Possum Magic: Round 4

The Possum Magic fun continues!

Wendy of Wendy’s Quilts and More loves rich, vibrant colours. She especially likes peacock blues, and her starter block reflects that. Normally, colour-saturated quilts are not my forte, but the reassuring thing for me, long before I received this quilt top, was that I had some Philip Jacobs blue fabrics from my big blue quilt, and they would be perfect when my turn came.

Before this quilt top came to me, it went through several other possums’ hands (paws?).

• Sharon of Motherdragon’s Musings added to Wendy’s block with a pieced border in the rich blues and purples that Wendy likes so much. I like how this gave the original lime green star a bit more breathing room.
• Jo of Riddle and Whimsy picked out the colours in the fabrics so far and made us notice the pink highlights. The pink accents really added pizzazz.
• Serena of Sew Giving added a border of squares, each square a colour that is in the Philip Jacobs and Kaffe Fassett prints (if you look very closely).

Wendy made the centre block. Sharon added the first border. Joanna added the second, and Serena added the third.

I recycled aspects of everyone’s ideas. I find doing this – reintroducing elements that have already been included – can be a good way to link the work of so many hands.

I added a narrow border, like Sharon’s purple ½-inch borders. In my head, this border was going to be lime green, but I could see as soon as I put the fabric next to Serena’s squares that lime was the wrong choice. Instead, I used a pinky-orange that I love.

I brought in some more stars, using Red Pepper Quilts’ ‘Hummingbird’ pattern, which was our Compass Quilters bee block for Rebecca, and I tried to use many of the colours that Jo and Serena had identified in the original fabrics and brought out in their borders.

I know Wendy likes bright colours, so when planning I pulled out all my fabrics that might suit.

Because Serena’s border was so colourful, I knew I could not go as equally wild with colour. Initially, I planned to go back to lime and blue to frame the colourful squares Serena had added. However, after a little time spent throwing fabrics all around the quilt top on a bed, I realised I had to bring in some of the other colours too. I changed my original plan of just adding stars in the four corners, and I decided to make more to place along each edge.

The stars midway along each edge served two purposes – they allowed me to add more colour and work around the fact that I only had fat quarters of the blue fabrics and no piece large enough to stretch the length of one border. They helped me avoid unsightly joins.

I did not plan to make the backgrounds of the stars purple. I really wanted blue backgrounds, but the blue fabrics I had were all the wrong shade or too busy. In fact, the busyness is why I pieced the borders in stripes, using four of the Philip Jacobs prints in my stash. Cutting them into narrower strips broke up the large floral designs and made them into more randomly colourful patterns.

I would have preferred blue backgrounds to the stars, but the purple is growing on me.

My work will not be a showy feature of the quilt, but it does act as a background that allows the central star and Serena’s bold square to shine.

The quilt top is now ready to go to Jane of Where Jane Creates. I hope she has some blue! I think Jane has a good fabric stash and will no doubt come up with something stunning.

This round of Possum Magic is the swap round. As I have been working on Wendy’s, she has been working on mine, and it is the same for other pairs of possums. If you saw my original leaf, you would hardly recognise it now – it has flowers and ladybirds and trailing vines! It is looking very much like a spring garden. What fun! You can see it in its current glory over on Wendy’s blog.

You should check out Wendy’s blog as she is the most amazingly talented needlewoman. She quilts; she knits; she embroiders; she makes lace. Everything she makes is beautiful and colourful. You will not find any boring or beige projects. Is there anything she cannot craft?

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