February Challenge Quilt

Judy posted a Use The Stash Challenge a few days ago. February's Challenge is to choose a fabric that has been languishing in the stash begging to be made into a quilt but for any number of reasons it's never been given the chance. And USE it! Cut it up, sew it back together and have at least a completed top before the month is over.

The fabric on the botom of the photo with the grapes is the one I chose. I bought this at a fabric shop that went out of business in 1995 or 96 so it has to be older than that. I just loved the colors but have never found a pattern I wanted to use it in.

A few years later, I was in a swap of leaf fabrics. The leaf print in the middle of the second row was one I bought to swap. But when I got it in I realized it looked really good with the grape fabric. Both are Hoffman fabrics and are at least 5+ years apart but look like they could have come from the same collection. So I decided I wouldn't send that leaf fabric for the swap but would save it to go with the grapes. So now I have 2 wonderful fabrics sitting on the shelf waiting for the perfect pattern. Shortly after that I was in JoAnns and saw the piece in the last row and thought it would be great as a background or at least a backing to go with the other 2 so I bought about 6 yds. of it. Then last fall when I was re-organizing my stash I pulled the blue solid to go with them but still had no idea what to do with them.

This is where I have a problem using my special fabrics. Not in that I hate to cut them up and use them but I keep thinking I have to find just the right special pattern to use. Well today I decided it was time to quit looking for the perfect pattern and just cut them up and use them. So I used a simple pattern called On Flamingo Pond (real name Squares and Stripes but this was a "Frenzy" quilt so had to have a Frenz name.) It's just squares and rail fences alternating but looks wonderfully elegant done in these fabrics. I altered the pattern a bit and pulled a green TOT as the 3rd rail fabric instead of using the grapes there. Just to tone down the busyness a bit. The purple in the 3rd row will be the border. This is leftover from the borders I put on another quilt and is a bit over 2 yds by 24" wide. So I can just cut my borders lengthwise and have plenty. The finished size will be around 61" X 79". A nice lap/nap sized. I was really shooting for a bit larger but was limited by the number of strips I could get from the green fabric since I only had 2/3 yd of it. And it couldn't have been but a few inches longer anyway because of the length of the border fabric I have.

I'm pretty pleased with my progress and should have pictures to share tomorrow. And when it's done, back and all, it will bust around 10 yds from my stash. And I'm STILL going to have a yd of the grapes and a half yd of the leaves left for another project. LOL!