Deja vu all over again

The other day I was looking at my Fons and Porter magazine and saw this top quilt in an ad for one of their books. I thought to myself, "I like that. It looks pieced not appliqued. I wonder how hard it would be. I should make a quilt like that."

And then I spent the weekend at my sister's to see my nieces in their dance recital. (Ten year olds in in a tribute to Bob Fosse is not to be missed.) I walked into one of their bedrooms to drop off my suitcase and saw this quilt that I made. Yes, I made it. Not so very long ago. A few years. And yes, it's pieced not appliqued. And the pattern apparently wasn't that hard because the quilt is finished.

I'm crossing this off my to do list. Again.

Put together

60 x 66 inches

Top's done. And I made some binding. The dreaded back will have to wait. I've got eight tops in the cupboard now. Guess I need to send some off if I hope to get them finished. Picking the fabric and pattern is my favorite part. It's a wonder then that I get the tops done.

This blurry pic is the airport carpeting that inspired the top. I'm back there again this week, but I'll not try to take another pic. My skills and the terminal lighting will not have improved enough by tomorrow.

A tiny bit of progress

I've stitched the blocks together in four-patches, and now I can see the whole thing on the design wall. Glad I took this pic. I see I need to turn the pieces in the middle bottom around. If I weren't flying off for work in a few minutes, I probably would have gotten the whole top together. A little bit of progress is better than none!

Inspiration under foot

I just got back from two weeks in Baltimore for work. Besides a suitcase of dirty laundry, I also brought home the determination to make a quilt inspired by the carpet squares from the United terminal at BWI. Over the last few years, as I walk down the hall to or from a plane, I think, "That could be a quilt pattern." This time, I was determined to follow through. (Sorry no carpet picture.)

The carpet pattern consists of plain squares alternating with squares containing a single stripe. The striped squares have the stripes either toward the top or to the right side of the block. I figured my plain squares would be a print, and I found two 1-yard cuts of different scale leaf prints in similar colors. Then I pulled blues and lavendars from my stash that went with the main fabrics, making sure I had darks, mediums and lights, and a variety of scale and pattern in fabrics that would read as "solid." Some of these fabrics are from the '90s!

After making up several striped blocks, I played around with the arrangement of the two fabrics for the plain squares: alternating in rows, on a diagonal, random. I also tried all of one fabric or the other, but I needed to use both prints to make the top a decent size. The diagonal arrangement won, and I decided against using the two main fabrics in some of the striped blocks.

When the center was arranged on the design wall, I had the idea of creating a border by extending the stripe all the way around the outer edge of the top. Corner blocks made, and once I sew all the blocks together I should have a 60 x 66 top. Could have been a little bigger, but due to a nighttime cutting incident, I ran out of one of the leaf prints early.

This was a quick top to make, and maybe I should write up instructions?