A few days off

It's Melbourne Cup day next Tuesday, and I've been lucky enough to get the Friday and Monday before this public holiday off.  I'm working towards a Christmas Market I always participate in - have to have made plenty of 'small stuff' for my stall by the first weekend in December.  It's a fun market that I've been doing for a few years now, my daughter comes along and helps me out and we always have a good time.  Unfortunately the weather here is not being very co-operative today, so no pics yet of what I've been making, so I've  delved into the archives for a quilt photo or two, and found this really old one that is a bit different for me.

This is a really simple design, based on a traditional Courthouse Steps block.  I made it to challenge myself as I rarely use black fabrics, either solids or plains.  The blocks are about 7" square at this stage.

It also uses much busier patterns than I usually choose.  The fabrics were mostly from Spotlight, with a few out of the stash.  I got them pretty cheap, as I wasn't convinced that I'd like anything with so much black in it.  After I'd made all the blocks up, I got my quilting girlfriends to check it out as I really didn't like it.  How to calm it down, but still embrace the 'busy' look?

We all agreed that sashing it with black gave each block room to be themselves.  Once I'd finished the quilting, my sister saw it and fell in love, it lives happily on the back of their red couch.

The back uses one of my favourite cheap Spotlight fabrics, that yellow daisy row print.

I quilted it with what I call 'wonky tartan' lines, wavy lines up and down, and then across, the quilt to make a big tartan type design.  It's still busy, but the sashing has really calmed it down.  I love the movement and the light and shade created by the addition of the yellow prints.  

Time to get back to the sewing machine!