Merry May, of Tuckahoe, NJ began writing mystery quilt instructions under the pen name of "Inspector Cluesew" in 1992, to the delight of thousands of quilters around the world.  Her first online mystery quilt was launched in 1994 through the Planet Patchwork portal.  since then her mysteries have appeared in many magazines, as well as through other online venues, such as the World Wide Quilting Page, the Quilt History site, Quilt Channel, and Quiltropolis.  Merry was the first person (under the sponsorship of Planet Patchwork and Quiltropolis) to offer a one-day online mystery "workshop," complete with a chat room for the participants.  She retired the Cluesew name in 2003 and then relaunched her popular mystery quilts under the name of "Merry Mayhem."  In 2012, she has 34 mystery quilt patterns to choose among, and all of the patterns are geared toward Confident Beginners and up.  

Be sure to look at our Mystery Quilts page for details on how to participate in our affordable Licensing Program in order to share any one of our Mystery Quilt patterns with members of your quilt guild, or through your local quilt shop.

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All content on this page is ©2012 Merry May, Merry Mayhem, Double Trouble Studios & Schoolhouse Enterprises.  All Rights Reserved under domestic and international laws.

In order to be successful at making Mystery Quilts, here are a few Insider Tips that you may want to be aware of:  
1)  The larger the yardages are in the Supply List, the more of that fabric you will be seeing in the completed project.  So, for example, if your yardages call for 5 yards of one fabric, and one yard each of four other fabrics, which fabric do you think you will be seeing the most of in the quilt at the end?  Bingo!  Of course you will see the 5-yard piece.  So be sure to choose something that you LIKE for this fabric! 
2)  If the fabrics "play well together" when you choose them, your chances of them getting along well in the final quilt project are pretty good.  This is providing that you have paid attention to the recommendations in the Supply List.  So, if we use the "winter" theme as our example again, and you decide to use "autumn" colors, your end result may not look all that good.
3)  And we can't emphasize enough that if the recommendations are for a certain theme, GO WITH THE RECOMMENDED THEME for the project.  You can always go back and change the fabrics the next time you use the pattern, but for the first one, give it a try and go along with the only person who DOES know what your project will look like!  
4)  Mystery Quilt projects are highly addictive, because you can't wait to see how it turns out.  Just sayin'!  
5)  If you REALLY don't like the results of the project, there are a number of charity groups that would be thrilled to have your quilt donated to them.  So don't use "what if I don't like it?" as an excuse!  Jump in there, and let's get started, shall we?   :-)