“Home in the City” – Quilt

 

An excerpt from Strip Crazy with the original quilt.

I am so glad that it’s Saturday!  This has been a long week, and I’m not sure why.  Work wasn’t bad, and my students were pretty good, but it just felt like it would never end.  I’m not sure if I am on the verge of a cold or what but I’ve been tired and stuffy lately.  That combined with these infernal bands have made me unusually sluggish and grumpy.  Oh well.  I’m happy for the weekend.  Today is such a beautiful day.  The sun is shining.  It’s not too cold, and the air is fresh.  I have a few updates on my progress.  I am still working on my cross-stitching, but I haven’t got much to show for my efforts this week.  I’m currently working on the stack of pots on the floor.  I have about half of that done. 

Mid week I decided to take a break from the cross-stitching and work on one of my quilts.  I finished all the blocks for this quilt.  It is supposed to represent a home in the middle of the city surrounded by sidewalks and parks.  The center block is the size of two blocks put together and is the house.  Then the surrounding blocks are the city neighborhood.  When I saw this pattern, I just thought it would be perfect for this fabric.  This is the first full strip that I’ve finished and sewn together.  There are four other strips to put together, but that is not too bad considering I’ve finished the blocks.  The border of the quilt is made from the scraps of the fabric strips.  That should be interesting.  I love the colors in this quilt.  I picked the fabric (I used a jelly roll) at a wonderful quilting store, The Quilt Basket, in Tuscon, AZ last spring on a girls weekend with my mom and grandma.  My mom bought the same jelly roll.  All three of us love all things Mary Englebreit and this fabric is from her Moda collection “Recipe for Friendship”.  It is so fun and bright.   I got the pattern from the first quilting book I bought when I started this process last spring.  It is called Strip Crazy by Suzanne McNeill.  Obviously, it is a book of patterns to use jelly rolls or 2 1/2 inch strips.  The first quilt top that I finished is also from this book, and I love the fabric used in the book that I searched the internet to find it (Moda “Look and Learn” by American Jane).  What do you think?  I had to change some of the color assignments, but I love the way they have turned out.  Here is the first finished strip of blocks and a page excerpt from the book showing the original pattern.

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