aunt bet’s mother’s day, a finish

 

aunt bet's is an eclectic, sort of improv-looking pattern that i admired for a while before i took the plunge and made it. i was actually going to use a completely different stack of fabric for this pattern, which i may still do, but then this particular stack jumped out at me as wanting to be an aunt bet's.

i started this quilt on mother's day weekend during some lovely free time gifted to me by my husband, whish is why aunt bet's and mother's day are both in the name.

i think the appeal and genius of this pattern was the simplicity and the make-do look that comes from a composition of two traditional blocks (flying geese and log cabin) plus some improv patch areas that increase the size and would eat up any additional fabric the maker had laying around. i don't know why, but it had a sort of gee's bend look or the look of something put together out of necessity but still attempting to be artistic. i think it's key to have good contrast so the patterned sections don't get lost in the riot and jumble of fabrics. i studied jolene's version to understand why her's was so much more distinct than some others i'd seen.

the backing is two large pieces of fabric from the front and a strip of scraps to join them. the pink anagram print is actually from the front, but the large black gingham is meant to echo the small black gingham on the front, but in a scale more appropriate to a backing and large piece of fabric. i like them together.

for the binding, i wanted to use a white-on-black swiss dot, but i didn't have any on hand and wanted to work from stash only, so i chose this white-on-black little cirlce and dot print instead. it's close enough.

as i've been in to pairing my quilts with books lately, i have also picked one for aunt bet's: the little red hen, a classic from my childhood. a few weeks ago i was delighted to find this in board book form and bought it to read to my grandchildren. when i did read it to them, i immediately thought of the colors in the aunt bet's quilt and knew this would be the book for aunt bet's.

now here's a confession: i veered away from the original pattern and i think i should have left well enough alone. see, the original pattern doesn't have pinwheels in it, or even a second layer of flying geese on the bottom. the second layer of geese i still like and agree with as an addition. the pinwheels, i kept thinking about removing right up until i started the handbinding on the quilt. i was literally thinking, " is it too late to just cut them off? would that be too much work to detach them and use them somewhere else?" 

the pinwheels came about because i was making all those flying geese with the stitch-and-flip method, which i prefer, and i thought all the bonus hsts created by that method would be so cute as pinwheels. and they are in deed some very cute pinwheels. i just think they sort of messed up the calm vibe of the quilt. they add all this energy and movement to the ends that doesn't need to be there. but there they are and there they'll stay. 

this is why i need to make another aunt bet's and just let if be itself next time. maybe with the fabrics i was originally going to use for this quilt.

so there you have it - aunt bet's mother's day quilt. this will be my last finish for a bit as i've left off the binding of the fall strips quilt, the last one in this batch, until probably fall. i'm working on my liberty church quilts at the moment and need to circle back to the next set of quilts that are in the quilting stage so i can get them processed through to finishes. it's been fun and oh so satisfying to get this group of quilts finished in the last few weeks. time to get the rest moving along now. 

i have a few starts in mind, but, for once, my desire to finish some longterm wips is stronger than my desire to start new things. my philosophy is "the more quilts i start, the more quilts i'll finish," and that is true. but i also feel like moving the old starts to a finish, as well, that's the urge i'm having at the moment. could change, we'll see.