Mystery Quilt Pattern
Falling Leaves is a medallion quilt (if you saw the newsletter, yep, I did say row quilt) that I thought might be fun to make as a mystery quilt, for a little bit of practice with fabric selection.The quilt isn't difficult at to assemble, and you can stitch it in one of two sizes:
- A 45-inches square wallhanging, or
- A miniature quilt that finishes at 22-1/2-inches square
Let's look at the center medallion first. Let it be your first guide to color and value, and think about other fabrics that you might combine with the fabrics you use with it.
My example adds just two more fabric than you see here, both mottled greens, similar in color and value but one with a slightly larger print than the other.
Start by playing around with five fabrics, sorting them into groups you think will work well together and considering how they will contrast. Choose a dark neutral (shown as brown), two lights (examples will be green), a medium-dark warm (shown as deep rust) and a light to medium warm background (shown as lighter fabric with shades of rust). Using printed fabrics with mottled colors will help make the quilt look like blowing leaves. (For tips, see: Color Value Basics and Color Wheel Simplified)
If you have small yardages, bring in more than five, because the pattern will make a nice scrappy quilt.
Yardages
Wallhanging
- Dark Neutral (brown): 1-1/2 yard
- Light Warm Background (light shades of rust): 1-1/4 yard
- Dark Warm (rust): 1 yard
- Light Cool (green): 3/8 yard
- Medium Cool (green): 3/4 yard
Miniature Quilt
- Dark Neutral (brown): 7/8 yard
- Warm Background (light shades of rust): 3/4 yard
- Dark Warm (rust): 5/8 yard
- Light Cool (green): 1/4 yard
- Medium Cool (green): 1/2 yard
Move on to page 2 for a look at the first border that surrounds the medallion block.
