vadalia, She said 'very light pastel' but look at her own picks-- it seems like it's the yellow one. So, I think that it just has to be something with a strong contrast to everything else that you've got, and more light than dark. I'm using browns and rusts, and my 'pastel' is olive green! That's because I'm going more with her picture than with the text. We'll see how that goes. :-)

Yes, Watson, that's it. I don't have a picture of my zigzag quilt because I didn't finish all the steps. I thought the zigzag was too big, so I was adapting it with some other pieces that were smaller and I got sidetracked. It's a UFO.

I have the pattern saved for the star quilt SBG shows us. I like that pattern. Yes, it was a MM mystery.

same for me..after having participated in a few BH mysteries, I found MerryMayhemto be very rewarding and quick to finish. I made a lap size last year and hope to do the pattern again.

I’m in for this year too!

I got my fabrics washed yesterday. I do plan to cut, but will not draw any lines until those clues come up.

joe'smom, What fabric did you choose? :-) Can you show a picture?

I got my fabrics picked out and I just finished the cutting for clue 1 of Bonnie's quilt. I was thinking of starting the cutting of the merry mayhem but when I read the instruction for cutting I kinda got stumped by all the different size squares needed for fabrics D & E. I am thinking some of those are going to end up as half square triangles and I do have some go dies for various sizes of half square triangles. so...I am kind of on pause for now. I suppose maybe I will just wait and gather my courage before I start cutting them all.

Hi All. I am thinking about participating. It sounds like fun! I'll have to purchase most of the fabric since I don't have much of a stash to raid. Gee whiz... having to buy fabric sounds horrible! 😂

My photo is at the bottom of page one. These are the fabrics from the kit that I bought for fabric, not intending to make the pattern. I'm excited I now have something to use them in!

Jump on in, Sharongn! I just joined this group, too. Starting to get excited about it.

I went to MerryMayhem's Etsy shop and bought the download for the "Around the Corner" pattern from last year. The fabrics are easier to pick. They let you buy a second pattern for 50% off, but you can't see the finished quilt. All the patterns are set up as mysteries, no reveal until you buy it. I'm not going to buy a pig in a poke, so to speak. So I just got the one pattern.

Joe'smom, Oh, yeah, I remember now! The Thimbleberries fabric.
I'm debating on using purple for the small amount of required white. I wonder what that would do?

I just printed the directions. I see a problem choosing from my stash - I usually only buy a yard of fabric if I don't have a use for it. If I find one I like that's a yard, I may go with it and find a coordinate for the border. I have too much fabric to purchase unless I absolutely have to.

help reading directions
 

ok....I think I misread the guidance for fabric for E and F. I read that as meaning pick out a medium and dark value for the same color....so I picked out two shades of green for E and two shades of red for F. Now when I am rereading it and looking at the example colors, I am thinking she meant to pick out two different colors one medium and one dark for E and two more different colors for F one medium and one dark. What do you think?

I read it the same way you originally did, which I think is correct. E1 and E2 should be a medium and a dark version of the color, and same for F1 and F2. Her example seems to follow this- she's got a light-medium blue and a dark blue, then a medium green and dark green (the greens are a bit confusing because she chose like a yellow-green and then a regular green but I guess that's why she calls it a "color family", it doesn't have to be exactly the same)

See, this is why I always hedge my bets as to whether my picks are final- so I don't make a liar out of myself. So, I've got a (partially) new set of fabrics I want to use, pics taken with a (slightly) better camera to boot!:

The only thing I'm thinking of switching out is my "white" (the light grey polka dot fabric) I have a medium grey solid that almost perfectly matches the grey background of my A fabric, I'm just worried that will leave my quilt a bit light on light-dark contrast (especially because my accent fabric, the dark brown with blue circles, was supposed to be light-to-medium) Then again, my E1 was supposed to be medium and is more light-medium (or, let's be honest, just light lol)

Uh oh... I'll have to go back and read the fabric info again. So confusing.

vadalia, in this recent choice, all your fabrics look like blenders to me, that is, basically one color. Maybe you should consider prints with more colors in them for A, B and C because she suggests 'multi-colored.'

Sewingpup, I agree, I think you had the instructions right the first time. E is one color, light and dark of it. F is one color, light and dark of it. They should be different colors.

But-- I'm using rust and brown! They are not very different... but my rust is tending toward orange and my brown is tending toward black, so hopefully different enough.

Thanks for your thoughts on E and F. I went up in the attic (fabric storage area) and hauled down some more thimbleberries....I think I now have enough for a couple of queen sized quilts..Tee Hee....that should be enough to make this mystery...now to decide again which fabrics to use. Going to have to think of something to do with the rest I brought down....not to mention the remainder of the box I left upstairs.

Okay. I've purchased some fabric. I ended up buying two choices. Lol. I love all the colors and whichever set i don't end up using is okay because I'm sure I'll use them for something else. I went bright. I marked each one with the fabric letter so you can see how my mind works. Lol. The first A i figured would be okay since she wrote that it would be for the border so I'll cut appropriately.

Edit to add: I'll probably use a white for the white. I have enough of that so I don't show it in the pictures. Also, she said not to use directional fabric so I am a bit concerned about the B in the first fabric set. But, if it's a large enough print it might not matter.
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I just read others comments about E and F being a light/medium and dark of the same color, respectively. That means in my second set of fabric i posted i would have to find a light/medium blue instead of the gold color i have. Hmmmm.... Not sure I like removing the gold from the group. I'll have to rework it but I like the gold and the dark blue. Lol. What do y'all think?

Sharongn, For group 1 I think your directional print is so large it maybe won't matter so much if it ends up on pieces that are cut small. Or, you just have to decide if it's going different directions on larger pieces where you can see it's vertical on some and horizontal on others if that will bother you or not. For group 2 it might be tricky to be satisfied with two completely different colors like the yellow and blue. That's the thing with a mystery-- the pattern might look good in shades of one color but not so good in various colors. Hard to say. Your brights are nice! I'd go with the group 1 choices, they look great.

givio, thank you for your input! I can see what you're talking about, and I was definitely worried the C fabric wouldn't "pop" enough as an accent fabric. Unfortunately, if I changed that out I'd have to take my E1 out too (you can't see from the pic but the circles in C are the exact same color as the light blue in E1 and that blue looks out of place without the C fabric's blue) I'll have to go back and compare against my first fabric pick pics again, to see if I should go back (or if there are other substitutions I can make) Thanks again for the recommendation!

Sharongn, those fabrics are gorgeous!! Such a tough decision for the second group between the gold and blue, both are so pretty. I'd say probably the blue, only because the directions specifically say the E "color family" should coordinate with the background of the A fabric and I think the blue does that a little better.

I did want to float a question about the instruction for Fabric B to everyone. I've always heard the "rule" that you don't usually want to use a large scale print fabric if you're doing small-sized piecing because it can end up looking like two (or more) completely different fabrics, including potentially different colors, if you cut a large scale print down too far. I'm not sure if the Merry Mayhem Mystery abides by the same rules as the Bonnie Hunter Mystery about not posting unit sizes, so I won't be specific, but the size of some of the squares we're cutting for Fabric B are small enough that I worried this issue might come up (that's even assuming we don't cut those squares down further, which there isn't a guarantee that we won't do exactly that)

So I guess I'm just wondering, did that combo of large-scale print and small-unit cutting instructions strike anyone else as odd? Is there typically a reason/block/style that usually calls for something like that? Should we be thinking about possibly fussy cutting so all the pieces show at least the same colors, or adjust the fabric we choose so that's not an issue with the cutting instructions we know of currently?

Love your second set of colors, Sharongn!

My head is spinning from all the colors and their placement names. Today I started the one from last year (“Around the Corner”, bought on Etsy), and it was hard to choose fabrics for that one too. I ended up trying to follow her suggestions, and when putting it together I wished I could switch placement of some of the fabrics. I’m finding her patterns confusing. She tells you to pick something “complimentary“ to the main fabric, and then something that “coordinates” with it. What’s the difference supposed to be between complimentary and coordinated??? And why do you need to cut LOF, when you are going to cut up the strip into squares anyway? Ugh. I hate following patterns. I hope the new mystery will be understandable.

vadalia, it did strike me as somewhat odd that the first fabric, being the border, was listed as med. to large scale, and the next fabric large scale. I didn't get as far as thinking about the size of the cuts. I cut my B tonight, but it isn't large-scale enough to be a problem (I didn't have another large scale print in the fabric group, so I decided not to worry about it). Is it possible to contact the author of the mystery about these things?

I'm disappointed tonight, as I had this perfect interlude to do my cutting, before the next BH mystery clue t omorrow, but my back gave out; at least I got the LOF border pieces cut, and fabric B.

I interpreted that as, 'complementary' means goes well with but is not necessarily a color that appears in the main fabric, and 'coordinates' means the color does appear in the main fabric.

Sometimes you have to cut LOF with a directional fabric if you want it to go a certain way -- not sure if that applies to the pattern you're sewing.

Sharongn...I love the first set you showed. Gorgeous.

Watson

Good questions!

Color wheel "complementary" is opposite color. I wonder if that is her intention?

For "coordinates", if my interpretation of "complementary" is correct, perhaps her intent on "coordinated" is a fabric that would be a value of one of the colors in the main fabric?

vadalia, good questions! I'd tend to go with MM's pic for B. It's basically green with some white. Although she says multi-colored, and her green does look like it has smudges of other colors in it, you can consider her text is describing this fabric. I'd say to avoid your worry of dividing up colors on a large print, choose instead something that has the colors more evenly distributed in the large print.

Thanks sewbizgirl, and everyone else. I pretty much have decided to go with the first set of colors. With the second set I found a nice light/medium blue to replace the gold but... The more I looked at fabric C, the more I didn't care for it. I looked for something to replace it but couldn't find anything.

After thinking about your question, and the difference between complementary and coordinating, I looked really closely at her choice of colors to help me decipher what she meant in the instructions. I noticed that her colors in fabric C didn't match any colors in her fabric A - that we can see anyway. I'm going with the definition "to fill out or complete". That isn't the color theory definition but I'll go with it since I don't think my fabric technically meets the colors theory definition. Lol

More confusing to me is, she says fabric E should coordinate with the BACKGROUND of fabric A (compared to fabric F which only says it should coordinate with fabric A). But I don't necessarily see blue as the background of her fabric A. I do see the dark blue in the one leaf, but from the sample it doesn't look like blue would be considered the background. Maybe it appears as the dominate color in the pattern? And she chose that to be considered the background?

Which leads to a question. On a multicolored, all over pattern, how DO you pick a background color when there really isn't a discernable background color?

Oh, and let's not leave out fabric D. Instructions say to choose a very light color that coordinates with fabric A. Well... I don't see ANY yellow in her fabric A. There is yellow in her fabric C. As a matter of fact, D looks to match the yellow in C perfectly (not so important, just an observation used for my emphasis. Lol). So, how I question what she means by "coordinate" . Lol

Am I making this too complicated?

Yeah, I'd say we are making it too complicated! lol

I measured my darkest fabric and it's too small. I'm substituting a different one-- couldn't find one at home that I wanted, so resorted to buying, waiting for it to come in the mail. I've swapped out my darker shade of rust with a fabric that has less pattern. I washed and ironed a plum color solid fabric to be my white. Since there is so little white needed, I am thinking about how I will add more plum fabric later... I'd like less of a square top and more rectangle, so maybe will add something on the top, bottom, or both. After my fabric is cut, then I'll post another picture with my changes.

I'm just going to wait til the end of New Year's Day and see the quilt before deciding what fabrics to use. That's the only way to be sure the fabrics will work.

Hello, I want to do this too. I picked all my fabrics but I will not start until i see part or all of the mystery on New Year's Day so i can decide if I want to change my fabrics.
The top fabric is A, and the bottom row is B through G.
Shazzi

joe'smom, I think I'll follow your lead and just make sure my fabric's pattern is small or cohesive enough it won't matter lol We could probably message her on the facebook page but I imagine she's probably drowning in people doing exactly that right now!

ibex94, you make a good point about complimentary colors/fabric and the color wheel. It would make sense, since it's supposed to be an accent fabric, as using the complimentary color would really make it "pop." I like this interpretation and I think it makes sense given how the directions are written.

givio, thanks I've been trying to use the example picture as much as possible to put the directions in context but I feel like we get such a small glimpse of the fabric that we're missing a lot

Sharongn, I spent waaaaay too much time trying to figure out what fabric she used for Fabric A of her example and if the parts of the pattern we can't see would give more context to the directions/her other fabric choices. I'm about 85% percent sure the fabric is Kaffe Fassett Coleus Turquoise (it's 100% from the Kaffe Fassett Coleus line because I can see exactly in the pattern where the example picture's image came from, but there appears to be a couple dozen slight color/saturation variations on the fabric line) If it is the Kaffe Fassett Coleus Turquoise fabric, the blue makes more sense. There is a lot of blue in the pattern and I could see how she would consider that the "background" color. Less certain about the C Fabric but that just could be because we can't see all of it either. Orange would be the compliment of blue and I see yellow and rusty red-orange in the example picture, so maybe it is an orange fabric? Or since there are yellows and reds in the A Fabric, it could be basing it off that?

Shazzi, great selection of fabrics!

Givio, thanks for your input on my directional fabric. I've decided to go with it and not sweat it. I like the combo so much, and especially love that particular fabric, so I'm not going to even attempt to replace it. I've spent far too much time choosing fabric as it is. :)
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Vadalia, while looking for fabrics i did see some Kaffe Coleus fabric but nothing I could see matched her particular fabric. Out of curiosity I'm going to look it up by name and see if I can find an example. It makes sense there is more blue than her pic shows, considering her blue choice. This also helps me understand choosing a "background" on a multicolored fabric when there isn't a discernable background color. I looked at her pic again and see what you mean about the red-orange color. Makes sense. I feel better about my choice of C since it does contain a green, which is a complementary color to my reddish orange in A. Thanks for your thoughts on this. It's been helpful!

shannizy, Welcome to Quilting Board! What an amazing first post you have made! :-) I think your fabrics are spot on for the mystery. I can see why you want to wait to see what the pattern would be as your fabrics are a real treat. You won't want to 'waste' them on a pattern you are not crazy about.

SBG, you know you make donation quilts. That's all I'll say about your last whimpey post. lololololllllllllll

To be honest, I'm not keen on mystery quilts where you don't know if you will like the pattern and you don't know if you will like the fabrics you chose for the pattern. I want to do this mystery basically for the camaraderie, so I very much appreciate you all joining this thread and chatting with me. Thank you! I hope more will come, and plan a busy New Year's Day with us this year!

I just decide....to pick fabrics that look good together from a distance and also have enough contrast either by value or color so I can tell them apart if they end up next to each other......I am going with a larger print for A and am using that as my focus fabric and then using smaller print or tone on tone for the rest of the fabrics, I am basing that decision on the size of the pieces she is having us cut for each fabric. I am using 30 plus year I think thimbleberries fabrics so....I haven't lost that much if it doesn't turn out. I am doing this...cuz I think it will be fun and what else to do on New Year's day when you are a singleton?

I’m intrigued with this mystery. Sounds like fun....not sure what my New Years Day will be like but I should be able to squeeze in some sewing and chatting with you all.. I have had this Fabric A for quite awhile...I have more then is needed so this is just a possibility in case I want to save it for a bigger quilt project... still swimming around in my stash for another option...

Shazziny, welcome and what great fabrics you have to use! I love the blue poppies on the bottom right! May I say one thing tho? Your second fabric from the left is going to blend in with your fabric A. They are almost identical in color, scale and design. They will look like the same fabric.