Dots and Crosses

 

This is Polka Dot Fantasy by Yvonne Porcella, a quilt from 1982 that I have always loved and wished to emulate. It's a simple layout, which is key, and of course over the years I have saved lots of dots and stripes and always have plenty of red, yellow and blue fabrics. This week I was determined to make my version.

I began by  attaching my fabrics on the design wall, in hopes of inspiration, and waited and fretted and came up with nothing. So the next day I decided to just start making parts. Flying geese, four patches, HSTs, cross blocks and strip pieced stripes. Took a nap and decided to just start by making a large log cabin medallion and seeing how I could incorporate as many of the fabrics and small blocks to make a nice composition. I quit once it grew to 44x48". Suddenly I had a plan!

 I decided to cut the thing into four sections and add a panel down the center and matching 'arms' horizontally. So first I pieced the long center strip, 63" in length. Now I was really excited, because this looked completely different than my initial simple and elegant inspiration. Then went on to make the side strips, about 24" x 14" and sewed the sides together first and then the center panel. 

 Dots and Crosses, machine pieced, unquilted, and 63" square-ish.
I have never made anything like this in all my years of quilting and I am over the moon. Busy busy? You betcha, but still readable. Some of the fabrics are as old as my quilting career, and others are recent purchases. Some cottons were garment leftovers.
Now here's the thing...I have finished teaching my weekly class and so this is not made for that purpose.
I have decided that it is just time for me to make quilts for no specific reason, other than to entertain and challenge myself. I don't have to be innovative, or make an exhibition work, or a quilt for sale, or commissioned piece, or anything. This is such a different mindset and at last I can just relax and enjoy the process, stress free. Hurray!

 Never made those cross blocks before, but they were easy peezy and the blue and yellow ones are just HSTs with strips inserted. 

And the blue/red dots border with flying geese is so new to me, and I will definitely use that motif again. Woowoo!