Out of the cupboard

The Delectable Mountains are now finished!  Hooray!  I so hate waste, and had had these blocks for such a long time, I was despairing of ever using them up!  They're quite masculine in design and colour, and fit it quite well with the football boot border.  I'm sure a young man will be happy to snuggle under it.

 

 

 So while I was hand stitching the border, I needed a nachine project to work on.  We've recently been invited to an 80th birthday party, and when I was thinking about what we could take as a present, I suddenly thought of these blocks which I had made from 'Quilting the Garden'.  I had challenged myself to use a dark background for the applique, instead of light, but once all 9 blocks were finished, didn't really feel I had a use for a king size quilt in burgundy!  However, just four 21" blocks would make a reasonable lap quilt.  Here are the four blocks I chose. 
 

 

Where to go next?  Sashing was the obvious answer, and ochre seemed to be the colour, so off to the Bramble Patch I went, with my good friend Jackie.  Two sets of eyes are definitely better than one, but even with that advantage, we could find very little ochre fabric, and nothing ( yes, literally nothing) in the right shade of burgundy for the final border!  I knew there were fashions in colours, but thought there would be something in such a well-stocked shop. 

 

Luckily the ochre we found (which we thought was a little light) has done the job well.

 

More sashing and cornerstones and I'm ready for the final border.  The fabric hanging on the right of the photo is out of my stash and is the best match we could find.

 

The final top, looking good.  I've got less than two weeks to finish it, so I'd better get going!