My quilt in progress, which I called Not Orange Peel in this post, is finally ready to quilt. I think I started this one in mid-February, since when progress has been slow as I mused about how to join everything together, which way to press the seams, how big to make it, etc.
A few weeks ago I finished joining all my leaf blocks together after looking at them pinned to the wall for months on end, and then further delay trying to find the right colour for the stems (not to mention then starting to put the stems in, and deciding they needed pointy tops instead of flat tops....). The random-ness of the stem lengths was important - at first I thought I could put in five full-length stems, but that didn't work; the quilt top needed to be broken up by having shorter stems so that the leaves, rather than the stems, were the main feature (thanks to my husband Mike for this inspiration!). Here's how it looked half-way through piecing, when I was starting to think about the stems:
So now it's basted and ready to go. Quilting will be by machine, in a sort-of tree-like pattern that flows from a bottom corner towards the top, spreading out as it goes. I'll be doing that on my little Elna machine, with a walking foot and a washable marker!
...is this beauty from Julie at Jaybird Quilts.
I'm a scientist when I'm not quilting and I love that this quilt combines both. Those hexagons could be just hexagons - one of the oldest patchwork shapes we know - or they could be any number of things in the world of science: how about benzene rings, phenolic groups, bee honeycomb, crystals, part of a DNA helix, a constellation....any suggestions?!
At the moment I can't decide if I like the white background or the grey. My sister has requested one in grey, so maybe I'll start with that and see whether to repeat it for myself or go white! But first, of course, there are other projects to tidy up. . .
(PS I asked Julie if I could post this photo with a link but I haven't heard back from her in the five weeks since I asked, so I'm cautiously going ahead with this post!)
