Back of Dyed Roads

So, here's the fabric I chose for the back of Dyed Roads.  I guess I am determined to challenge myself - it will be an interesting experiment since the front is make of African batik, which is very loosely woven, and hand-dyed sateens, which are tighter but very soft and now the back, commercial batik, which is very tightly woven. Thank goodness I'm a machine quilter.  This could be a torment for a hand-quilter.

Making this backing was tough and funny at the same time.  I had to piece it and had to take a run at it three times!  The first two errors were math mistakes and then then a sewing mistake.  Jeez, I know it's been a long time since I made something other than a wall quilt, but this is crazy. 

Dyed Roads

A couple of years ago a good friend gave me a wonderful piece of African hand-dyed fabric as a thank-you for cat sitting.  I've looked at the fabric and patted it and hadn't been able to decide what to do with it because the fabric is very loosely woven, so wouldn't lend itself to accurate piecing for a block-based quilt.  The other "problem" was that it was so beautiful that I did not want to cut it into small pieces.

One day I was cruising the Interweb looking at quilts and came across a piece by Alissa Carlton that she entitled Crossroads and knew exactly what to do with my African fabric (go click on her name for a link to the original quilt).  So, today I made this top for a lap quilt for myself.  And it's a good thing I'm keeping this since I put the center fabric in upside down but didn't have enough fabric to correct my error!  Customization in design, don't you know?

Not a great photo and quilting this is going to be a challenge since it really wants to go wonky, but I'm pleased with the results so far and am looking forward to using this when winter drafts are swirling around this old house.