Red and orange make a difference

I spent time yesterday cutting out all the squares I needed for this quilt.  About 20% of them are from the red and orange plaid shirts in the collection.  This morning, I made up ten of those blocks and added them to the mix.  They won't be this predominant in the finished quilt, but I think I like the overall idea.  Thanks to those of you who supported Tom in this idea.  Even with all my cutting yesterday, I still have a shelf full of blue shirt parts.  I cut all the small bits into 2 1/2" squares, so now I have quite a few of those as well.  They may make an appearance in this quilt in some fashion before all is said and done.  I really enjoy making quilts with no real end plan.  Just enjoying the process.

This is my July AAQI quilt.  It is 6 1/2" x 10" and is hand quilted.  If you look closely, you can see some of my hand stitching.  I love these rich warm colors together.  The little inserts of turquoise came from the same color in the small piece of Sandy Gervais designed Tranquility I have used. To see this line, check out this site.) It is the olive green with the orange, brown, blue and cream squares. I used to have quite a bit of this fabric, but I think this may be just about the last of it.  This was the first line of fabric I used to make a quilt when I got back into quilting a couple of years ago.  My chosen style and fabric selections have changed quite a bit since then, but I still love all the fabrics in this line. 

In these two projects, I have combined all kinds of patterns from very traditional shirting plaids to bark cloth to my favorite Jinny Beyer design.  I have thrown caution to the wind in the shirting quilt mixing solids, batiks, plaids, paisleys, and whatever else comes out of my scrap bags.  This goes against the voice in my head that tries to remind me that there is an order to the universe and I should be paying attention to it.  Sometimes I do, but not for these two.  Maybe next time.

The chickens are loving the warm weather as much as I am.  They had their wings clipped yesterday after Janis Joplin decided to see how high she could fly.  Doesn't that sound just like her namesake?  They are now content to munch on the fresh greens Tom gives them every morning when he lets them out of their coop.  I am enjoying watching them grow but wondering how long it will be before they start paying rent with delicious blue shelled eggs.

Joyful quilting, everyone.