National Quilting Day

Can't let a banner day like National Quilting Day get past me without a post. Here are some things I've done to honor the day.

The Benartex samples (previous post) are 4"x4" squares. I had several helpful suggestions, one of which was to do a Civil War Bride quilt. Isn't that the one with all the applique? I don't think I would do it, but I would do a Dear Jane. So there's an idea. I also have the book Farmer's Wife, and I would do at least a part of those blocks. So I played in the 4" squares last night while watching NCAA March Madness.

Today, I put the final 2 seams in the blue and yellow quilt. It is now a finished top - but maybe not...I may add a dark blue border onto it. I asked my younger daughter to take a picture of it while I held it up, but it sagged, so I asked my older daughter to help me hold it. She's a goof, so here's her way of "helping."

After much giggling, we finally got a good photo. I'm calling this quilt Sorrento, after a beautiful sea-side city in southern Italy, where the yellow of the lemons and the blue of the Mediterranean are so predominate. Much of the pottery sold in this region is painted the most amazing hues of blue and yellow.

I made this pattern up as I went, so if anyone is examining it closely, you'll surely be wondering why I did some of the things I did. My first step on this quilt was to make the 9-patch blocks which make up the outer ring of blocks. I ran out of the blue I was using, so I made the 9-patch blocks in the center using a darker blue. As I used entirely from my stash, of course, the fabrics didn't work out perfectly, so there are 2 9-patch blocks in the outer ring with dark blue squares. I centered them in the middle of the top and bottom rows.

Then, my alternate blocks are the half-square triangle blocks, and I arranged them to create the blue-yellow-blue fields. Had I realized this would result in a yellow field on the outside, I would have treated it at a border, rather than setting in side triangles. (Did everyone follow all of that???)  That's the story of Sorrento.

Also, today is the first day of spring! Happy spring, everyone!