From the Vault - Hydrangea Quilt

I thought I'd look back and see what work I might have completed in previous Februarys.  I found this quilt from February 2008.

It's 43 inches square, and based on the book 9-Patch Pizazz by Judy Sisneros.   It's the easiest way I know of to make your own quilt design.

You start with an inspiration fabric.  You should probably make a large block out of it, but I only had one fat quarter.  Instead of spending it all on a 12-inch block, I wanted to be sure I had enough left over to piece into the other blocks.  So my feature fabric "solo" is 6" x 17".

From your inspiration fabric, pull other fabrics that have the same colors, then start making blocks.

This photo shows a combination of three nine-patches with an equal-size block of the focus fabric.  Usually I don't mix batiks with non-batiks.  But in this case, the focus fabric was a muted print, so I think the blurry batiks I used in the bottom right block worked OK.  

Here I worked some of the focus fabric into the nine-patch, to spread it around the quilt.

The nine-patches are 6" finished.  From a distance, all the little squares give a watercolor-quilt appearance, with a gradation of color from the pink section of the quilt to the green section.

In the upper right, you see a rail fence blocks.  This one combines batik and flannel - I don't mind doing that as long as the colors and "feel" go together.  Elsewhere in the quilt, I sometimes I used a three-patch as one of the rails.

The binding was machine stitched with two rows of stitching.  I forgot I did that.  I like it and should do it again in the future!  All I have to do is remember to cut the binding nice and wide.  The other thing different about this binding is that it's not continuous.  I did one side at a time, turning the outside raw edge under a tiny bit to make a nice finished edge.

This is the largest block (12" raw) and I think the most striking fabric.   I free motioned a sort of feathery design over the entire top.

Now I better get to work so I have something to show for this February.