A joyful quilt

I just made this quilt. No, I didn't whip out the whole thing in a few days, but I did sew the blocks together and finish it!

I was turning my studio upside down over the weekend looking for a particular piece of fabric when I came across a basket that I thought was full of fused scraps. I dug to the bottom and found this pile of quilt-as-you-go strip pieced blocks from batiks and my hand-painted fabric that I made I don't know how long ago! They even had numbers pinned to them, so I must have decided on an arrangement at the time.

I looked at various configurations:

I really liked these two, but kept experimenting.

I finally settled on this one because I liked the power of the two "eyes" looking out from the top two thirds.

I trimmed the blocks to 11 1/2 inches and admired their joyful spirit. I always hate to throw the scraps away because they're so pretty.

Since the blocks were already quilted, I had to figure out what to do with the raw seams on the back. I really liked the way they look as is, but decided I needed a lunch break. I think most quilt-as-you-go people cover the seams with binding strips that they insert when they do the seams and then hand stitch the other side down, but my arthritic thumbs would never be able to do all of those little stitches.

After lunch, I decided to cover the seams with strips of fused batik. (Because those darn quilt police intruded on my thoughts and said people will think I didn't know how to finish the back if I leave them raw!) Now that it's all done, I like the raw-edge look better, but that's okay. It's on the back and I won't see it when it's on the wall.

I also came across this quote by Joseph Campbell over the weekend. It's so true. Maybe I'll name the quilt "Joy."

"Find a place inside

where there's joy,

And the joy will

burn out the pain."

Color is my joy!

My friend Joyce took this photo from her deck.

Have a colorful day