Totally Sidetracked

Do you ever find yourself with plenty of projects on the go - things to bind and label, projects that have deadlines, quilt tops waiting to be quilted - but somehow you get sucked into starting a new project?

I had been clearing out my scrap bin - trimming pieces down to 3" squares for a scrappy project and tossing the rest - when I came across 20 diagonally sliced 9-patch blocks and some cream strip-pieced scraps.

These were the trimmings of a project made long ago using vintage iron-transfer embroidery patterns depicting all 50 state flowers. I had stitched most of the blocks myself and farmed out about a dozen of them to friends to embroider. The green nine-patches filled in between the flower blocks. Here's that quilt:

It seemed a very quick and easy task to make a quilt using large blocks and fabric from my stash. How hard could it be? I started by attaching the green triangles to central, cream squares on point.

Then I found a couple of yards of a glorious print by Robert Kaufman Fabrics which I had bought for no particular reason on a trip to Back Porch Fabrics at Pacific Grove. It's called 'Library of Rarities'. The design has a lovely aged quality and went well with the civil war prints in the green blocks.

I put this fabric into four more squares on point, creating a giant nine patch..

I was already one full sewing day into this project. It was taking up my design wall and I had to complete it!

I decided the composition needed sashing. It took quite a bit of time to settle on a blue fabric that was the right color and that I had enough of (I was determined only to use fabrics from my stash!)

Then followed a narrow round of mustard yellow and a deep 8" border of the lovely print. Of course I decided to mitre the corners, which takes a bit of extra time.

Finally the piece was complete and I left it on my design wall for another day just to appreciate what I had made on complete impulse. It's a sweet quilt.

What it really needs, of course, is some beautiful quilting in those large cream squares. Maybe that will be the next project that side-tracks me!

Happy Sewing, everyone!