Amrita's Kaleidoscope

I cannot believe I haven't posted in 3 months.   What can I say?   I have the usual bag of time constraints to blame, chief among them a project at work that is zapping all my energy.    I've had 3 months of 'blog or sew?' moments in the evening, and in every case I've chosen to sew.

This has made for lots of finished quilts, but fewer blog posts.   So, time for a little catch-up on all the stuff I've made.

I made this quilt for one of my oldest friends, Amrita.  I will not go mushy on you, but she is a delight and I wish my children both have friends as great as her one day.

She was here to visit last summer, and I had her pull some inspiration from my stash.

Amrita picked fabrics in a palette I don't usually work with - tans and oranges and darkish reds.   I had a great time jumping out of my comfort zone a bit.
 

 
I wanted a kaleidoscope-ish effect, so I pulled a ton of fabrics, and sewed strips of 3-4 irregular bands in colors that ran from light to dark.   The bands were pieced randomly side by side, with lights all together at one end and darks at the other. I then used a homemade plastic template to cut a wedge shape.   The wedge was finished on the 2 corners with triangles of Free Spirit "Raw Sugar" and cut down to 12" blocks.

After piecing 16 of these, I realized the quilt was way smaller than I wanted.   That's when I remembered a suggestion of Aimee's, and used a bunch of leftover color bands to create a stripey border.

The back was finished with this beautiful Anna Maria Horner print that I found at Marden's in Sanford, Maine after our BMQG retreat last year.  It was like $4 per yard, and I can't deal with how perfectly the colors match.

I used the super-chocolatey flavor of Hope Valley floral to bind, another go-to fabric that I love.

The quilt was delivered to Amrita in NJ back in December, and I'm happy to report she really loves it.  I do kind of miss it, though.