Quasi-bargello quilt

I’ll back up and share a little process for my first 2012 project.  The idea was conceived because I had three yards of fabric I didn’t think would ever find their way into on of my quilts.  So I sacrificed a couple of coordinating fabrics and put my quasi-bargello idea together.  I have a book on this technique but had never tried it.  Not knowing how big I would make it, I just decided to keep everything square and diagonal.  The trial used two strips of each color (10 total) and I was shocked to discover I really liked the look of these fabrics when they were chopped up in little pieces.  So I made more strips.  It was easy to stagger the seam allowances in opposite directions and the pressing plan was a dream–until I started to put my two sections together.  I had already pressed both in the direction they tended to fall but that meant the seams allowances overlapped.  A re-press of the bottom section was fairly easy–see pins which indicate seam direction change.

I would have liked a wider floral border but did not have enough fabric for that.  For the backing I used another piece from my stash and I spliced the batting–all satisfying my desire to whittle down the stash this year.  To machine quilt it, I sewed straight lines through the purple diagonals using purple thread.  Going the other direction however, there was no diagonal that didn’t have white squares and I did not want my purple quilting to show that glaringly.  I had to think a while to come up with a finishing plan but when it finally came to me, I loved it.  I quilted in the ditch in every other row on opposite sides of the center diagonal.  Here it is all washed and ready for my sister and her husband–both huge fans of the purple/green combo.  Finished size is 53″ square.