Welcome to Mystery Monday #4 ! This mystery is satisfyingly large, traditional in style and finishes approximately 60″ square without sashing or borders. We think it is suitable for most skill levels from enthusiastic beginner onwards. Barbara first presented this Mystery at one of her annual All Night sessions at The Bramble Patch in (gulp!) 2003 – it seems like only yesterday …
You will need a total of 5 fabrics:
Fabric A = main/dark 2metres/yards
Fabric B = background/light 2 metres/yards
Fabric C = slightly deeper background 1 metre/yard
Fabric D = secondary main/bright 1 metre/yard
Fabric E = accent/complementary 1 metre/yard
Choose fabrics so that you have a good strong value contrast between Fabrics A, D, E and the two backgrounds. Roughly translated, this means that you should be able to easily distinguish the fabrics from each other!
Just by way of a guide, here are Barbara’s choices –
Substitute fat quarters for yardage if you would prefer a “scrappier” look. If you go down this route we suggest you choose quarters with very similar values for each fabric grouping, clearly label your quarters into groups – and be prepared to improvise.
Label/identify each of your fabrics before you start. This project is constructed on a block- by- block basis so after you have cut the requisite number of slices, shapes or strips for a particular step any “overs” may be useful/needed/essential later on.
If you visit the Pollyanna Patchwork website you’ll notice that Alison is offering a discount on fabrics purchased for this Mystery. Just enter the code MMWEB at the checkout – thank you Alison!
And the final bit of upfront information – this being a large quilt, we’re planning for it to run for 14 weeks – yes, 14. So there should be plenty of time to keep up/catch up depending on your other commitments.
chris & barbara quilts 
Love the fabrics that Barbara has chosen and what a good idea for Alison to offer a discount. I think that I am going to have to pass on this for the time being although will save the steps in case I get chance to do some later. I am currently quilting MM3 – 5 hours already and not half way yet!!
I have printed list and it’s lurking by the fabrics.