I am excited to have wrapped up the Meadow Mystery Quilt-A-Long while sharpening both my FMQ and HMQ skills.   The entire QAL, sponsored by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Design was a great time.  The pace was perfect for me as a full time working Mom (I know you can relate!).   And let me mention it was really fun to anticipate each month’s blocks rather than know what was coming.  I simply loved the mystery component of it.  The QAL started back in July (see my post where I talked about color inspiration and getting started –   Meadow Mystery Quilt-along).

This was the first time I made a quilt from fabric purchased entirely online.   It came together very nicely considering I selected the colors based on very small thumbnail pics.  The fabrics chosen were:

• Edyta’s Essentials Batiks, Lemon Bliss
• Sticks & Stones Batiks, Ivy Rust by Laundry Basket Quilts for Moda
• The Reclaimed West, Rock Grey by Timeless Treasures
• Sound of the Woods 2, Branches Glacier Metallic by Kathrine Lovell for Robert Kaufman
• Whispers Muslin Mates, Take Flight Feather by Studio M for Moda
• Urban Scandinavian, Black and White Floral by Kirstyn Cogan for P&B Textiles
• Binding: Thicket – Dashes Black Natural by Gingiber for Moda Fabrics

For the quilting, I did a free hand orange peel for the border rectangles, a curved bird line for the light gray fabric (which my son called out as looking like clouds) and a free hand sets of florals for the black rectangles in the main squares of the quilt and the black half triangle blocks in the corners.  I also free hand quilted winter trees and limbs throughout the lighter fabrics.

I used a Tonga Batiks 106′ wide Garden Confetti Stones for the backing which subtly pops the quilting silhouettes.

The FMQ was so fun and engaging once I got the swing of it.  I look forward to more FMQ, though I am humbled by how time consuming it is.  If I had more time, there were many more spots to fill in with fun FMQ.

I love hand made labels.  I used the Lemon Bliss batik, and practiced “Take Flight” with my darning foot.  It didn’t look so good.  So Plan B, a simple hand embroidered version which I then sewed in as I added the binding.  Blends in perfectly.

The quilt finished at 72 x 72 with the borders.  I look forward to next year’s Mystery Quilt.  I’m delighted with how this quilt came out!