"Roundabouts and Alleys"

Done. Done. Done.

This is number 42 in my 2" strips and squares series.   I am not quilting the tops necessarily in the order in which I made them, by the way.  I am quilting them in the order in which I am inspired. 

I tried pebbles for the first time. I was pleased that they give the right effect, even when they aren't perfect!  I used them for the alleys - the roads . Here in Poland we many roads that use brick pavers and in the centers of some old towns squares, the road is stone.  I love the look.

Because there were so many "roads" or "alleys" in this top, the pebbles took quite a while to do, but I am pleased with the effect.  I did them last and I should have done them before I did the stippling in the middle of the blocks, however. If I had, I would have done a different design - something with more contrast.

I put feathers in the borders. They are almost invisible because I used light blue thread which isn't easily seen.

The main block of this quilt is a log cabin block with the center "square"- a 16 patch scrappy square.  I used several very light blues as the background. Most of the light blue was actually a piece of fabric I picked up a local used clothing store. It was a large piece on which someone had attempted to applique a scene of princesses and a castle.. It was a disaster--probable origin, the UK.

I went ahead and bought it though (cost 1 zl - about 25cents), cut out the mess of the applique things and threw them in the burn pile as kindling and used the rest of the blue in this top.

It's a free pattern and is in the free patterns section!