Finished Top - Welcome to the Zoo

I finished the quilt top for my Aunt.  As I stated previously, it's all animal print batiks with a green batik background.  Now I have to figure out what I am going to make the back out of since I don't have enough of the green to make the entire back.  I will have to rummage through my batik stash to see what I can find.  In the pictures below, you can see that I had to take the top up to volleyball and have other people hold it up so I could take a picture.  This first one shows the colors pretty accurately.  That green is a rich deep green.  However, my work table is in the way and doesn't show the entire top.  So, I had them move in front of me.  That just put them in the shadows.  So, I moved in front of the windows and took the second picture. 

 

 

 

As you can see it was a bright sunny day out (the windows are even tinted!) plus the sun is shining and reflecting off the cars so there is a major glare and this one looks washed out.  However, you can see the entire quilt top with the piano key borders.  Thanks to my holders and folders, Coach Eli and one of his girls.   

 

Eli, a summer volleyball league coach and recent high school grad - not a real high school coach, came in and saw my quilt top laying on the table and just picked it up and started looking at it and oohing and aahing over it.  That is how he got nominated to be a holder and folder.  Thank goodness.  As you all know, I usually have some of my students hold the quilts so I can take a picture, but since we aren't in school, I don't have anyone to hold them for me.  I am sorry to say I don't know the girls name, but she has been watching me work on my EPP quilt all summer and has even been impressed with my tablet cover that I made. She kept telling her teammates and friends about my projects all night. Hmmm, maybe a future quilter in the making?  Or at least a quilt appreciator.    

 

Welcome to the Zoo

Here is a sneak peek of the quilt I am making for my Aunt.  I started this many, many years ago; put it in a box and forgot about it - kind of.  I mean I didn't totally forget about it, I just didn't look for it to work on it even though I knew I should.  Anyway, after being in Lubbock last weekend for a shower/luncheon for my cousin's daughter, my mother and my aunt asked me about this quilt.    I was happy to tell them that I had "discovered" the box during the July 4th "vacation" (how can I call it a vacation when I am out of school for the summer?  However, I did have the day off from my summer job so I will leave it at vacation)  I truthfully had come across the box when I was moving some other boxes around over the 4th of July weekend.  When I found it I knew what it was immediately and put it to the side so I could look at it later.  Later didn't come until two nights ago.  I had no idea how much of this quilt was done or how much work it needed to become a finished top.  I did know that I had chosen the 3, 6, 9, 12 pattern by Fons and Porter.  When I opened up the box I counted up the finished blocks and was only 4 - 6 inch and 2 - 3 inch blocks short of what I had written on the paper.  Not bad.  That was close to being complete.   The good thing about this pattern is that it is flexible. It really doesn't matter how many blocks you have of each size.  You determine what you think you need.   I decided to go ahead and start putting this quilt together and if I needed those other blocks, I would make them. 

 

 

Yesterday at our Bee Friends Meeting, I worked on this quilt and sewed and sewed and ended up with 20 - 12 1/2 inch blocks ready to be sewn together.  The next decision I needed to make was - do I  live with the 4 X 5 setting?  Or do I finish up the two incomplete blocks by making those that I was missing and go with a 4 X 6 setting?

I am basically lazy and chose to live with the 4 X 5 block setting and not make any more blocks.  I was ready for this quilt to be finished and on to the quilter so I quickly sewed the blocks into rows and the rows together and I have my top.  I added two borders last night and will add the top and bottom borders this morning and then it's time to make another decision.  What other kind of border do I want to add?  I am thinking a piano key (kind of my go to border) or possibly bricks.  The fabrics in this quilt are all batiks.  The background is a green batik I had in my store and the rest are animal prints that I ordered from somewhere (remember - I started this many, many years ago and I am getting older every day so the memory isn't what it used to be) I think I have enough of the animal prints to do a piano key, but am not sure that is exactly what this quilt needs.  I don't want to put it back in the box to think about it, so I laid it out while my mind processes and envisions different borders until it locks on to what this quilt needs.  While it does that, I will add the top and bottom border today and work on a couple of other quilts that are in progress.