Hail to the King!

Finally! I got the last borders on Kiwi Twist and had a bit of a surprise waiting for me: it's a king! Well, it might be a large queen. (Does that make it an empress?)

Here's the history: I purchased the inspiration fabrics while on vacation in New Zealand three years ago. Then, two years later, I decided to go with the twist and turn pattern. Skip ahead to about four weeks ago when laying it out and I discovered that I had accidentally made 44 blocks instead of the 30 I had originally planned. Today I finally laid it out on a standard king mattress and it fits! (a little short for sleeping maybe, but...)

Now I have to get a back ready (time to dig into the stash!)---hoo-eee! Then it's off to Yuki for quilting!

New Zealand Major Milepost!

This morning I knew that I could not attend my daughter's soccer game (where she plays killer defense) because the sun was shining. No, I'm not a vampire, but sometimes I'm sensitive to sunlight. (Yeah, sure, tell me another one.) So I set myself a goal: get all the blocks set in the monotonous New Zealand quilt. I say monotonous because the sewing looks like this: one after the next after the next...

Stashbusting Alert! So, to keep myself sane, I pieced these from my strip box and my crumbs. If you look close, you can find where I used an actual 1" square of fabric. I'm very pleased with these little 6 1/2" blocks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I still like 'em! I'm especially pleased because I worked with colors I'm not normally fond of: russets.


And so, after all that trouble........ Ta-da! Yes! The New Zealand Quilt top medallion is finished! (In Desirean, that means all the blocks are together but no borders have been added.)
And now I'm pooped. But I gotta make dinner. If I had smileys, I'd put a frownie face here. Chicken cooked with shallots and bacon and something...maybe biscuits, ratatouille, braising greens, vegetable soup... Sounds good.

The New Zealand Quilt

I purchased charm squares and fat quarters in New Zealand, all with a Kiwi flair: ferns, birds, Maori images, sheep--what is this thing I have for sheep?--shantytown scenes, and kiwis, of course!

When the fabrics were laid side by side, they didn't play nice, so I had to find a way to make them work together. I'm putting them into a twist and turn setting. The next framing will be olive green--don't you just LOVE Moda Marbles?

This project was set aside for quite some time, until a UFO challenge was issued on About.com quilting forum. I'm supposed to get it done by August 31... hmmm.