QuiltingHaven

I made the McCalls Mystery quilt this year and loved it. The directions were in three magazines and I could work on it, finish the directions, then work on my other quilting till the next magazine came. I hand quilted and machine quilted it on my home machine. Here is a picture of it Oh, by the way, the middle block was just suppose to be a solid color but I thought it needed a little extra touch so I fussy cut a flower from the floral part and added it. Wasn't in their directions but it was my quilt. :-)

Havplenty

oooohh so lovely!! your quilt turned out great. there was a group of us who worked along together with the mccall's 3-part mystery quilt. here is the link http://www.quiltingboard.com/blocks-...g-t174799.html.

Havplenty

like dunster suggested, this is a time to learn something new and challenge yourself. you can always reach out to the creators of the mystery bom for further directions or your local quilt guild or your local lqs or this board to see if someone can help you. there are so many talented quilters on this board i know someone can help.

so find some time to pull those bom packages out, post pics and ask questions here or any of the other resources i mentioned above. after all you are paying for them so use them. hang in there and you can get it done.

personally i have found that the blocks i have encountered (i consider tough) can be broken down in to smaller parts and i conquer the block piece by piece. i am one who reverse engineers the quilts (and blocks) i see that i like and add my own touch to it.

mary

ckcowl

the mystery quilts i have seen/participated in have all stated what (experience level) they are geared toward- they have also had (help available) if you signed up for one that is a bit (over your head) often you can contact the host & ask for guidance---they will help you- there are designers who tend to create quilts for very advanced quilters- i (tried) to do one once that was way above my skill level at the time- when i contacted them & started asking questions i was told---maybe it would be better for you to set you kits aside & learn these techniques first---then when you have more experience come back to them- it took me a couple years but i did manage to learn the techniques and go back & make the quilt-
it never hurts to ask for help & if it is just something way outside of your experience level set it aside & start with something simpler to learn the techniques first- sometimes the patterns are just not written well- once you understand the way it's written it may 'click'
no---mystery quilts are not always difficult- some are actually quite easy- designed for a beginner quilters- don't give up on all mystery quilts because of one-
but contact them & ask for some help/guidance- or ask for specific help here- or set it aside & learn the techniques- then go back to it...you have options

Shelley Mallory

I love mystery quilts, as a new quilter, I have been challenged to do things I probably would not have tried otherwise. I have done 4 and currently have 2 in the works. If you haven't done one I would encourage you to try.

jcrow

The mystery BOM I was talking about had a block that had 81 pieces to it. I was able to do the blocks up to that month, then had to quit. It was way over my head. I am not that advanced. They were 12 1/2" blocks and I know me and I know it would have ended up being smaller than 12 1/2" by the time I got done with it, if I could have even figured it out.