I'm Back with my bestest bud!

Well it's been an interesting few weeks and I have been so busy with gardening that I didn't even have time to do any quilting!!  God has given us an abundance of fresh veggies this year and this busy little squirrel has been storing up for the winter.  Interesting fact, scientist say the squirrel will only find about 10% of what he stores for the winter.  I hope I find more!!  Oh well on to quilting.

I did finally get started back with some quilting and the first set of quilts I had to complete came from my bud, Peggy.  Some time ago we were at a quilting shop, I think in Knoxville, and Peggy found some fabric that was just sooooo Peggy.  She loves a truly good cup of coffee, and many early mornings in nice weather Peggy and her husband Mel will go out and sit on the poarch in the swing and just spend some quality time together, just sipping their coffee and discussing life and their hopes and dreams and plans as the sun comes up.  Doesn't this sound so loving and relaxing?  I always thought so.  At any rate when Peggy found this fabric which was a panel of squares dedicated to coffee lovers it was perfect for her.  Then we started picking out coordinating fabrics because Peggy didn't want just a panel with the squares and borders.  Peggy worked out her pattern, after we purchased the fabric, which is backwards, but the way Peggy and I often work.  When she made the plans for her pattern the quilt became a tad bit larger than what we had originally planned when we were purchasing the material so then the borders became a little more difficult.  After much soul searching and figuring and measuring this is the quilt she completed.

I really loved the way she took the blocks from the panel and then added a border around those to enlarge them and then she had a variety of different blocks she could have used.  The overall look of the block she chose is great with the Irish Chain effect going on with the placement of the fabric.

This close up picture shows the border around the squares more clearly and the Irish Chain pattern.  I think her fabric choices were wonderful.  It was a sort of back to basics when picking the fabrics.  First we had the panel of squares, then the large print being the border fabric, then the geometric being the border around the panel blocks with large circles, the small print in the same color family as the large print is the one with the coffee cups used in the Irish Chain, and the contrasting fabric is the blue, which also happens to be a geometric that reads like a solid, and then the light fabric is the beige which also reads as a solid.  Peggy found one other fabric that was a light medium print that she also loved and she picked up some of that also.  When you really don't know what you are going to do, it's nice to be able to pick up a little extra fabric in case the final plan expands as this one did!

The large print was one with the writing and the coffee beans and had the diamonds in a repeating pattern.  When using a fabric of this nature you want to be able to read the words at the top of the quilt so always check your orientation.    If it isn't words but is a directional print the same rules apply and then continue around the quilt with the bottom of the fabric pattern sewn to the body of the quilt on all sides.  Here is also a look at the light fabric with a medium print that was used as an inner border.

I think she did an awesome job with the miter at the corners on the large outer border.  This fabric would not have been nearly as effective had it been square corners with the red diamonds just running off the edge of the fabric, or into a complete stop at the seam line.

Peggy did a great job of putting this top together effectively and I didn't want to detract from her hard work by putting in a lot of quilting that would draw the eye away from the piecing so I went with stitch in the ditch for the quilting with the only variation being in the dark geometric with the large circles and I quilted a meandering circles pattern in those areas.  In the panel blocks, since they were a larger area than I like to leave without any quilting, I did some outlining of the pattern printed on the fabric.  Very simple quilting for a great quilt.  It is important to remember that quilting should enhance the quilt, not detract from the piece work.  In some quilts the quilting is the showpiece of the final quilt, and that is great also.  You are the one to decide how much or how little of the quilting you want to show in your quilt.

Hope you all have a great day!