Funky Quilt Top and a Gator Stroll...

This is only a quilt top presently. The randomly pieced, sort-of Log Cabin blocks are ones our donation quilt chairperson offered a couple of months ago. Taking a set of blocks is a commitment to incorporate them into a donation quilt. I knew I wanted to work with these colorful blocks, but what to do with them?

I began by joining them into a very large 9-Patch, using polka dot sashing. And then I made another.

Then I re-cut the 9-Patches into quarters, Patience Corner style. It was just a matter of rearranging the quarters to make the quilt top. With a few blocks still leftover, I decided to increase the quilt size by piecing cut up sections of the blocks and adding them along each side of the quilt top. It turned out so lively and disorderly, that I find it quite appealing! Our guild donates many quilts to local agencies each year, and most of them are made from donated blocks and fabrics, plus they're worked on collaboratively. It's a nice opportunity to experiment a little and try some new design adventures.

And I'll add a little touch of nature here. Can you see the alligators in the photo? Our daughter visited last week and we took her for a stroll out onto Paines Prairie to see them. They are so pre-historic looking and HUGE! You can actually get uncomfortably close to the gators here, and there are signs warning hikers to remember you are not in a theme park or behind protective glass. The word is that these creatures can move very, very fast. Happily we were there mid-day when the gators are resting and sunning themselves to store up body heat. Feeding time is early AM and later toward evening. But I don't want to push it in case any of them missed a meal, so I kept a respectful distance!