New Orleans House Project

Thursday, March 24, 2016

A Throwback to the Tropics

It's been a dark and stormy day in the city.  Silly me, I believed the weather prognosticator's claim that rain wouldn't start until late afternoon, and got pretty thoroughly soaked while I was out and about for work this morning.

When I got home, my dogs were huddled under my desk (I work from home) for protection from the thunder...which continued for hours.

So you can imagine that a bright and cheerful throwback memory brought a smile to my face!

This wall hanging dates back to 1993, when I was struggling to use up a lot of scraps from a tropical-themed friendship quilt.   I string-pieced lots of scraps onto a fabric foundation, leaving the narrow, center "neck-tie" section clear.  When the blocks were assembled, they formed a star shape.  I machine-quilted with metallic silver thread to echo the star shapes.  Instead of adding the side and corner triangles, I just bound the blocks in their irregular shape.  I was quite surprised when Dixie Haywood, a member of my quilt guild at the time, asked to include it in a book she was co-authoring on foundation piecing.  (confession time:  the quilt was gifted to a friend long ago and I scanned the picture from the book!)

If you've been following me for awhile, you know scrappy quilts like the starry throwback above are dear to my heart.  I've discovered Diane Knott, of Butterfly Threads Quilting, is also a scrappy quilt lover - so much so, she has written a book about it!
There's a blog hop going on to help kick off Diane's book, and of course, there will be opportunities to win copies of the book.  Here's the menu of blogs to visit - I hope you'll check them out and get inspired by Diane's scrappy ideas!
3/21    C&T Blog http://www.ctpub.com/blog/
with Diane (that’s me)www.butterflythreadsquilting.com
3/22    Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/
3/26    Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com/
3/27    Valerie http://myplvl.blogspot.com/
3/29    Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/
4/2      Barb Www.funwithbarb.com