How easily we are sidetracked! I stopped work on Tradition, the red and green applique quilt, while waiting to make sure I can get 3 more yards of the background fabric. A friend and I attended the NQA show for the first time this past June. While at the show, we attended the Little Quilt Auction. Afterwards I vowed to make a quilt for the auction in 2010. My friend emailed me about it on Saturday. I had a block selected and had reduced it to 4" finished size. I just hadn't started. Her email got me going!
I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I would make a quilt that I could enter in my local guild's miniature category. Then I would donate it to NQA. For the local show, the maximum block size is 4" and the maximum quilt size is 25" square. Last year the maximum Little Quilt size was 28" square. My first plan was to make nine of the 4" appliqued blocks, thinking that the quilt could be smaller than the maximum size. By the time I had made 5 blocks, I was addicted and decided to make 16 blocks...because they would fit and allow room for a border too. That was when I decided to name the quilt Sweet Sixteen.
I used assorted shirtings for the backgrounds of the blocks, just as I often do when making a bed quilt. The block is called Indiana Rose. There are 10 pieces to applique for each block. The leaves are all assorted greens. The flowers are varied. The flower in the middle has a tiny round center and those are varied too. I started by making a block with purple flowers and a blue center. I decided to blanket stitch the flowers, then the leaves, then the center. Because I had blue thread in the machine, I decided the next block would have blue flowers. I continued making blocks with the center determining the color for the next flower. Eventually I knew what color flower I wanted to do next so sometimes the flower for the next block determined the color for the center of the current block. This little game caused me to use some combinations that I might not have otherwise considered.
It would have been faster to fuse all the blocks, put a thread in my sewing machine, and blanket stitch all the blocks that had that color. But this is not about faster. I take delight in each block as I work on it. Sometimes people ask the question "Why do you quilt?" For a long time I thought it was because I bought fabric. Not true. I quilt because I feel joy in creating something that pleases me. If it brings someone else joy, that is a bonus.
Update on March 8, 2011. This quilt was the Viewers' Choice at the 2010 NQA show and did nicely at auction.
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