The Choices We Make

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. Julia Cameron

I am part of an online quilting community run by Pat Sloan, an award winning quilter who writes books, posts videos and hosts of all things, a mystery block quilt along. I know, it’s amazing what you can find on the internet during a pandemic. Basically, she posts fabric requirements, a pdf of the quilt design (with the blocks all mysteriously blank) and instructional videos for piecing each week’s mystery block. She holds back just enough information to pique curiosity.

Basically, Pat’s done all the planning and designing, and all you have to do is choose your fabric. On the surface that sounds easy. You can cheat and buy coordinated precut quilt fabric bundles. In fact you can purchase the very bundle Pat uses in her quilt. Normally I just buy fabric as I walk through fabric stores and something catches my attention. I have a big stash of lovely bits and bobs, and so choosing my fabric is more about standing in front of my stash and saying, “who wants to be in this quilt?” It’s always a mystery who volunteers.

Piecing a mystery quilt is a bit like life to me. You never really know exactly how it might turn out. If you’re lucky, you’ve got a bit of structure and good companions to encourage you along, but there’s always a risk that one choice just might not work well with subsequent choices. Sometimes, you have to give up on your plan, and go another direction. It’s surprising how simply changing one fabric color or even one fabric can change the look of a quilt. Normally, I get to the end of my “mystery” quilt, and I’m shocked it turned out at all! I always check online to see how my fellow quilters did. We’ve all followed the same pattern, and yet our quilts reflect our different choices of color, pattern, light against dark. Each quilt is unique, beautiful, creative, mysterious.

~Lisa Kiel