2011...time to finish those mystery quilts!

For those quilters who qualified for continuation in our Beyond the Block mystery contest, you have until Tuesday, January 18th to send me photos of your completed mystery quilt. Your quilt must be quilted with the edges finished and a hanging sleeve attached to the back. Send mystery quilt photos to chrisbrown@AQSquilt.com and please include a little information about your focus blocks and process.

Approximately eight finalists will be chosen during the last week of January, and those finalists will be given instructions on shipping their quilts to the AQS photography studio in Paducah. The three contest winners will be chosen from the finalists, and the three winning quilts will be published in the May 2011 issue of American Quilter magazine. This issue will be available online to AQS members by mid-March and on newsstand the second week of April.

The beautiful completed mystery quilt shown above was made by Janet Springfield of Pendleton, Indiana. Janet writes: "My quilt is named Fascinatin' Fences because of my own fascination with fences. The focus blocks are from my community and include a classic farm fence, three very different wood fences including a picket style, an old iron fence, a utilitarian chain link, and a somewhat shocking prison fence from the Indiana State Reformatory south of town. Continuing with the fence theme, I pieced the Rail Fence pattern for the backing. My label is a photo, taken two miles from my house, of an old style rail fence."

Even though we can only publish three winning quilts in the magazine, photos of all completed Beyond the Block mystery quilts will be posted in our Readers’ Quilts gallery online at www.AmericanQuilter.com by late spring 2011. You can access this gallery in the drop-down menu under the American Quilter Magazine tab on the home page.