Alien Fabric

Father's Day was a pretty quiet affair this year.  Hubby got to watch his NASCAR race and his favorite driver, Dale Jr, won and Hubs was ecstatic!  The rest of the day the US Open has been on.  Like I said, a pretty quiet day!  I baked a nice batch of chocolate chip cookies and watered the garden.  Tomorrow I will make our first two loaves of zucchini bread for the year from our home-grown zucchinis.  I bake several loaves every summer and put them in the freezer for use in the winter.  I recall baking 12 loaves one day last summer.  I serve this with softened cream cheese with drained crushed pineapple stirred in...oh so good!  You can't beat this with a cup of hot tea.

Yesterday I finished binding the Luna Notte quilt I gave you a sneak peak of Saturday.  It's a romantic fabric line from Moda and worked up so well in the simple Framed Square pattern.

The blocks are 5" charm squares bordered by 2 1/2 strips from a jellyroll and are are fast and easy to make.  This is a large 93 inch square quilt, so I used two charm packs and two jellyrolls.  The black inner border is yardage from the Luna Notte line.  The red/beige toile outer border is yardage I bought at my local fabric shop.  Because this toile had a directional print, I had to piece and match the top and bottom borders to get them facing in the same direction.  Adding an 'alien' fabric to my quilts is something I do often.  I will buy precuts from a specific fabric line (in this case Luna Notte from Moda) and shop for a complimentary fabric to work along with the designer line in a few of the blocks, perhaps borders, binding of backing.  The outer border toile fabric was my alien for this quilt.  Shopping for alien fabric is really fun and it gives my quilts a different twist ~~  sometimes a real different twist.

Here's a closer look at the blocks.  My long-arm quilter stitched a rose in the center of each block ~ stippled around the center block and did lovely feather designs in the outer border.  She always does such a nice job!

The backing is a 108" backing fabric in black with a pewter gray floral design.  I think it looks good with the old look of the front. 

This is such a versatile quilt pattern.  I never stop being amazed how different it looks made in different fabrics.  It is easy enough for a brand new quilter.  The hardest part of making this quilt, other than the large size of the quilt, was the hand stitching of the binding.  I found the toile to be difficult to work with ~ slippery, raveling easily and thick.  I have to say it was worth the extra effort because I love the way the toile works with this fabric line!  DH tried to talk me out of using the toile, but now he's glad I didn't listen to him!!

I encourage you to get out some squares, or use a charm pack if you have one on hand, and sew strips around your squares to see how you like the Framed Square.  Here's a little tip:  When I sew the blocks into rows I align a short edge with a long edge so there is no matching of seams!  If you try this pattern you will see what I mean. 

Have a great day filled with Peace & Plenty!