The Sewing Place 1st Mystery Quilt

[Lowena]

DOH!!!! I did 5 strips instead of 4 ... that accounts for it.
I'm such a numpty, but that's what comes of trying to carry instructions in my head from the computer to the workshop 

[Pearl]

  Low.   I make notes to avoid that problem but I still have to go back to the computer to check.

[Iminei]

Posting a pic of the problem could help too!
Glad you're sorted Low

Pearl, those colours are fabulicious...

but you may want to add a complimentary to lift it all...
dark purple sounds great for the dark .... how about a fushia?? 4
as you can see from the yardage charts there is very little of 3 and 4 so good for a pop of colour! 

What is your number 5 ????

[Pearl]

I did have a fuschia in my basket at one point.  I will pick some up at the weekend.

5 is this. Thanks for your input. 

[Iminei]

OK if that is 5...and gorgeous it is...
you definitely need to tie it in with some fushia/purple...
put them all together and then post a pic, its difficult to see in dribs and drabs.

[Pearl]

I will as soon as they arrive.   Should be tomorrow.  <taps foot impatiently>

[Catllar]

OK, had another delve and are up with this: Is this better ??

I'm going to go with this - had no comments back so I guess it can't be too bad - and as I refuse to buy any fabric then I can only use what I've got enough of ( does that make sense?)

[Didi]

Okay Didi, those are beautiful fabrics but using them all together would not look good at all....far too busy.
You need to be able to showcase your favourite patterns with some plainer fabrics.

However all is most definitely not lost.....Choose the two you most like as your feature fabrics 2 and 5....

Then for your background (fabric 1) choose a blender, mottled or batik to tone with either the darkest colour or lightest in your two choices  (depending whether you want a light of dark background)

The other two fabrics need to be either a very small (non directional) print or mottled/blender or batik picking up the colours in your two feature fabrics

Looking at them I can see a very contemporary, modern quilt coming out of those...
and you could choose another one of them for the binding....

Your quilt will look spectacular but not by using all of those prints.

Thank you for the advice, I have spent all night looking and it seems I really dont don't have a clue what I am doing  . I must have looked at hundreds of plain fabrics and batiks and nothing seems to be suitable, I am sure they are out there but I just don't see it I think you need a special visual acuity for picking quilt fabrics which it appears I don't posses   
 I think I best stick to clothes  have fun ladies

[Pearl]

Oh, Didi, don't leave us.  You have some beautiful fabric there.  I like the ones that you have numbered 4 and 5 particularly.  I would keep 5 as is and use 4 as fabric 2.  Maybe you could use 6 as 3.

[Lowena]

Oh Didi, please don't go 

[fajita]

Don't give up, Didi. Dig in and have a go. It's your quilt in your fabrics. Go on!!!

[Iminei]

OK...

I have pinned the Mysteryquiltalongathon Clues and destructions thread in this board.

This is so people can easily find the clues, tuts and requirements rather than having to scroll down a busy thread.

Please, please please keep all discussions, queries and advice to this thread!

Now as we are finding, choosing your fabrics is the hardest part of any project, let alone a project that is a mystery to you.

As for myself despite having made this pattern before and owning enough fabric to open my own emporia
I still had to go and buy some! and then I didn't use it!

Choosing the fabric is always the hardest and most time consuming part of any project;
making the blocks and assembling the quilt will be easy after this.

For this project...

Fabric 1 is your background...
make it a plainish one, blender, batik, tone on tone or small non directional print .......light or dark, its your choice

Fabrics 2 and 5 are your feature fabrics they have to work well together.
If they don't look right in a 4 patch with each other, try another combination!
This is where you can have a bold colourful print.

Fabrics 3, and 4 are to support 2 and 5,
look along the selvage of your feature fabric and pick your colours from there, one slightly darker than the other....
This is where blenders, tonals, batiks will come into their own.

Fabric 6 is going to give you some ooomph to your colour choices.
If you are going for a light background, 6 needs to be the darkest of your choices.....
and if you have chosen a dark background 6 needs to be the lightest.

[Ploshkin]

Here are my fabrics (1 is the dark blue on the LHS).  I'm not sure about 4 & 6.  When I saw them on the thumbnail I wondered if they should change position with each other.  The yellow is actually a bit brighter than it appears here but it is not a bright yellow - buttery rather than primrose but it does have the pinky red in it that the others have.  Trouble is we don't know what function no 6 will have, it's a bit of a mystery    Comments and suggestions welcome please.
It seems to lack a bit of oomph.

[Iminei]

Immediately my thought is no 2 is lovely but should be paired with no 3 (as no 5)
they have an obvious harmonization in the red...where as the pale blue floral does not!

Your'e going for a dark background,right? 
no 1, the dark blue is perfect,
no 2, is perfect
3 and 4 should be getting lighter... (5, 6 ?)
no 5 should be the red  (3?)
and no 6 lightest of all. (4?)

So your fabrics laid out like this
1,2,5,6,3 and 4

not too sure about the last have you something with light blue / grey ground?
Or does the real colour not come across right?

[Catllar]

OK, so I found the sticky and it all looks quite straightforward ,exccept I can't see how wide the initial strips are : would they be 2 1/2"   ( Oh God I've not worked in inches since the 70s!)