Putting Together This Damned Quilt

I just got back from See's, where I bought two pieces of California Brittle (two pieces, not two cups, I want to make that clear).

This is due to the fact that I couldn't face getting down to business with the current quilt on the wall in my studio, which is turning out to be a bitch to sew together.


Here 's what it looks like:

Variety of background prints

But will it ever be sewn together?

I found the marine-type fabric in the home dec section at Britex in San Francisco.  Bought a bunch.  Had fun carefully cutting the squares around shells and creatures.  Along the way, I decided to stick a background of various black/white/gray prints up on the wall as a background.  Seemed simple.

But it's much easier to applique something like this (hand sew the squares on by on top of background) than to piece around each square so it looks like they're on top of the background.  If you don't quilt, trust me--it's tedious and arithmetically challenging.  Also, intriguing.  I'm making it up as I go along, so no one can rescue me (just like life).

Ann and Mabry in my quilt mini-group, when told of this daunting task, came up with a technique that would be much easier.  Ann was all set to come over to my house to show me, but then I mentioned that  there are 49 squares, and she looked dubious.

I'm forging ahead, but how many pieces of California Brittle is it going to take and how much gas to get over to See's?  I can't buy more than two pieces at a time (oddly, the woman behind me in line today did just the same thing, drove over for two pieces).

The goal is to finish this quilt in time for it to be included in the East Bay Heritage Quilters show next March.  We'll see.

Just to make it more challenging, I'm incorporating bits of tea towels I bought at Kew Garden while we were in England, plus one I bought at Darwin's House in Kent.

Yes, it's supposed to be upside-down