New books, new project.

Among many wonderful gifts that I received for my birthday this year were these two books: "Memorabilia Quilts" from my sister-in-law, and "130 MiniQuilt Blocks" from my clairvoyant friend Sharon. I say clairvoyant, because she seems to read my mind when it comes to finding books for me that I have been eyeing off in bookstores or on the internet! My MIL is in an aged care facility called "Iris Grange", so when I saw this tea towel in a shop about a year ago, I had to buy it! I knew straight away what I wanted to do with it - make a lap quilt or wall hanging using the teatowel as a centrepiece. I'd found a pattern in a magazine for a totebag with an Iris in the middle, and a log cabin design around it, and I cut it out in anticipation of the time when I'd buy the fabrics to start. Of course the tote bag in the pattern was nowhere near the same size, so I had to redesign the whole thing to suit my teatowel. It was a steep learning curve, and I learnt a lot in the process, going over and over my calculations, but I'm pretty sure that I've got it right now. Last week when I went to the Quilt Convention, at the top of my shopping list was 'fabrics to match Iris teatowel'. Here's what I bought:
So in the next week or so, I shall be ironing all the fabrics, cutting VERY carefully, and pinning it all together to see how it looks. Wish me luck!