ABC Quilt Challenge

October 2011 Sue had a brain wave for a Nickel Challenge for twin sized quilts for adults to be donated to our Manitoba Prairie Quilters group's ABC charity project.  See the group receives MANY smaller sized quilts but not enough larger sized ones.  I thought it was a great idea so signed up, found my pattern and started to sew up my ZILLION HSTs from the 5" squares that were swapped between ten ladies.  

It didn't take long before I realized I picked the WRONG pattern for fast preparation prior to working on the "planning" of the quilt top layout!  Well finally in August after months of stitching I thought I was ready for the planning - BUT I did not have enough "lights" to make the transition in the pattern.  So back to the drawing board and pulled out my lights and went back to work.  In the process I decided to move apartments and had to square off the HSTs whenever I could.  This past weekend after finalizing the move and during a relaxing quilt retreat, I took my styro planning board and with my sister's assistance got this quilt top underway.

The inner section was completed and I added the 1" mottled brown inner border before laying out the leftover HSTs for a scrappy border.  It was very late so I left it for the morning and was greeted by fellow quilters who didn't like that border - said it detracted from the lovely pattern - maybe a lighter outer border the width of the inner stripes.  Shoot, I didn't bring any other fabrics with me so had to leave the quilt as is until I was back home and could pull out various fabrics till I found this batik.  It looks great.

So Saturday I'll drop it off for Sue to quilt it for me and then I'll add on another brown/sand striped fabric for the binding.  It sounds weird but it truly did look great all together.  You'll see next month when I get it back to add on the binding.  Hopefully I'll get it finished for the mid-December MPQ meeting where we unveil these charity quilts.