Watermelon, perhaps...

There seems to be a theme to the quilts I make, or maybe an association to another love of mine - food. Jasmine's quilt is the Batternberg quilt and while I was making this one for my next-in-the-quilt-line-niece, Tia, the word that kept springing to mind was watermelon.

With the endless squares of pink and green, it's easy to see why!

This quilt measures 64" x 80", an easy measurement to work with in my mind; this time with 4" squares and 2" x 2" 4-patches. 800 squares in all - phew!

I started off with a fat-quarter collection from the fabulous Cia's Palette of Joel Dewberry's Aviary collection in, wait for it, pink and green and then added some other fabrics that I picked up along the way. I've got the hang of ordering from the States now with the customs allowance and so bought some Erin McMorris Wildwood from Purl too.

For the binding, I used a Heather Bailey bright pink print that I spotted on a whim in John Lewis after having already bought something else in Liberty! I always love the way that the binding brings the whole quilt together, frames it.

For the backing I used Amy Butler's Dandelion Field which reminds me of vintage sheeting. I'm sure I had something really similar when I was young on my bed. I hand-quilted around each 8" section of the quilt front which leaves a lovely regular pattern on the back.

So it is neatly folded, awaiting wrapping, alongside Jasmine's one.

Yesterday, the sun didn't really help me out in the photograph department and the wind kept lifting the quilt off the deck, so this is the best I could get of the whole thing in all it's pink and green glory:

Looking a bit darker than it really is, but never mind...