A lap quilt finished

This is my newest lap quilt.  It is made of 12" blocks from the BOMs over at 15 Minutes Play.  The background is Kona Jade (I know, it is blue, not green).  The sashing and binding is a Kaffe shot cotton with red warp and maroon weft.  There is a little bit of green Batik, that drives Tom crazy because it is not balanced.  The rest is fabric I made by cutting up my favorite Kaffe's and making fabric with them.  It is quilted with a large overall stipple in a King Tut variegated red by Superior on top, and a variegated gold/brown on the back.  While I love excellent quilting, I love seeing the fabric and the patterns created by the fabric more.  I think that is why I have not been really motivated to learn more about machine quilting.

Here is the back.

Originally, I was going to use a very colorful sheet I found at the Goodwill.  When Bella was over last week, she wanted the room darker for her nap, so I put the sheet up over the window.  It looked so beautiful, we decided I should make curtains out of it instead.  Then, I didn't have any idea what I would use, so the quilt sat.  I was going through a bin looking for something else, when I found this piece I had been saving for just the right thing.  I guess it was waiting to be found for this quilt.  I have a noren ( traditional Japanese fabric dividers, hung between rooms, on walls, in doorways, or in windows) that has these three ladies on it leading into my studio.  I bought it in Japan, and was really excited to find the fabric last year.  But I digress.

The quilt is 42" x 52"", just the right size for my lap.

Just a little snow this morning.  We are told we will get quite a bit tonight.  It will be interesting.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Two new borders

After seeing the beginning of this quilt on the design wall, Tom pulled one of his Hawaiian shirts and gave it to me to use.  I cut it up, then cut the strips into units to sew together for this border.  The stylized drawings and the white flowers are all from the same shirt.  The colors go perfectly with the fabric in the original piece.  With this border, the project began taking on a definite island trend.

I pulled out a larger piece of the same anthurium fabric I used in the center section, and created a wide border.  Now, it is 41" square.  I want to grow it to at least 60".  I am not really sure what comes next.  I will leave it on the design wall while I work on other projects and see what it says to me.
On another note, there is a wonderful new online quilting class starting over at Chasing Cotton.  It will start on April 6, and it is free. The first week will be all about fabric.  This is aimed at people who are relatively new in the quilting world, but Rebecca is asking that experienced quilters tag along as well.  I will be heading over there each week.  I am looking forward to learning new things about my chosen obsession.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

A Bonus Quilt from a Grab Bag

I am a sucker for grab bags. When I was a kid, I used to save my allowance to by the sealed brown paper bags and the five and dime. I guess that dates me, but I don't know what the equivalent would be today. Anyway, I savored the moment that I got the bag home to open it. The other day, when I went to Pieces, I looked through the grab bags, which were clear, and came up with two of them. I paid $2.25 for each. Today, I opened the first one and was totally surprised. Some wonderful person had thrown in all the leftovers from a wonderful, I am guessing, quilt project. After some calculation, I figured out I have enough fabric in strips and squares to make a wonderful lap quilt. I did some sewing of strips, and put together one of the 30 blocks. The inside squares will all be the same. There are five different fabrics for the smaller squares. I will do sashing with the light. There is enough of the print fabric to do cornerstones in the sashing. Don't know if I will do it, but I am thinking about it. I am pretty excited about my $2.25 quilt.