The 2027 Murder Mystery Quilt is NOW OPEN for registration!!
Join us next year for Murder at Mardi Gras and sew the quilt to solve the crime with the nicest quilters on the internet.
We are launching the TWELFTH YEAR of the Murder Mystery Quilt in 2027, and there is SO MUCH for you to discover with us. This warm community has such a sense of humor and curiosity, they’re welcoming and friendly, generous and joyous. Sign up here and get ready for your best year ever.
Since 2015, the Murder Mystery Quilt has been the one-year membership club that invites you to Sew The Quilt To Solve The Crime. We’re a warm, friendly community of quilters at all levels who love sewing and stories! The MMQ has traveled the world with our fictional heroine, Kitty Campbell, from Jamestown to the Appalachian Trail to Egypt to Hawaii–and in 2027, we’re headed to historic New Orleans for the magic of Mardi Gras!
Sew The Quilt To Solve The Crime: The Murder Mystery Quilt
The Murder Mystery Quilt is a monthly subscription club that reads along together and stitches up a quilt to find clues and solve the murder. A mystery quilt is a quilting project that invites you to sew a block at a time–but the overall design of the quilt isn’t revealed until all the blocks are sewn. Imagine putting a puzzle together without the box top, but with an all-knowing older sister guiding you as you put the pieces together.
The MURDER Mystery Quilt, though, is also a REAL MYSTERY: each month, along with the block pattern and design, you receive a chapter of an original, exclusive mystery story. Each chapter reveals clues as the plot unfolds, and it’s your job to seek out whodunit! Additional clues to solve the mystery are hidden INSIDE the quilt design, so you get to SEW THE QUILT TO SOLVE THE CRIME.
You can read more about how the MMQ got started in these past posts: the original launch, the 2016 quilt, the 2017 quilt, the 2018 quilt, the 2019 quilt, the 2020 quilt, the 2021 quilt, the 2022 quilt, the 2023 quilt, and the 2024 project.
Our Heroine: Kitty Campbell
The heroine of our story each year since 2016 is Kitty Campbell, Archaeobotanist. As an expert in the prehistoric relationships between humans and plants, Kitty knows about seeds, agriculture, pollen, and tree ring dating. Her skills and knowledge lead her around the world as a “shovel bum,” an archaeologist for hire–but for some reason, she keeps finding herself drawn into solving murders!
Kitty Campbell has spent most of the last ten years solving crime, which keeps finding her no matter where in the world her work as an archaeologist takes her. Her very best friend, Amanda Fitzherbert, is headed to New Orleans for her grandfather’s funeral. Kitty goes along for moral support, but it all goes off the rails when they find TWO bodies in the coffin!
Kitty is drawn into the world of New Orleans just at the start of the Carnival season. Follow her to a Mardi Gras ball, to parades with floats and threats wearing masks, to a jazz speakeasy, and to an old apothecary in search of answers.
Along the way, you’ll build your quilt–or even make it two! Collect clues as we move through the French Quarter and the Mardi Gras landscape, from Bourbon Street to the Marigny and the Garden District, and help Kitty investigate (and eat everything in sight, so bring room for beignets and etouffee and jambalaya and more!).
Our quilters will follow along in the story with Kitty as she collects clues to discover where to find the killer. The clues are hiding in the quilt pattern so members can sew and solve at the same time!
Our Quilt: Inspired By The Soft Historic Architecture of the French Quarter AND The Bold Brights of Carnival!
New Orleans, the Crescent City, is full of history, flavor, color and JAZZ, and it inspires the design of our quilt! Combining the colors of the French Quarter with Mardi Gras vibes, your quilt will be a masterpiece of both textiles and crime-solving.
Join the Murder Mystery Quilt as we solve Murder at Mardi Gras with fabrics & colors from your choice between TWO color palette options: one of soft pastels and historic neutrals inspired by the limewashed exteriors of French Quarter buildings, including the soft green of a creeping vine, the warm peach of a soft sunrise, and the haint blue of a Southern front porch; and another of bright festival colors drawn from the parade floats of Carnival season, like deep royal purple, vibrant green, and warm gold alongside amethyst and crawdad red. Each month presents you with TWO block options, one a traditional and historic quilt block, the other a foundation pieced design drawn from iconic Mardi Gras symbols. The shapes of the blocks will inspire and delight you, as well as offering you skills each month to explore as your quilt grows!
Along the way, you’ll earn BONUS CLUES and share your thoughts as we piece a quilt that you’ll be thrilled to show off!
Since video guidance is included for every quilting technique in our patterns, a membership with the Murder Mystery Quilt is the best quilting purchase you’ll make all year.
Each month for twelve months, you receive a new pattern as an MMQ member, and in 2027 you’ll have the option to make a REVERSIBLE quilt, because every month brings you TWO blocks from which to choose. One is a traditionally-pieced block drawn from historic designs, and the other is a foundation-pieced design that calls to mind the magic of Mardi Gras. Your quilt will grow as the clues pile up, and along the way, you’ll learn skills, make friends, and discover a community you can count on.
Dozens of former MMQ members have entered their completed Murder Mystery Quilts in quilting competitions and won blue ribbons, which is a huge statement of their work and the supportive environment we work to build at the MMQ, where we encourage you to stay on track and FINISH your quilt, along with your Clue Crew.
What’s A Clue Crew?
Clue Crews (or in 2027, Clue Krewes in honor of Mardi Gras!) are smaller groups within the Murder Mystery Quilt each year who get to know one another better through our private Facebook groups, where it’s possible to make new friends and ask questions in a warm, welcoming space. Our Clue Crews have become one of my very favorite parts about the MMQ! We have quarterly contests that get members to open up and share the fun details about their lives, like the pyramid-building contest the year we went to Egypt, where one member built her pyramid from hay bales on her farm, and photographed herself climbing to the top!
Clue Crews are also places where members’ real lives get shared with others who care and understand, like the year California’s wildfires took the homes of three members, so the Clue Crews got together and re-made their lost Murder Mystery Quilt tops of the same fabrics each member had chosen–and shipped them to those who had lost their homes. That incredible act of community and generosity would have been enough, but MMQers always go above and beyond, so members KEPT ON SEWING and donated over 100 full quilts to local California school kids who had lost their homes.
The members of the Murder Mystery Quilt truly are the nicest quilters on the internet, and I know they want to get to know you!
How To Quilt Is Included In Every Registration!
Something about the community of the MMQ and the Clue Crews reminds me of when my kids were in Montessori schools, where the classrooms were made up of a range of ages. The older kids took turns sharing their skills with the younger children, teaching them how to tackle a task or giving pointers, or even simply working alongside the new students as they tried something new.
Our MMQ members do the same thing, and I am intrigued and thrilled each year at how much I learn from the tips and ideas they share! For newer quilters, and for those who are more self-taught or have gaps in their quilting knowledge, I’ve also included the ENTIRE How To Quilt video series as part of every MMQ 2027 membership!
This 18 video series includes patterns for 12 quilt blocks to make a gorgeous sampler quilt, plus additional patterns for another 10 FULL quilts along the way, AND projects based around each quilt block design. The official launch of the 2027 Murder Mystery Quilt is January 13, 2027 and the How To Quilt series is such a fun way to get ready for it!
We’ve Got Prizes!
Part of the fun is guessing whodunit! Members of the Murder Mystery Quilt can earn BONUS CLUES each month by completing their block before the next pattern arrives. This helps keep you motivated so we all finish together! No more mystery quilt UFOs floating around.
Plus! By collecting bonus clues and reading the mystery along with other members, you can guess the killer. Every correct guess goes in the bucket for a prize drawing at the end of our year together! Prize baskets are HUGE and include fabric, notions, tools, treats, and goodies related to the setting of our mystery–many of which I traveled across the globe and chose for our winners with my very own hands. I LOVE sending prize packages internationally, and anyone can win!
The 2027 Murder Mystery Quilt:
Halloween 2026: registration is OPEN to the public!
November 2026: fabric requirements arrive via email to all members and Clue Crews are assigned
December 2026: watch your inbox for countdowns and updates, and make the Advent Calendar, an MMQ bonus exclusive!
January 13, 2027: the MMQ26 officially begins! the first block and chapter arrive in your inbox
Every second Wednesday in 2027: a new chapter and block will arrive, and bonus clues are sent out to members who completed the previous months’ block by the deadline
October 2027: the “guess” bucket opens so members can guess the name of the killer!
December 31, 2027: the “guess” bucket closes
January 1, 2028: the final chapter of our mystery arrives via email
January 5, 2028: winners of our prize baskets are announced!
Come spend the year with the NICEST quilters on the internet, and Sew The Quilt To Solve The Crime with the Murder Mystery Quilt in 2027!!
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