It was not intentional, but three of my last quilts for Project Linus just turned out to be pink and black. In April I wanted to use up part of my stash of black fabrics, especially a large piece with gold metallic roses. I featured the largest flowers in the sawtooth stars, set in a background of tiny gold roses. The star blocks alternate with an Irish chain variation that was just the right place for a couple of old pink scraps. This quilt seems more “grown up” than other Linus quilts I have made, but our chapter also donates quilts to the Mesilla Valley Hospital, where I hope some young teen will like “Starlight Roses.”
In May I wanted to make an animal-themed quilt with a cute panda print that had somehow jumped into my shopping cart one day back in December. I designed a mother-and-baby applique for the center medallion, based on the pandas in the print with their little pink ears and feet. The bamboo fabric surrounding them is yet another stash remnant that has needed a home for a really long time. Sadly, as the pieces went up on my design wall, my adorable panda print was just way too busy to fit in. It ended up as the quilt back, except for the four little pandas hanging out in the corners, looking at the bamboo.
I wasn’t sure that I would get a quilt done in June, while we were organizing for a summer trip north. But I really wanted to do something with a bold floral print that had come home from a Linus meeting earlier this year; finally I thought I had collected the right coordinating blue and pink fabrics. But the quilt seemed to need something to pick up the black behind all of those showy flowers. That is how I came to use up a very old and very small scrap of flowers and birds on a field of black–just enough to applique six birds for “Swallows in the Garden.”
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