It is what it is!

Every Quilt Should Have a Story

I frequently get advertisements in the mail soliciting quilt magazines.  I rarely succumb to the temptation for more magazines.  I have a plethora of patterns and really don’t need the reminder every couple of months that I haven’t accomplished making all the quilts from all the patterns I already have.  I think magazines get repetitive and I’m seeing the same stuff over and over and well, you get the picture.  Tossing the solicitation is usually my answer. 

I opened one recently and there is a free pattern I have seen and tossed before but for some reason it struck my fancy this time and I put it in a clear sleeve and filed it in the ‘to do’ basket by my sewing machine. 

I think it really appealed to me because it is red and yellow and I was toying with making a red and yellow quilt but I just hadn’t settled on a pattern.  I had, I thought, the perfect red to tie red and yellow together.  Of course I was wrong.  That perfect fabric ended up on the back.  It apparently was perfect for the back.  Tweaking is my motto for quilt assembly.  If at first you don’t like what you see, go back to the stash and look for something else!

I love 9 patch blocks. They are simple and have so much potential

I happened to have a white men’s shirt my niece gave me because her husband wears out the elbow of his sleeve and I get the ruined shirts for my stash.  I cut it into 2 ½” squares and dug through the cupboard for all my rich reds.

My original plan was to use lots of different yellows for the yellow in this quilt and this wonderful red fabric with yellow circles for the red squares. That ‘perfect’ fabric I planned this around didn’t read as red, it was half red and half yellow and it ended up rejected.  Instead of one color for the red, I chose one color for the yellow.  I had a beautiful rich plaid that worked. The scrappy red makes the quilt sing.  I love the result.  If I had been thinking, I would have made it one row longer and it would have fit a twin.  It is what it is and I love it!

Bill's white shirt