Timer

My latest quilt's predecessor, Octo, happily left a little pile of scraps, perfect for some additional fabric play before a deep drive into all things Christmas. My most cherished of the bunch, a bit of Martini in Mustard from Midwest Modern by Amy Butler was what drew me in. That and the color palette, which for some reason, I'm really loving right now.

For this project, I took inspiration from another vintage quilt from Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley. The basic block, commonly known as an hourglass block, was called an egg timer block in the book. Alternated with squares, the design was a simple one, and though sashing and borders aren't currently my thing, I enjoyed incorporating them, pieced with multiple fabrics.

Straight-line quilting, both dense matchstick in the vertical sashing, and randomly wider-spaced everywhere else, were both in my original quilting plan, and I did indeed follow through on that. But then in the egg timer sections and the wider border on the left, I added some Fancy Straight Line from Jacquie Gering's WALK book. This time, though, I did two passes in each section, which reflected the egg timer block lines, but in a much more improvisational way. Whatever, I like it, and it was so much fun to do.

Quilting thread was Aurifil 50wt 2843 [light grey green], which showed up lighter on some fabrics than I anticipated, but even so, I feel like it was a decent choice. A little matched binding - matched to color rather than identical fabric - felt like the perfect finish. The quilt measured 24" x 33.5" once complete, and was a very enjoyable way to save some scraps from the scrap basket. I've a few more project-leftover scrap piles stashed about, so I expect to continue pulling them out as I head into the new year.