Blogger's Quilt Festival - The Mystery Quilt

This is one of my favourite quilts.

It's not the most perfect.

It's not been the most technically challenging.

But it's special because it holds some pretty precious memories . . .

Our craft group booked a quilting retreat a few years back to celebrate the 10 years that we had been getting together to craft. While we had turned our hands to lots of different crafts over the years, and a couple of us had had a go at some patchwork, it wasn't something that all of us had done. But none the less, we booked the weekend! We had a choice of a couple of different projects, but in the end settled on a Mystery Quilt (the pattern's by Lessa Siegele). This project took us out of our comfort zone on so many levels . . . first there was the choosing of the fabric - 5 lights and 5 darks. For novice quilters, not knowing what the end product is going to look like can be quite daunting. Do we choose different colours? What about the colour value? So many questions. So many nerves.

But you know how it goes - when the going gets tough, the quilters go shopping!

We were given instructions for a little bit of preparation before the weekend, but we still didn't have any clue what we were going to end up with!



Even though we were all making the same basic quilt, at a certain point in the construction process we had to draw a number each out of a hat, which gave us all different setting out directions. Needless to say, although we all had the same pieces (and a couple of the girls even had the same fabrics) the end result was a group of totally different and yet equally beautiful quilts.



I found it a real challenge to let go of being "in control" of the process and just have fun with it.

I found it a real challenge to choose fabric for a specific project and not know what the project was (which is funny really because I don't generally have trouble buying fabric for no reason at all!!!).

I found that I really loved the fabrics I'd chosen.

I found that quilting with friends is such good fun.

I found that I should have made the quilt bigger if I wanted to use it on a bed.

I found a new passion.

Oh, and I found that I just love how this quilt looks hanging on my wall!

And that, my friends, is the story of my Mystery Quilt.

I'd like to say a huge THANKS to Amy from "Amy's Creative Side" for organising this little get together and enabling us to "show and tell"! And now, why don't you click back over to Amy's blog and check out some more quilts as part of this wonderful BLOGGER'S QUILT FESTIVAL.