low-volume crossroads, a finish

my low-volume version of the treehouse crossroads quilt is finished!

the top is composed of blocks made with colored low-volume pieces for the backgrounds, neutral low-volumes for the "roads", and kona color of the year 2017, flamingo pink, for the centers.

the backing is made of two large pieces: a soft grey riley blake dot and robert kaufman buffalo check in bright pink, which is quite close to the flamingo pink in the centers on the front.

binding is a grey stripe, a riley blake basic.

i was really excited about this idea when it first occurred to me i could make a crossroads quilt in low-volume fabrics. coming up with all the fabric combinations and making all the blocks was quite pleasurable. but when i started putting the top together, i thought perhaps i had been too broad in my definition of low-volume. some of the prints i picked definitely had light backgrounds and plenty of white in them, but the colors were brighter, bolder, or denser than other low-volume blocks i had made. in the end, i was feeling, "meh, it's okay. i tried. better luck next time."

however, as i worked under the quilt over the course of several binding sessions and snuggled under it in between, i began to feel differently. i thoroughly enjoy this light-hearted, light-colored quilt and think the various blocks work together great. there are so many prints i love and i'm happy they're all in there.

 this quilt was once again an exercise in the very difficult task of quilitng straight lines. golly, it's hard! any little deviation or variance feels so noticeable. washing the quilt and the resulting crinkle has helped hide the flaws somewhat, but not entirely. oh, well. i don't focus on them much and forget to look at them at all the more i use the quilt. perhaps using pink thread makes them more obvious, but i do like it.

my book pairing for this quilt - milly molly mandy, the sweetest childhood stories ever told. milly molly mandy's pink striped outfits perfectly echo the pink centers of these blocks.

these books have been around for ages, but i didn't discover them until my youngest child was little. we had many enjoyable afternoons reading these stories together. although i wish i'd had them to read to the older children, i do like that they are a special memory with her.

i'm glad this was a spring finish so i could photograph the quilt with the roses blooming in our yard; our new yard, that is. or rather, the yard at what will be our new house (when it's finally renovated). there's a lot more photo potential here than in our current backyard, which was a great backyard for raising kids in, but just isn't very photogenic.

next up, i want to make a companion log cabin quilt with the flamingo pink for the hearth centers on those, too.