Monday, October 28, 2013

An Autumn Quilt...

My daughter wanted an Autumn quilt made of batiks.  She chose five batiks and sent the fabric to me, to do with as I wished. (Oh, goody! :))

I perused my books and the Internet and finally found a block I liked.  http://www.quilterscache.com/N/NoName2Block.html.  However, when I put the test blocks together, I felt they blended too well. 


Well, this won't work...although the photo is clear, the colors close up were simply too much alike.  The block is dull and has no zing.



Wow, the black made it pop!  I sent it to her and she approved.  This is still the No Name Block, just separated by 2 1/2 inch black sashings. 


 I had cut the center of the block orange fabric into 4 1/2 inch squares, anticipating many blocks.  However, the other fabrics only made a total of 9 blocks, each 20 inches square.  What to do with the orange blocks??? Why, make them into prairie points!  And put them somewhere on the quilt...like down the sides of each middle block!  A "quilt inspector" cat approved my choice and acted as a weight while I was trying to sew...so I turned off the machine and let her have the quilt for the evening. 
 

The finished quilt.  I had to add the dark gold fabric sashings, too.  My daughter wanted a twin size and I wanted it to match, without taking away from the blocks.   


As I was putting the back together, I realized I didn't have enough fabric.  So, the piecing began...I used nearly every scrap of leftover fabric, and still had to add 2 fat quarters, which were not batiks, from my stash. They had every color of the quilt in them, though, so it worked out.  


A closeup of one of the center blocks - I bought leaf buttons and sewed them to the prairie points, and then sewed the points down, too.  I domestic machine pieced and domestic machine quilted - Xs in the blocks, and stitch-in-the-ditch for the rest of it. 

The label still needs to be attached, but essentially, this quilt is done!

Stashbusting (not including the 5 batiks my daughter sent as they weren't part of my stash):

5 partly used spools of gold thread
1 yard of gold fabric
2 fat quarters