Last year, I downloaded the clues for Bonnie Hunter’s Annual Mystery Quilt. This one was originally entitled “Rhododendron Trail.” With the colors I chose using the recommended paint chip scheme, I pulled the fabrics I wanted to use and set to work on Clue #1. As usual with her quilt mysteries, life gets busy for the holidays and I usually do not make it through Clue #1 or #2 before I have to put it away and focus on other things. The mystery pattern is free (while the stitch along is actively going), so I always download all the remaining clues as they come out and then put the fabrics, clues, and paint chips in a big bag, label it and set it in the chest with my other UFOs. We won’t discuss how many of those there are.

Fast forward to this past week. I decided to ask my Scrap Quilting Facebook Group to decide between 4 different bags of UFOs and I was resolved to make whichever got the most votes. I announced the winner of the poll on my Live Stream this Monday and, no surprise, the mystery quilt bag won out. So, this week I have been as busy as a bee; cutting, sewing, and having a great time watching the quilt top come together.

The one difference to doing the mystery quilt at this time, as opposed to when it is actually taking place, is that I get to see the finished quilt ahead of time. Once the quilt is revealed and the “mystery quilt-a-long” is completed, there is a “Big Reveal.” Of course, I save that post, too, so I can construct my quilt with the added benefit of seeing what it will look like in the end. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you like surprises or not.

Anyway, back to the colors. My color choices, from the scraps I was able to glean from my stash, reminded me of pink lemonade. So, as I always do, I have changed the name of this quilt (for my purposes) to be “Pink Lemonade.” I chose to use one white on white fabric for all my neutrals, which will make the quilt a little less “scrappy” looking. Other than that, I am following the color scheme pretty closely. It will be fun to see the end result of mine.

After completing this post I will be jumping into Clue #4 and should have that done by the end of the day. There are eight clues in all and so it will probably take me another week to complete the whole top. Here are the photos of what I have done so far. I will save the “Big Reveal” photo for the next post, so I can put it side by side with my completed version.