No fear quilt

A little while ago I bought 174 Fat quarters of batik fabrics which came nicely folded and they looked so beautiful when placed in my wicker storage baskets that they became quite indimidating in that I thought I'd never have a quilt idea that was quite good enought to cut into them and if I did I'd never chose which of the 174 colours to use. So eventually I decided to hack into them and make whatever turned out. ( To unfreeze myself I promised that if I grieved for the used FQ's I could buy more to replace them!) So I selected a few bright ones, having been sitting in my garden smuggly appreciating the fact that against my father's advice we painted the fences blue becuase its a great way to keep the garden bright in autumn when you forgot to plant any flowers as we did this year!

So I began last weekend with a simple fourpatch proposition, no pattern and a challenge to make somthing to use outside so I could prolong the use of the garden into these chillier nights. The photos below show its progression on the design wall to the top finished yesterday and placed on the bench it was intended for. As you can see, I ditched the sashing in favour of a border at the last minute. I had a lot of fun just cutting away and there are loads of strips left so there will be a mix and match somthing to come I am sure.

Wadding (batting to you US readers) and backing ( plain bright pink) was purchased today but no time to finish it as I have to go away to Leeds now for 3 nights then Birmingham and Manchester before finally arriving home on Friday evening. ( So there will be a blog gap as I for once and not hefting my laptop around with me. The suitcase contains handsewing though!). I intend to tie it on my return as it is meant to be quick and casual.