Autumnal Warmth

My hand is gradually getting better. We'd be further along if I hadn't hurt the affected fingers by trying to open our sliding glass door with that hand. You never realize how much you use your off hand until it's injured somehow!

The last thing I showed you were these four columns of scrappy Shoo Fly blocks on my design wall. My plan was to turn them into two columns for a strippy format lap quilt to donate to the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study.

My original plan was to tie together two columns of blocks into one wide vertical strip and then separate them with a whole cloth print. I actually had a plaid pulled out for that purpose. However, the more I looked at it the less I liked the idea. I thought about leaving more room between the columns of Shoo Fly blocks. I thought about spacing them evenly and just putting alternate (whole cloth) blocks between them. That would certainly make quilting straightforward. It would be boring though. Well... let's say "less interesting".

In the end I decided to make some six inch liberated stars for a fifth column of blocks. Had to scrounge around for background prints in the same colors I'd used for the Shoo Fly blocks but I managed. ;- )

Then the question became whether to use the plaid I'd originally chosen to sash and border the blocks or to find something else. (I'd show you the plaid but I lost some photos between the design wall and the computer somehow and I'm too lazy to go re-shoot them.) It took a couple of days of auditioning stuff from my stash and sighing over the fact that I didn't want to have to go shopping for fabric (shocking, I know) but eventually I settled on the batik you see between the blocks here:

In all my years of quilt making this may have been the first time I've mixed batiks with regular cotton prints in a quilt top. It was the perfect solution though. I also decided to mix the star blocks in with the Shoo Fly blocks instead of keeping them separate in their own columns.

Ta daa! A 40 x 48 inch flimsy:

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. It's so warm, even just flat on the wall! As much as I'd like to get it quilted and donated as soon as possible I think I'm going to let it sit for a bit. I'm anxious to get started on the quilt I meant to start before I made the mistake of stabbing myself. ;- )