Another Simple Gift Quilt top finished


My husband is heading back to Kyrgyzstan again in the fall - later - well, getting to be almost winter. But since we were there in 2019, I have wanted to make a quilt showing the animals of that country. Well, not only animals. I tend to have a lot of these kinds of fabrics plus some that is perfect to depict the landscape (high desert) of it.

So, since my husband is going back later in the year, I thought it would be nice for him to take a small quilt for a young lady I met when were there. She works for a mission organization - or at least she did- on college campuses. I liked her and just wanted to have a reason to make this quilt. And so, this is to be gifted to her. (She also speaks English so we could communicate!) :)

Once again, just like some of my other of these quilts, I wanted to keep the squares large and simple because I wanted the actual designs on the fabric to show up in all their glory.

So, I just sashed these squares with a 2-tone rail fence sashing I’ve done this several times, actually, ever since I’ve seen how effective it actually is.

Here is the layout.

I cut my squares 8-1/2” and the sashing is cut 2”x8-1/2” in both colorways - the tan and white. The finished quilt is about 59”x81”. (OK, so I just noticed that this would work perfectly in my own charity quilts!)

So…here is is. I do like it. At first I wanted to work some of the fabric that I brought back from there - into the top of the quilt, possibly as sashing. However, every single one of the fabrics I brought was just too busy for this. So, I decided to just go with my own gut and make it how I liked it - and that meant not using the fabrics I brought from there - at least not on the front.

Flashback - these are pics from the bazar where we bought all the fabric from Kyrgyzstan that I brought back. The colors are often very saturated!

I may use one of those pieces on the back. I’m still considering it.

I thought I had chosen a piece from what I brought back from there. I washed it and it bled all over the things I had put with it. Thankfully I had wondered if that would happen, so I put it in with black socks and a red shirt or two. (It was royal blue with flowers all over it.)

However, I did not use a color catcher. It did run - and so I’ve washed it three more times since then and each time the color catchers picked up a lot. I am not sure I going to use it on this quilt.

I can use it with say a pink or light blue as an alternate color, but I think I’ll not use it on the back of this one which uses white - and with which I need the white to be white! In the future, I may use the Retayne I brought back with me to Poland and have never used before I cut into any of the other fabrics I have from there.

However, maybe I won’t since I just stopped writing this long enough to see that Retayne only works on cotton - and these fabrics are - well, I’m not sure what they are. I bought them in the open market.

You get no fabric content on these bolts when you buy. You just touch and feel it and decide if you want it.

I made this very short video for my sis way back in 2019 about this fabric. I’m sorry - I need to get better at video!!! But it will give you an idea.

I am not sure what the fiber content is either, but it is NOT cotton. Maybe acrylic??? It’s not a natural fiber - that’s for sure! But it is very pretty!

So, I’m still thinking about the back.

Since I just finished it earlier today - it didn’t take long to put this one together - I will consider what to back this with for another couple of days and go look again at my stack of fabrics brought back from there. Probably something I have would work. Otherwise, I could put either Americana (?) Or Polish folk - to make it something unique. Or maybe none of the above. I’ll let you know after I finish the quilt.

It didn’t take long to make as you can see - it does fall into the category of super simple.

Here are some closeups.

And even though the horses we saw were not technically wild animals - they were so prevalent all over - I had to put them in the quilt as well.

I cut the cornerstones at 3-1/2” square.

When I heard that snow leopards were found there, when I saw that I had a small piece in my stash, well, it made me want to make a quilt with the animals there. And yes, I’ve pretty much used all I had on these pieces. The only leftover pieces now are so small that they don’t really show the leopards!

Oh - and I have no idea where I got that piece of fabric of snow leopards!! None, whatsoever.

This fabric definitely reminded me of the high desert landscape which is what they have.

I suppose I could have made a more complicated quilt for this young lady, but I suppose my reason is selfish as to why I opted not to. I wanted to make one using the animals. In order to feature animals - the blocks needed to be big. Then, sometimes people who don’t quilt don’t actually appreciate a heavily pieced quilt - maybe they don’t even like them! I’ve found that the younger generation tends to like simple. So…I did it that way.

Plus it was a nice way to ease back into piecing and sewing again after my month long almost complete hiatus from piecing. :)

So enjoy. Maybe it’s a good idea for something you have - maybe a child who loves a certain color or a theme - each block could be that theme or color.

Anyway…thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading!

Becky Petersen6 Comments