I’ve never been much of a “traditional” quilter. Early in my sewing life, I resisted the perfectionist tendencies that seem to creep into traditional quilts. I thought it was ridiculous that my 4-H sewing projects were judged on having perfect points or that people would insist that there was a right or wrong way to do anything. I was an artist, after all!
That resistance was part of why I didn’t start quilting until I was 25, a full 15 years after I started trying to make my own clothes. Quilting seemed so tedious and quilters seemed uptight. That brings me to today. Today I love quilting. I could go on and on about the ways that quilting has improved my mental health, logical thinking skills, time management, and even my own tendencies toward perfectionism and anxiety.
Once I learned some of the tricks of quilting (I love this book for intermediate quilting tricks), it became a meditative practice. There is something so calming about sitting down with 100 beautiful little bits of fabric and chain piecing them. Put on some music, light a candle, zone out. I didn’t have the patience for all that when I was younger. I also didn’t have the tools: reliable, high quality machine, rotary cutter and mat, and rulers that make cleaning up pieces simple and accurate. Without those, quilt-making would still be too tedious for me.
Okay, so here’s my Part II of quilting activities that I recommend (see Part I here). Bonnie Hunter, quilter and quilt designer extraordinaire, has an annual mystery quilt. If you are not familiar with mystery quilts, the general idea is that you get directions bit by bit and you follow the directions without knowing what the end result will be. It’s a mystery. I’ve always wanted to do one, but they seemed too traditional, too tedious for me.
Then I saw Bonnie’s latest color scheme for the
Chilhowie mystery quilt. It was oranges, and purples, and teals, and I was mesmerized. It reminded me of sunsets and stormy summers and so many things I love. So, last fall, I jumped in and joined the mystery quilt. Just look at how incredible these colors are with the light coming through my unfinished top.
Bonnie sends out “clues,” which are a short set of detailed instructions each week from the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving into sometime in the early new year. Each clue can seem a little daunting at first. It’s often to make a whole bunch of some configuration or another and then to trim them down to very precise measurements. Given that trimming is my least favorite part of quilting, there were a couple of moments when I wanted to give up, but I stuck it out and I’m really glad I did. By the end, I started to hate the trimming less and could see even that part as meditative. In whole, the quilt was far more intricate than my usual quilts and I probably wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t a mystery quilt.
Being part of the mystery quilt process also connected me to others working on the same pattern. It was so fun to see the alternative color ways and creative ways that people made the blocks their own. Facebook makes it easy to join groups working on the same quilt. Through their comments, I also learned a bit more about why Bonnie does this mystery quilt for free and what it means to people. Bonnie is a quilt designer, so she makes her living off of putting together these incredible patterns. But she offers the mystery quilt pattern for free for a window from November to February. Anyone can join. They just go to her
blog and read, print, or save the directions each week. Once February comes around, the pattern goes up for sale, but if you’ve downloaded it before then, you can work on it all year for free.
What I heard from people in the group was that Bonnie started offering this mystery quilt event for free to give people something to keep them busy over the holidays. The holidays are
stressful, as we all know, but they are also a problem when there is a gap between what we think should happen (happy family together, celebrating) vs. what actually happens (missing family members, strife, sadness). For a lot of people, the holidays feel like something to just endure. Having a project to keep your brain and hands busy can be a lifesaver, literally. Many people in the group told stories about how much this project helped them. I think that’s a beautiful thing.
So, all in all, I highly recommend checking out Bonnie’s blog, patterns, and especially the mystery quilt. I improved my skills, become more tolerant of even the most tedious steps, connected with others, and completed a really amazing quilt that I can’t stop looking at. Now I’m onto my second one, using up scraps and still loving the design and process.
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