Chocolate Pudding

Many of the quilts that I make take shape as they progress. They grow to be whatever size they end up being. They don't symbolize anything in particular, but they may take on meaning and form personalities as they go along.

Chocolate Pudding is not that kind of quilt. It was symbolic from the start. I met Elizabeth's family (her husband Steven, her mother Tersia from South Africa, and her in-laws Judy and Larry from North Dakota) in April of 2008. I'd learned from Tersia that a South African dessert may be called pudding even though it is not pudding as I know it. I wanted to make another sample for Marula Imports and these were the thoughts in my head:

1. The sample would feature the chocolate brown Shweshwe.
2. I would produce a pattern for this quilt.
3. I would use the Cake Stand block because cake is a dessert that is not pudding. I decided that the blocks would be 8" finished. (I prefer blocks that are 9" or smaller. Cake Stand works best if the block size is an even number. I thought a 6" Cake Stand block might intimidate some quilters.)
4. Since it featured the chocolate prints, the quilt would be called Chocolate Pudding.
5. The sample did not need to be a large quilt. (I am fond of making large lap and bed size quilts.)
6. The sample needed to use fat quarters, but incorporate different prints. (I like using a lot of different fabrics and wanted to give others the opportunity to use different Shweshwe prints.)
7. I would use light shirtings and double pinks to show the chocolate Shweshwe to advantage. (I am a fairly traditional quilter with a fondness for reproduction fabrics.)

At this point I got out the graph paper and sketched the quilt:

1. The center featured 5 Cake Stand blocks set on point. The blocks had chocolate and pink against light shirtings.
2. The border was pieced so it could be primarily brown with a chain of pink squares. I wanted the pink squares to be larger at the corners. The border ended up having 2 different blocks in it - Double Four-Patch and modified Puss in the Corner.
3. Since the blocks were on point, setting triangles were also needed. If the setting triangles were cut in the normal manner, it would require 13" Shweshwe squares. To avoid a lot of waste, the setting triangles would be cut from two fabrics at the most. I pieced the setting triangles in order to use a wider variety of prints.

On the night that I cut the pieces, I only had 5 chocolate prints on hand, but they were half-yards instead of fat quarters. I pieced the quilt using those 5 prints even though I knew that 8 fat quarters would be needed. (You know how it is. When you are ready to do something, you are ready. You cannot stop yourself.)