Choosing Fabrics and Pattern Do Si Do

Donation fabrics plus a solid cotton sheeting gathered. The butterflies along with the preponderance of dark fabrics inspired the name, "Midnight in the Garden",  for my version of a quilt pattern found in the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine using a different color palette .

The fabric was selected at a local quarterly gathering of volunteer quilters connected with Project Linus. A church in town offers the use of its fellowship hall for the organization to have two sewing days. Half of the room is set up with bins and bins of color-sorted donation fabric in sizes ranging from less than an eighth of a yard to several yards. Some of the fabric is old and musty; some is fresh and sturdy. Sometimes pieced blocks are among the donations. Most all of the fabric is 100% cotton. Making selections is only a very small portion of the time spent there, as most time is spent piecing or sewing on binding or labels for the donation quilts in progress, or being finished.

Because the colors or prints appealed to me,the fabric pictured above was gathered, not necessarily to be used in a single project, or even together, for that matter. No pattern had yet been chosen. That is backwards to how I do fabric selection for the quilts I keep, but the "store" of donation fabrics is only open quarterly, so decisions must be made in a more nebulous fashion. For my "Midnight in the Garden" quilt, I added a few strips of solid aqua sheeting to complete the palette.

On the left is my completed project. Top right shows the Stars & Bars pattern as featured in the magazine. Bottom right is a whimsical take on my "Midnight in the Garden" title.. ;o)

Since I liked the butterfly prints and wanted to feature them, I searched for a pattern that would have at least a five or six inch uninterrupted square. I settled on this "Stars and Bars" quilt pattern from the April 2011 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. The colors and prints in the magazine's featured quilt did not particularly appeal to me, but I thought the size of the blocks was perfect. That square in the middle of each star block was where my butterflies would eventually take flight.

First I assigned letters to the fabric and determined if I had enough of each for the pattern requirement. This took more time than I had anticipated. That done, however, it was on to cutting and piecing, which went pretty smoothly! Here I have to plug larger pieces and big blocks. Quilt tops do not have to take forever to piece.

This was my largest quilt project to date, so I will have other posts about various aspects of its production. This post was meant to show both the inspiration and the end product.