienced quilter in mind. Many of the mystery quilts that were labeled as beginner level were very basic. The design was not inspiring. They had big blocks and no secondary patterns. As I continue with the blog, you will see that I utilize secondary patterns in my designs. They create the illusion of a difficult pattern, but a beginner can easily handle it. When I designed my first mystery quilt, the reactions by the newbie quilters were what hooked me.
As I learned techniques, I started rewriting patterns for the different steps that would help a beginner to be successful with “harder” designs. Now I am truly hooked. I love the design process, the pattern creation process, the work on the computer creating each step.
Below are two examples of the first mystery quilt that I taught at an overnight quilt retreat. Oh, the stories from the retreat! I will share more about it later.
Until next time…
