Golden

It can be very hard to surprise me with Christmas gifts - I tend to pick up on the slightest little hint - but this year Betty did it, and did it in spades. She made me this gorgeous, gorgeous little quilt in an whole array of yellows.

The ironic part of this gift, is that I made the blocks! Several years ago - I'm thinking probably five or six - I started playing with my yellow scraps. Little hits of pink, coral, mauve and blue found their way into the mix. I didn't know what I was going to do with them but I think I ended up with between 30 an 40.

As luck would have it, my niece Julia, who was taking graphic design at the time, made a quilt top for one of her courses based on the Golden Rectangle, so I gave them to her to use in a border. She hasn't added the border yet but it sounds like she and Betty have been chatting about doing just that.

Long story short, Betty was inspired to use some of the blocks and make a quilt for me - sort of like klepto quilting, but I'm thinking more like mucho value-added klepto quilting :). I. Love. It!

The blocks float beautifully on the sashing fabric - it's interesting enough to create some contrast but subtle enough to let the blocks shine. It would have taken me ages to figure out that this was the sashing to use (BTW, the yellow sashing print came from my stash too!). Random free flowing lines of stitching in perle cotton soften it.

Tiny little scraps hold such a strong appeal for me. I totally love sewing them together and I love seeking them out in finished quilts. The tinier the shard, the better. Sometimes I wonder that I buy yardage at all because I gravitate to the itty bitty scraps.

The blocks finish off at 3.5" and it is 30" square, so it gives you a sense of what size the pieces are that make up the blocks. Thank you Betty, this was a truly wonderful surprise and it will be cherished....M