indie irony

Many moons ago I bought myself a 1 yard set of all the Art Gallery Indie fabrics. I loved them when I first saw them on Maureen Cracknell's blog in an amazing quilt she designed, and wanted to make a big quilt of my own. I've been hoarding them like Gollum ever since. I'm sure every quilter has those fabrics, the ones kept tucked away for a special selfish project. 'My Precious' anyone? 

It took me a while, but I settled on a quilt design that I thought would suit all of these prints pretty well, the challenge being that there are a lot of great small scale mixers but also some really stunning larger scale prints. I don't recall how I stumbled on this pattern (who am I kidding, probably Pinterest) but it is called Anita's Arrowhead. It took me another while to sit down with my Kona color card and order some coordinating solids, and then yet another while (do we see a pattern?) to start the darn thing. I began, as is prudent, with a test block, which looks awesome.

My test block has multiplied into about half of the blocks I'll need. Chain piecing through all the steps in batches has really helped the blocks come together quickly. My least favorite part of this whole process has been the cutting (not surprising), but this is constructed in a clever way so as to minimize the slicing and dicing. It was kind of mind blowing when I put together that first block. I recommend this pattern because, well, look what you wind up with.

Here's the kicker -- this quilt isn't for me! Despite my initial intentions, I'm using the first cuts from these lovely fabrics to make a wedding gift. I think sometimes subscribing to the principle of gifting something you would want to receive yourself is a really good way to go, this being one of those cases. I was looking at my stash trying to come up with a quilt I wanted to make when I consulted my notes and realized I already had one planned. I thought it was for me, but the universe had something else in mind. And I'm really excited about it!

I've spent the last couple of evenings chained to my sewing machine whipping through some more blocks because the date is fast approaching and somehow August got entirely away from me. Just a couple more batches to go and it will be time to square up and trim.