Across the Atlantic

Although my arithmetic skills are generally quite good, sometimes my counting skills fail me. When I made this quilt, I found myself with 3 extra blocks. I'm not sure why, since I'm well aware that 3 x 4 = 12, but somehow at the end of piecing I counted 15 blocks. In the end, it was a handy error, as they provided the impetus for this quilt.

In my ongoing efforts to play with negative space, I added extra white and then placed the squares on a red background. I played around with the layout, and decided that I like the slightly off-center version best. At one point, I though I might do a column of the blocks, but that seemed kind of boring.

You can see the quilting here -- I started with a semi-oval (a technical term, I'm sure) to mimic the shape of the egg in the chicken print. From there, I moved in and out, adding rows by using the edge of my regular pressing foot (I don't own a walking foot) as the guide. sometimes I moved over a precise 1/4" and sometimes I allowed for extra space between the lines. It was a little tedious but that memory has faded.

I had a lot of the yellow chicken print left and just added some black and white fabrics to break up the design. The top print is from Alexander Henry and the bottom one is a black and white damask, but I'm not sure who makes it. It's been in my stash a while now. The binding is Michael Miller's Ironwork's in Ebony.

This is or will be making its way across the Atlantic to its new owner, Henry. I don't think his mom reads the blog, but I could be wrong. The uncertainty about its shipping status reflects the fact that I brought this home with me in early July and left it with my mom to ship because I knew she'd also be sending a gift and it makes sense to consolidate international shipping.