At last!

Maybe you can see why I kept procrastinating on it. It wasn’t like some projects where you actually wish you didn’t “have to do them'“ - but I had a hard time getting motivated to finish this one up. I’m not sure. I think it was because it was the only “big quilt” in this series.

So, what I did was actually make my goals so tiny that I could manage to get each step done. Then, when you finish up small steps, eventually you finish a top.

This block is a simple shadow block. I used a simple way of getting those blue/green/turquoise side pieces - all I did was cut a piece of fabric that was 9.5” square (9” also works which lets you get four of these from a fat quarter), cut it diagonally 2x and then sewed them on each side of the center geometric piece. I then used my 9.5” ruler and trimmed them down. It did leave me with bias edges on the outside of that part of the blocks but I didn’t seem to have any issues because of it.

The inspiration for this simple top was a set of fat quarters that a quilter here in Poland gave me - Ewa Kiltowo. (She didn’t ask me to do that, BTW). She gave me 4 fat quarters in these colors when she came in December, I think it was, to get some photos of her quilts using my clothes line. I loved them and wanted to make sure I treated them with the highest respect. So, they were the inspiration for this quilt. I went to my solids collection and chose out other colors that I had that were close to these colors in the blues/greens categories.

These blocks are large (11.5” before being sewn into the quilt) and this quilt is large - 93”x107” so long enough for a nice tuck.

I did use up some of my own black geometrics stash for the border. In fact, I used it all up. I had very little left over after finishing this top. Once again, it as the end of a big bolt of 64 meters of fabric I had bought locally to be used as backings for charity quilts. It’s all I had left - wasn’t enough to be used as a backing all by itself.

I am happy to see it gone. I had used it as backing fabric, though, not border fabric, for the most part. I think it has taken this long to finally begin to ‘like it” - a lot. While I’m happy to see it gone, I feel at last that I have come to grips with the power of these geometrics. I finally have come to appreciate them. they are bold, graphic and really, quite fun!

The hardest part of this actual top was the layout. I put them all on the floor about breakfast time and then I told my husband that I had to do it early in the day because of “decision fatigue” that happens later in the day. I knew that trying to get them balanced was going to be no small feat.

I then “cut strips and scraps” for a couple of hours and did a couple of things on the computer. Finally I got back to the layout about noon. We eat our big meal about 1 pm and my husband came downstairs to check out what I was doing after a few minutes. He helped me finish getting it as good as it is. I think I have 11 different background colors, but only about 5 different geometrics…we tried not to get any right next to each other and no more than 2 with the same geometrics in the center in a diagonal line.

Anyway…

That is what we did. Now at least, I can show you this number 11.

Over all, I love the clean, simple look of it. I could have made it a small quilt, but suspected that I was going to like it a lot, so decided to make it a queen so that if a family member indicates interest in it, I can use it as a gift. So we’ll see. I’m not sure that any family member even reads this blog (except Rachael - my sis). however!

So there you are! I have to get busy and get this one quilted and in time for its proper place when I show the rest of the geometrics series on the blog!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!