Fruit Salad Finish

Just as I added this picture to the post, the tornado siren went off. It's been a month of tornado sirens every few days with the requisite rain and thunderstorms. To be honest, I didn't realize I lived in a tornado-prone area until this summer. I thought tornadoes hit the Plains, which are south and west of me. But apparently I live in a tornado area. Ah well.

Back to quilts...this is the finished fruit salad quilt that started here and has been significantly altered. I really love the result, which I wasn't sure would happen when I started chopping. But adding pink and yellow dramatically altered the quilt top, in a good way. The blocks are 6.5" square and the sashing is 2". I almost adding sashing to the outside borders but decided I preferred the blocks running into the edge.

Here's a close-up. The pears remained intact, as a couple people suggested they should. I also added the remaining pear fabric I had so there are more pears scattered through the additional blocks.

The back shows off the grid quilting (in a light pink thread) quite well. I quilted lines 1/4" offset from the lines of the sashing and the blocks. For the back, I pieced some chocolate brown (the brownies that accompany the fruit salad dessert?) with some Art Gallery daisies. The binding is Art Gallery Dazzling Wheels -- a fabric that I just got my hands on and have already used in several items. It's a neat fabric on its own, and the deep pink + yellow + white combination has served me well in coordinating with fabric in quilts and bags.

I'll send this off to the Rainbow Around the Block project tomorrow. I'm a little sad to see it go, but I'm sure it's recipient will use it well (it will got to a child, I'm sure, as it measures about 30" x 40").