Down Under Mystery Quilt Fabric

Joni's fabulous 2012 Mystery

If any of you want to do the Down Under Mystery quilt but want to take advantage of the great sales going on right now pre-Christmas and pre-Inventory I will be happy to give you the fabric requirements.  However, I strongly urge you to shop your stash.

The Down Under Mystery is worked in larger blocks than the last, as most will be happy to note!  Those 1 1/2 inch blocks seemed to be never-ending.  And they continued to the very last!

look hard, there is a roo in there!

 This will be an easy variation of the 9 patch (what block isn't) but it will be simpler.  And a bonus will be that since we are using larger blocks, the resulting quilt will be larger.

The quilt as directed in the mystery will be approx 90 x 90.  If size scares you, then be aware.  I guess you can make the patches 2 1/2 instead of 3 1/2 and cut down on size, but I have no idea how large (or small) that will end up to be.  The pattern will not matter, it is a nice flowing and overall pattern.

here they are closer

The pattern lends itself well to a larger print as the focus print.  A print, perhaps, that you don't want to cut up because you love it.  But a smaller calico would work fine as well if that is what you are.  I see it as bold batiks, a Dutch Wax print with complimentary fabrics, hand dyes of contrasts or complements.  Be creative when you look at this.  If you are stepping out to do a mystery quilt, then choose boldly with your heart.  You want your focus print to look good in a 3 inch square.  And it can look different in several squares if your print is large enough.  Not a problem, it will be your overall focus print. Use a 3 inch window cut out of a piece of cereal box cardboard to audition your print.

Not Aussie, but we
walked among them as well

Think of this fabulous Aussie wonder draped across your bed, if you have a king you can add a few borders and you have a new marvel!

For this you will need three sets of fabrics.  A dark, a light and a focus or print fabric.  Choose the focus print first and the dark and light after that.  All you have to do is to make sure they look good together in your head.  The quilt will fall into place if you love your choices.

While you should only have one focus fabric you can have more than one dark and light choices if you work carefully.  Your dark can be 3-5 darks but they need to be the same value.  put them together and walk across the room.  If you see varying shades, choose another fabric.  They all need to read "dark" and "same".  I chose one fabric, but you can make the quilt more interesting by choosing 3 -4 or even 5 fabrics.

Your light is pretty much the same thing as the dark.  Same value, walk across the room.  3-5 fabrics.  Mottles are great.

If you use more than one fabric your quilt will have more interest.  But some people do not care for  scrappy, and that is fine to do all in one fabric as well.  I didn't have that much fabric in one length that would go with my favorite focus print.

1 3/4 yard of your focus print
3 1/2 yards of light fabrics
4 yards of dark fabrics

Any questions, or if you want to send me a picture of your choices I will be happy to mediate and suggest!  Send them to my email at:

obed101(at)cox(dot)net

The Mystery Woman - let me know if you are with me, if not I won't post to the blog!