posted by Lily on quilts

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We found some ridiculously cheap but very sweet spotty stripes yesterday and bought half a metre of each colour they had.  Almost a lovely rainbow – just missing the yellow.  The intent for this fabric was a summery quilt – Chinese Coin style with almost white sashing, and a very sweet fox fabric Abby picked for the top and bottom borders as well as a little sleeveless nightie.  There was only 1.6 metres of the fox fabric – it will be such a little nightie, I think there will need to be some shorts to accompany it.

After an exceptionally hot and uncomfortable evening – oh our double brick home – it stays lovely and cool most of summer but more than 2 days of excessive temperatures (over 35) and those bricks have stored so much heat that they radiate all night – I was in need of a slow day.  The kitchen, at the back of the house, was filled with a lovely fresh, summery breeze so it was here I set up.  The last of the cherry jam bubbling away on the stove, a summer bread and butter pud with cherry jam and blackberries, finely chopped prawn shells for the chooks, roasting sweet potatoes and beetroots for dinner’s salad, and … the cutting board and spotty stripes.

Only I was quickly sidetracked.  After whacking off the required five strips of 3 and 1/2 for the coins, I was left with pieces between 2 and 1/2 and 3 inches.  Out came the dresden plate ruler and chop, chop, chop.  The coins were stacked on the kitchen sofa and before I knew it, I had spent THREE hours fiddling with background combinations.

Hm?  Should it be a very subtle pink check?

Quite nice but, it turned out, not enough fabric.  Bum.  Onto option 2 – strong mustard?

Yeah … I like it – but it’s too intense – doesn’t have that light breezy summery look – looks more a meltingly hot day upon which the car is so scalding the cd player doesn’t work.  Oh, and I added the pizza tray to better create a circle :-)

Definitely like the mustard – it’s very me – but definitely not singing the song I had been humming in my head.

How ’bout this wishy washy stripy voiley nonsense … had it for years, no idea why I bought it (not enough to do anything useful!) and have never managed to incorporate it into anything …

Nope.  Definitely not.  The spotty stripes have quite forgotten what it is they’re supposed to be doing.  Though I must say, it’s very interesting looking at the different effects through the eye of the camera – always creates such a different impression to that conjured up by my naked eye.  When I was looking at the beams on the voile, the spotty stripes had practically vanished and just looked mushy – and yet look here, quite respectable.  Does this happen to you?

In desperation, I tried an Anne Maria flannel – bit daft really.  Flannel?!  For a summer rainbow quilt?  It was nicer in real life – the yellow is much creamier than it is showing up here.  But still – no breeze.

Finally I found a piece of good old plain white that was big enough for the pizza tray and rainbow beams …

Mmmm … like it lots as soon as the orange anchors are in.

White definitely has those beams singing clear and true.

With a yellow centre?  Maybe.  LOVE the white – it has a woven stripe in it.  Not sold on the yellow centre.  Have since tried a yellow cotton centre.  Not bad – but maybe it needs a really pale colour – pink, I think.  Not sure.

Tomorrow, I shall vlisifix the beams in place and play around a bit more with the centre.  What do you think?  What is your favourite background?  What would you put in the middle?

I’m really itching to get onto quilting it – by hand, concentric circles, in perle cotton.  In between sewing up lengths of Chinese coins :-)