New Year, New Project

I know, I know. What happened to "continue finishing projects"? Well, there's a new kid on the block as of December 24 and she needs a quilt. And not just any kid, but the first grandchild of my late artist friend Judi. When I first got to know Judi, her two kids were grade school age, and I watched them grow into fine adults while Judi and I also grew our friendship. We were briefly in business together, making and selling handdyed fabrics, and even after I left the business, I made samples for Judi's vendor booths and often helped set them up and man them. Now that she's gone, I contemplated what kind of quilt she might make for this granddaughter, then realized I could make a very special quilt using the last of Judi's hand-dyes that I inherited and a pattern that she had come up with to show those fabrics off. Time to get out stacks of fabric and start auditioning.

Judi based her design on the split nine patch block. I actually taught a quilt class using the patterns she put together and that I'd made samples for, Spring Fling and  Country Star, so I got out my files with patterns, instructions and handouts - I've never been able to break down those class files I accumulated! And then, while looking for something in the bottom part of my roll-top desk, I realized there was a lot of things there I couldn't remember exactly what they were. More files and notebooks and to my surprise, Judi's original hand drawn and colored optional settings for using the split nine patch block and the prototype for the pattern cover which includes my name. While I'd planned to use similar colors as in the Spring Fling quilt, I didn't necessarily want to use that set. In these original options, I found the setting I wanted to use - the one in the middle.

I also want to make the quilt rectangular rather than square so will add a row of blocks top and bottom. This all necessitated me doing some calculations of how many of three different kinds of blocks I would need and then how many of two different sizes of squares in light and dk/medium values I would need. Now the cutting could begin! The camera had difficulty picking up the light purples as light purple but the other colors are pretty close. I cut a few additional light blue squares as some of the last blues that I cut are perhaps too dark for the light areas. We shall see. Sewing commences this week.