HoopSisters Mystery Quilt

Drum roll please................  TADAAAA!!!

My HoopSister Mystery Quilt for 2011 is finally complete.  I must say that for my first mystery quilt I an OVERLY satisfied!  There is no way at all I would have had the patience or vision to create a quilt like this on my own using traditional methods.  It makes me feel so fancy!

Perhaps I should first explain a little more what a mystery quilt is.  The HoopSisters provided the pattern to start along with a list saying we would need 5 shades of one color and 2 shades of another.  They also told us the yardage we would need.  We then numbered our shades and through out the pattern when they said to use fabric 2 or 7....  that was the one I used!  Each week they emailed a set of patterns to download to your machine, along with instructions for about 8 different blocks.

 Even the back of this quilt is fabulous to me!  Thank you HoopSisters for an amazing product!  They have created an ingenious line of  Quilt-In-The-Hoop patterns.  Simply put..  If your machine does embrodery you place batting in your hoop, the machine stitches the pattern, and then you lay your fabric where it says.  The machine then sews and quilts each block indvidually so that when you sew all your blocks together you have a fully quilted design!  The video below is from their YouTube Channel and shows the Rail Fence block in my quilt.  Skip to 1:30 to see kind how I did the quilt.  So easy it's a little sad...

 

They even have their own little lines of notions to get the job done.  The scissors in the video above are bend funky and work awesome.  But, my favorite thing is their Battelizer (Batting and Stabilizer in one!)  Expensive, but awesome!  They provide free videos and tutorials online so that you can see how to put their products together.

 

What was frustrating was when they said something like, "Use any fabric 1-7."  (Notice how the cardtricks on the side are all slightly different.)  Now...  I have this horrible disease where... when creating something someone else/many have made...  I have to add my own twist.  Like HAVE too.  Really.. it's a disease.  It was VERY hard for me to just... follow the instructions.  Apparently picking out my own fabric just wasn't enough for me.  It drove be bananas was that I didn't know at ALL how the quilt was going to be laid out, so...  I couldn't really do that!  I rebeled by using my yellow thread on blocks that were all gray and gray thread on blocks that had some yellow.  Take THAT HoopSisters!  lolI also did my border different, but... changing thread felt so much more risky for some reason...  lol

The yellow blocks to the right were my least favorite to create, but my favorite to look at when they were all sewn together.

 Can you tell where the original blocks are?  This design contained about 13 different block designs.  The 5 main ones are now available for sale on their site!

A clost up of the very center back...  Awesome... uh... HECK YEAH!

Back corner...

Now... I'm not getting paid for this tiny advertisement of the HoopSisters, but seriously...  EVERYONE needs to try one of these quilts if you have an embroidery machine!   Fabulous!!!