No U-turns!

From this to this (above) - corner blocks are all the same It is still raining, so photos outdoors aren't possible, and as this quilt now measures 89in long x 69in wide, I can't photograph it indoors and be able to show the whole quilt in one photo. Please use your imagination!

The blocks are off centre Log Cabins, which I included in 'Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks' not because they are directly based on a Japanese motif per se, but because they can be rotated and the light/dark placement reversed to create patterns like seigaiha (ocean wave). It is also a block much loved by Japanese quilters. I left off the last two narrow strips, so the unfinished block size was 9in not 9 1/2in - same as the border width. This block is quite easy to adjust for size like that.



I used the same stripe for the narrow strips as I used for the arrow flights, fussy cutting so the darker browns would be on the finished strip face. The other, very subtle multicoloured pinstripe appears in the pine circle design, which is included towards the bottom of the sampler. I like the way this stripe looks slightly greyed out and subtle from a distance, but includes a lot of brightly coloured threads when your get up close. This was the point of no return, as I wouldn't have enough of the arrow flight fabric left to make another four blocks. The bias strips have taken up a fair bit of fabric, especially as some of it was fussy cut for the arrows.


Quilting ideas - I will start with quilting in the ditch along the sashing and then deal with each block individually. As with the samplers I quilted from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match', I don't want the quilting to overpower the patchwork and applique block construction. In the border, quilting in the ditch on either side of the arrows and along the seam lines in the corners may do, although it is probably better to add a broken zigzag along the top of the darker stripes, otherwise the quilting will tend to produce a ridge and furrow effect, which would stop the quilt hanging well. I don't want to add another narrow border after the arrows, so dense quilting will help control all that bias fabric so the quilt shouldn't hang wavy. I would like to use Hobbs Polydown wadding (batting) to give the appliques a more sculptural quality, but don't want to go the whole hog and trapunto them - although I have thought about it... Might just be a bit too much with trapunto. I'm hand quilting it, by the way.