Leftovers

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while now may remember back last summer when I finished this quilt:

It is the free pattern for the Red Rooster fabric line by Jennifer Chiaverini based on her book "The Aloha Quilt."  I remember when the book came out and I eagerly read it, not just because I read her books, but certainly because I had recently moved here to Hawaii.  I did not know anything about the fabric collection, though, until a while later when I saw an ad in a magazine.  By then, it seemed too late.  No internet shops had much of it left.  What really shocked me was that no shop on this island had it, either.  I did find a kit online and ordered it.  That Christmas, we flew back to the mainland and I was in Lally's Quilt Shop in Shipshewana, and there was some of the fabric, including the hard-to-find panel and the outer border fabric.  I used my smart phone to look up the quilt pattern to see what I needed.  I found other fabrics to match, and bought some more.  After I got home, I put it with the kit (I still hadn't started it) and waited. 

One day I was browsing on an internet quilt shop, one that carries "discounted" fabrics, and lo and behold, there was quite an assortment of the Aloha Quilts fabric.  I ordered some that I didn't have and some more for backings.  When it came I got everything out and started.  When I got done I had these:

I finished four of the quilts.  I knew they may be popular here for gifts--not only from me, but to sell for others, maybe.  I also have 2 more pieced center star units which I did not make into quilts.  I packed up all the leftover bits and pieces in a box and stuck it in my closet.

Fast forward to last week.  I had finished various smaller projects and turned towards my list/pile of unstarted projects and yet nothing appealed to me.  Do you ever have that problem?  You have a pile of things to do that you have wanted to do for so long/have in fact bought necessary things for those projects, and then when it comes time, nothing screams "do me next?"  So I tidied up a bit and looked around.

My eyes rested on the box of leftovers.  I had shared some of the panel "blocks" with some friends, and even used some to cover journals for my Bee Christmas gifts.  I had learned when I lived in Alaska, that after I moved away, I never made any more "Alaska" themed quilts, so I got the box out and went through it.  Inside was this pattern which I had found in my searches for more fabric.  I looked over my fabric and determined that I had enough to make it, although I made it one row shorter. 

During consturction I got a chance to use the Fit To Be Geese ruler and the Square In A Square Ruler which I love but haven't been able to use much since I got them.  I can emphatically recommend them! 
I mostly did this on Saturday, International Quilting Day.

It just needs to be quilted, now.

When I finished, I picked up all the leftovers and put them in the box....   Don't you wish that fabric "came out even" at the end of a project?

Aloha,

JoAnne