Just a quick post to show you the little quilt I sent to Rachel for this year's doll quilt swap. Rachel said she liked grey and had a room with sunny yellow walls in which she'd like to hang her quilt, so I went to the quilt shop, rather stumped at what I could do with grey and yellow. She also didn't want anything whimsy, which is the kind of thing I have enjoyed doing in the past so I was really having quilter's block with this one! She liked modern quilts, or traditional with a modern twist.
With some help from the shop owner, I picked out a pallette I was happy with after much deliberation (and lots of help from the shop owner's husband who managed to save the day after my son, who has ASD, decided to fling a whole jelly roll around the shop with glee - which I would have bought had he not picked such an ugly one - much to my embarrassment). I vowed never to take him into a quilt shop again, although that's a bit tricky considering I work full time so only have weekends to shop, and quilt shops are only open here on Saturday mornings, when hubby has golf and can't mind the kidlets. I had better plan better next time, to allow time for fabric to arrive from overseas (internet shopping is my very best friend!).
Anyway, once I had fabric, I got stuck on the design stage, so I scanned the internet for some paper pieced block ideas - going for the traditional look, with modern facric. I enjoyed doing the piecing, even though it was time consuming and then went for a mixture of FMQ and straight line quilting. The light grey border is quiltered in a loopy style to reflect the print, and I have just quilted in the ditch and echo quilted around the rest. If you look closely enough, you will see the glint of silver thread in the echo stitching around the edge of the star.
Now my little man is turning 7 tomorrow, so I had better get back to madly embroidering some towels for his guests!
