Every year, the Thimbles community of quilters and sewists participates in Karen Montgomery’s Brown Bag Mystery Quilt Along. And every year, our quilters produce some seriously jaw-dropping quilts!
Before the next Brown Bag Mystery launches this weekend, we wanted to share some of the finished quilts from previous years. We hope these quilts inspire you to join us for Brown Bag Mystery: Two Step Tango. Yes, you still have time to grab a bag before the first clue drops on Saturday!
Brown Bag Mystery 2025: Dealer’s Choice
Both of the gorgeous quilts shown above are from Juliette Carter. This is a great visual example of how fabric and color choice affects the look of the finished quilt. Glanced at quickly, it’s not readily apparent that this is the same quilt design!
Above are another two Dealer’s Choice quilts. The quilt on the left is from Carol Stubler Romberg; the quilt on the right is from Teresa Gibson.
Carol wrote: “Last year was my first year, it was a lot of fun! I am not doing this year because I have another project going on!! But I will do it again.”
Teresa wrote: “BBM 2025 was my third year doing BBM and was the most enjoyable mystery in 20+ years of mystery quilts. I asked Jane to put together a custom bag for me with a Florida beach house in mind. I added a border that I came up with in EQ8.”
Pat Brown finished the quilt above left and shared: “I've been doing the Brown Bag Mystery for a number of years. I love doing them because it takes me out of my comfort zone. If I were to look at a complete pattern without breaking it down like Karen Montgomery does, I would think it's too hard and not make it. Karen does a wonderful job of demonstrating and explaining each step.”
Janelle Miller finished the quilt above right and shared: “[This is] my third year doing BBM quilts. I changed out a color where the black is.”
Carol Vrshek finished two Dealer’s Choice quilts, shown above and below. We love how her solid fabrics pop!
Jeannie Turnock’s Dealer’s Choice quilt is a stunner. We love how once again the choice of fabric makes all the difference in the look of the finished quilt:
Brown Bag Mystery 2024: Piece of Cake
Both of these quilts are so beautiful, and can you believe they were part of the same Brown Bag Mystery?
Juliette Carter finished the quilt above left and said, “2024 was my first year and my son was graduating from UF with an engineering degree (no ‘piece of cake’) so it was perfect! I started two [in 2025] and had 4 strokes from April to July so it was a challenge, but with lots of help I finished! Hoping to finish two this year!”
Ellen Everding finished the quilt above right and said, “This was my first BBM in 2024. I had so much fun learning new things and getting advice from others throughout the entire process. Loved seeing all the different quilts.”
Carol Vrshek certainly felt like Piece of Cake was a piece of cake, because she finished three! The two above and the one below.
Brown Bag Mystery 2023: Timeshare
We love to see how the pattern changes when the fabric choice is either solid and semi-solid fabrics or batiks and patterned fabrics!
The solid fabric quilt on the left is from Carole Vrshek. The patterned fabric quilt on the right is from Teresa Gibson, who said, “BBM 2023 was my first BBM. I lucked out and saw a bag that had fabric I had been absolutely fixated on so could not resist. It was intended to be a quilt for our little camper but instead is now my husband's living room quilt, used every day instead of a couple times a year.”
Pat Brown also completed a quilt for Timeshare, which looks totally different from Carole’s solid quilt because Pat incorporated florals:
Brown Bag Mystery 2022 - To The Point
Would you believe the quilt on the left was Carole Vrshek’s first Brown Bag Mystery Quilt? “This was my first Brown Bag Mystery [in] 2022. At first I wasn't really thrilled with the fabric, but when I saw the end result, it grew on me. I have done at least 2 every year since. Always one bag from Thimbles! This year I grew to 2 bags from Thimbles because I wanted one with an ombré fabric. I also like the solid colored bags from Mt. Creek Quilters based on National Parks post cards. I loved the Big reveal party that Thimbles had 2 years ago. Got to meet the owners from Mt. Creek, that was a great big thrill for me. But I really love the results and Karen Montgomery is a quilt rock star to me!”
Pat Brown made the quilt on the right, and said, “This is my favorite Brown Bag Mystery.” It’s not hard to see why!
Brown Bag 2018 - Town Square
The very first Brown Bag Mystery Quilt was in 2018, and both Sue Mestek Nodine (top left) and Donna Preisler (top right) participated and shared their results with us. Donna shared a note that reminded us of the great universality among quilters: the big WIP pile!
Donna wrote: “Not sure I remember what year this is from. It’s still hanging on the door in the ‘to be quilted’ queue!”
Are you ready to join the Thimbles community and make a Brown Bag Mystery quilt? Find your kit here and join us in the Thimbleful of Sewists & Crafters group!
