fair and square quilt

This past weekend I spoke at the Margaret's Hope Chest Summer Work Party. I don't think I could ever grow tired of meeting new friends that share the love of quilting. I could, however, do without the 3 days of self doubts that plague me after teaching a class. :) But, I think it's safe to say that we all had a great time. And we got lots done!

When Carin asked me to teach, we agreed that I would design a quilt for especially for MHC. She wanted it to be a man/boy friendly pattern around 45 x 65, something that was easy to chain piece and something without borders.
fair and square quilt
This is what I came up with. I've made 3 quilt tops in this pattern so far and the variations/possibilities are endless. This version feels somewhat City Quilts-ish, wouldn't you say? I never thought I would make a quilt with black sashing, but this quilt made me want to run out and buy an entire bolt of black quilting cotton. It's fabulous!

The various green fabrics came from a scrap box that Heather had given to Victoria, who in turn shared the scraps with those of us who were at the Gruber's retreat back in June. I knew I was going to be making masculine quilts, and the hunter green fabrics weren't so popular, so I thought I would challenge myself to try to make them work in some quilt somehow. I'm so pleased that I did it!

I stippled the quilt in grey thread and as you can see, I used mostly black binding. I was so close to finishing the quilt, but didn't want to go buy more binding fabric, so I added a few green strips to make the black fabric stretch around the perimeter of the quilt. I chose the darkest green prints for minimal contrast. I love it when I can make do with what I have rather than buying more. Plus, it makes the final product so much more interesting.

The quilt measures 48" x 66" and it was named by my 9 year old son.