White Woman Lost

,Sydney May 2008,  wandering around Paddies Market, we found some Aboriginal style fabric,   most was packaged in skinny ¼, 3 to a pack so I bought 2 and a separate strip.  Brought it home and there it sat waiting for inspiration with no future project in mind other then I liked the difference of it to the rest of my stash.

Even though my stash is not huge being by nature a bit frugal its more then I feel comfortable with,  so 2009 my aim was to resist the purchase of fat quarters as they don't fit my category of scraps and are not big enough to be really useful
                                
September 2009 it  got my attention again, the time had arrived to  decide what I was going to do with it.   Placing them all together I decided I wasn't so keen after all and that damn cream stood out like a sore tooth but it all had to be used.  I got out pen and paper and did some sketching,   decided on large blocks so I could keep the pattern of each, interspaced with smaller pieced blocks.    None of the strips were cut straight  and I had already realised that the very thing I liked about the fabric was the tone of the colours.  I was having difficulty finding fabrics that blended in with it, so I went to the quilt shop in case they had any, but no, plenty there but being on a minimal buy year if it didn't match any better then what I already had,  well maybe a bali pop will do.   

But no, once together they clashed dreadfully,   using what I had I  cut the small squares,  placed them out on the bed and decided I liked them better on point.   I needed more squares,  large and small ones.  I got the last of my strips, some were only narrow, other bits were smaller squares

Well this is patchwork and doing match the pattern at my age is good brain gain training.  They still weren't quite big enough but a glance into my stash cupboard and I spotted some orange,  just the right shade, by trimming a fraction off the largest squares and putting a strip around each block I didn't have to  change the size of the 12  square blocks.  This quilt seems to have a mind of its own,  after another  search of  all my pre cut squares and my scrap bin and fat quarters I managed to find enough for all the 12 sq. blocks,  and most of the outside triangles that putting it on point had materialised.

                              

Next step was the edge.  That orange strip!!.   it was a ½ meter wrapped around a larger piece but once opened up it was different dye lot and it showed.   MY slow brain remembered the quilt it was bought for and the reason  it wasn't used and why its been in there for so many years, now if I had used the larger piece I would of had enough.          So now I had the dilemma of what to put around the edge.  I tried black but it was to heavy.  I liked the brown but the pattern design was just wrong.    going for a good contrast rather then a bad match I tried the green and blue.   Blue won out.   Well the blocks are made up, a project all its own as it was such a dilemma trying to keep the woman's and mens corobaries separate as I'm sure they shouldn't be side by side, then there was that cream.

Now they need to be squared up and placed together but Christmas arrived and other things have taken priority so it could be some time before it sees the light of day again.  with better planning I suppose I could of thought up a better pattern, maybe bought more of the fabric in the first place, some witchery grubs wandering out of the block or maybe some footprints  would finish it off,  maybe when its finished I will  hate it but so far its actually got to be fun.