Strawberry Quilt; or a Suzani for Susannah

The challenge of having a creative blog is that, well, one has to be creative! And while I have hundreds of ideas swirling around and documented in a notebook, the reality of my job and children limits my physical creativity.

Take this quilt, for instance: I began it last spring and only now have it ready for binding. But even that took some short cuts. If you've read this blog before, you might recognize the middle of this quilt--I made it from the tiny bags that I posted in an early spring entry. My grand idea was to make up a hundred or so tiny bags and test their sell-a-bility at a benefit for pediatric cancer. But after making about five of them, I realized that I don't like making things in bulk--I guess I prefer designing and producing one-offs. Sooo . . . I dismantled all bags except one and turned the resulting squares into the above quilt. The fabric includes Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Heather Bailey, and some "unknowns." The border is a batik and I decided to punctuate the quilt with appliqued tiny and large circles cut from Liberty fabric.

Although I usually take a firm stance on hand sewing and quilting everything, I've relaxed my impossible standards. If I were to hand quilt this piece, it would be completed when my now two-year-old lad is in college. And I don't want to wait that long. So I knotted the three layers together with cotton yarn and buried the ends. I hope that the result looks like French knots!

The back uses a large piece of Amy Butler fabric, the same batik border, and more Liberty circles to tie the front and back together thematically. I'm calling this a "strawberry quilt" because the batik reminds me of strawberry plants. But the circles remind me of Suzani designs, so I'm also calling this a "Suzani for Susannah," my middle lassie.

I've been mulling over the binding, and wanted to use something sensual, so I've ordered some rosy silk dupioni to try. Perhaps I should have selected a lavender. but we'll see. I guess that one can't have too much dupioni in different colors on hand?! Let me know what you think--if anyone chances to read this after my too-long hiatus.