In July 2021, I decided to participate in the Macaron Mystery Quilt sew-along organized by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. For years, Cheryl has designed a quilt, generously shared the pattern for free and organized an annual quilt-along for people who would like to make the quilt in (virtual) community. (After the series ends, quilters can purchase a complete, easy-to-follow pattern if they don't want to work through each individual post from the quilt-along.)
I was in the mood for a low-stress project with a leisurely timeline -- each step of this quilt-along is published at the beginning of the month, so there's plenty of time to get caught up in between -- and I wanted to be able to use fabric already in my stash. This project began in July with a fabric pull, so I gathered my spotted background plus peaches, greens, turquoises and hot pinks. In August, I visited friends in Indianapolis and snagged a coordinating floral backing on sale at a local fabric shop, The French Seam. It was nice to have the perfect backing ready and waiting when I finally got to the stage where I needed it.
The monthly assignments took us through cutting and then piecing with each color and finally assembling blocks and the final quilt top. There was an active Facebook group (actually I think it's really active all year long!) of participants to share photos and get/give advice and kudos. Cheryl posted that there were 189 versions of the Macaron Mystery Quilt shared in her end-of-project photo parade. That's impressive engagement!
My finished quilt top was large enough that I didn't want to try basting and quilting it myself, so I took advantage of the "penny special" from longarmer Sterling LaBosky, @sterlingquiltco in Instagram, whom I have used before. Her monthly deal was this cute edge-to-edge flower design -- it's something that I never would have chosen on my own, but it brings a lot of whimsy to the quilt. I love how it turned out.
