Pressure Drop Finish!

I blogged more than two months ago about starting a quilt I was calling Pressure Drop, based on a variation of the Drunkard's Path layout. After a few delays, I finally "finished it up"!

(I had a lot of fun putting patterns and colors together... and using up a couple of "ugly" or just plain difficult fabrics)

In a couple of places, I switched up the background and foreground:

For the back I used the Palette Builder to identify the Bella Solid that matched the best, "Mauve" (though it might be better called "Thistle"):

I tried some fashion quilt photography (wheelbarrow, asters, quilt):

I like asters, bees, monarchs better:

Sophia's quilt

It's been a long time since I posted. My sewing room is under renovation (yes, I should have posted on my husband's heroic efforts there. But there have been bummer-ish complications, like a shoddy skylight installation by workmen who have no pride, and their ignominious return to our house...3 times! Sigh). Most important, I have been busy welcoming our foreign exchange student from Egypt, Nadia.

This quilt is not for Nadia, but for Sophia, going off to college this week. Sophia (daughter of family friends) threw a party before school started to introduce Nadia to all the "cool kids" in the class below her (now seniors) at the high school: i.e., the smart ones, the ones that wouldn't make stupid remarks like "why aren't you wearing a towel on your head?" About 20 people showed up! As a result, Nadia's transition into her new school was a breeze. Yay, Sophia!

As the party was winding up, I casually asked Sophia's mom, "Just in case I have time to make a quilt in the next 10 days [before she goes to college], what are Sophia's colors? Her mom answered, "It's always been robin's egg blue, mostly, but now with a little gray, lavender, and gold thrown in." Sophia has a very well defined set of colors. And, marvel of marvels, scraps in these colors had recently been brought together in a laundry basket, and were queued up, waiting for an excuse to be made into a quilt! It was meant to be.

I had a lot of fun with this design: 9 x 9" crazy blocks, plus 5.5 x 9" rectangular blocks. I love crazy, and it worked quite well in the "low-volume" colors of Sophia's palette.

I already had a couple-three yards of the robin's egg blue (called "spray green" at Joann's); in fact, this was the color for the back of a recent quilt (posted here). I just needed to buy 2 more yards to finish the quilt. All the rest was from my scrap bins.

I love a scrappy quilt. Thanks to my friend Sue Ellen for photographing this in the lovely, well-lit space of our local public library. Next up: Nadia's quilt!