Beating the rain

The last border was finally added this morning, so naturally I had to rush this outside for a photo before the rain or any dogs knew what was happening.

This was a spur of the moment quilt made in the afterglow of finishing Alyssa's yellow and white one. Thanks to the scrappy generosity of Karen and Julaine, I was able to include a good variety of prints, which makes all of the 1930s reproductions more charming in my view. Although the blocks have been together for a few weeks, the outside border stumped me for a bit. The original pattern from the Moda Bake Shop showed just a narrow outside border. Not having enough of any one fabric to do that, plus wanting the quilt to serve on a queen size bed, convinced me to use 5" squares (finished size 4 1/2") just as I had in all the star blocks (I also made the quilt a row longer and wider than the original pattern). The narrow lattice used between the star blocks threw off of the math by an inch and a-half, so I trimmed 1/2" from three squares on each side, placed those randomly in the border rows and had a perfect fit. Really, this quilt could not have gone together much more easily.

The colors and fabrics here are a stretch for me. Far from my usual choices, I imagined working on this to be a bit of a challenge. Instead, it was a fun change of pace. Guess there's a lesson in there somewhere.

Enough quilting for today. The rain has not yet arrived and there are lots of weeds calling my name.