Cotton and Paisley

    No no NO!  These are NOT my puppies!  They're Yorkies somewhere on the internet. Why, you ask, would I post puppies that aren't mine?  Because I do not have Yorkies, yet Cotton and Paisley are yorkies that belong to a lady I know.  What does that have to do with quilting?  Well, that lady is a quilter, plus today I played with cotton and paisleys! See?  How's that for circumlocution?

     Cotton is my all-time favorite fabric.  Isn't it for all quilters?  I even like cotton clothing and 100% cotton sheets. Cotton has come a long ways since calicoes- the weave is nicer, the finish is nicer, and ya don't have to press the heck out of 'em to use them anymore. Speaking of pressing, do you remember having to "sprinkle" the clothes before they could be ironed? Did you have one of those sprinkler bottle tops that fit into a pop bottle? 

Now of course we don't "iron" much. But we DO press our fabric- we rarely have to sprinkle. Only if there's a really bad crease would we sprinkle and then we'd spritz it, not sprinkle.

Anyway, back to cotton & paisley. Here's a pic of the quilt I'm working on now.  I think the fabric line is called Nesting by Moda.  I have a few pieces of it myself that I'm saving for a special project. This is Karen's quilt top:

and this is the backing fabric . See all those paisley? Aren't they GREAT?? Love that 

turquoise and blue with the brown.  You know, sometimes the back of the quilt 

is just as pretty as the front. It depends on the fabric and whether the quilting

shows.  On this one, I'm gonna love the back no matter what! 

You can see by those pictures that the top is a lively one.  I first thought to do an all over

pattern but decided against that because the rectangles really need to be 

defined to avoid it looking like a jumbled up mess. I think... and I'm the quilter

so I get to decide! YAY! Sometimes my mind changes and it did during this 1st pass 

on this top.  I'll go back to that white rectangle to update that squiggly line into curls to match

the white block I did later in the row.  What I'm excited about is the border quilting.

Remember that paisley print above?  I mimicked the shape for the inside-most rectangles

and even more in the border. Have a look:

Cool, huh? Lots of people love their jobs - I love mine too! Quilting by machine is such a therapeutic

job. Just think: it's colorful, totally tactile, creative, mind stimulating, productive and long-lived! Well, at least the quilts last a long time....

Something that caught my eye as I was rounding the quilting table while ago is that this piece of Nesting fabric goes with a piece from Amelia, a completly different line from a different designer but they're both from MODA.  See? I guess it doesn't show up as well on the camera as it did in person.  There's a dark blue inside the turquoise in the paisleys that resonates with the blue on the dotted. Wish it had shown up better.  

Speaking of blue, another one of Karen's quilt tops is quilted now. It's blue, blue and blue! 

Love this fabric on the back. 

And......speaking of backs..... that Peachy Keen quilt on the previous post has THIS on the back. Ain't it beautiful? Yes, I admit it: I'm a fabricoholic. Aren't you?