Quilting Activities I Recommend, Part I

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 Geez, that whole pandemic thing really changed a lot. One thing it didn’t change for me is my love of sewing. In fact, sewing became one of my most important outlets, especially during the early days when there was so much uncertainty and anxiety. 

Over the last couple of years, I’ve tried out many new ways of building out my sewing skills and connecting to others. There are two quilting activities that I now recommend. This post is about the first and I’ll update about the second over the next couple of days. 

Early on in the pandemic, I wanted a monthly subscription of quilting related stuff. I tried a couple of the fabric and notions boxes, but just didn’t feel inspired. So, I kept looking and eventually came across the Murder Mystery Quilt, which is a monthly quilt pattern, plus a chapter of a mystery novel, plus a facebook group that the creator claims is filled with “the nicest quilters on the internet.” She’s not wrong! Each subscriber is put in a small group where people share their sewing, their lives, interesting things they find, and other tidbits related to the themes. Each quilt and mystery novel have a theme and the blocks include clues for solving the murder. 

In 2021, I made two quilts. The setting was the Caribbean and the novel was titled,  Murder on the High Seas. My first quilt had a more traditional grey background, while the second went a bit more wild with a patterned batik. I love them both. Each of the main squares relates to the story, some giving clues, some pointing to red herrings, others representing key themes. The off-set squares in the middle actually turned out to be nautical flags that spelled out the name of the murderer. Once the flag clue became apparent, the mystery was pretty easy to solve. A rule within the facebook group is that you have to give a spoiler alert if you give away information that could solve the murder. I can never resist knowing something, so I looked. 


The theme for 2022 was Murder at Yellowstone and I was immediately in love with the color scheme. One of the best parts of this group is getting the fabric requirements and imagining all the beautiful blocks to come. 

You can see several animals that were from foundation paper pieced patterns, the star that is the central element, an appliqué geyser, three different interpretations of trees, and two different flowers in this design. The finishing directions gave us several different options for layout and I chose one that had quite a bit of negative space, so I added in some other appliqué features (bird, sun, vines, third flower). 

This mystery didn’t have any clear cut clues, but I had it narrowed to two options. Unfortunately, I guessed wrong. Participants can win prizes at the end of year for completing all blocks and for guessing who the killer is. It really brings out my competitive side!

The Murder Mystery Quilt is not a free activity, but for me, it was more than worth it to have something to look forward to each month. I am doing it again in 2023, with a Viking theme. I was also able to convince my mom to do it with me and it’s so much fun shopping with her, talking about the blocks, and eventually talking about the story. Highly recommend.

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