Dipping Into the Parts Department (Again)

I've made a consistent effort over the last few years to use up the oldest fabrics in my stash. There's a set of rusty color prints whose time had come. However, when I pulled the stack off the shelf I discovered there were actually two different hues of rust waiting to be used. I left the more orange-y prints for another day. That decision was helped along by a couple of postage stamp stars I already had in the Parts Department. They had appropriate backgrounds even though the stars weren't the color I had chosen. A couple featured dark blues and one is actually black.

Poor James has little opportunity to do interesting things on the quilts I make when he quilts them up for me. Back in the day I avoided quilts with large open spaces that called for fancy quilting. Technically I'm not a quilter, I'm a piecer, a patchworker. Now that I have him to take care of that part of the job I figured it was time to give him a place to stretch his wings a bit. Plus, alternate squares automatically left me with fewer blocks to make!

Turns out I didn't have enough of the print I was planning to use for all of the alternate squares I needed. That meant a couple of additional prints had to be introduced to achieve the size I was after (just a lap quilt, about 48" x 56"). Toward the end of the process I had to improvise within the stars as well.

All I need now is a back and some batting!