As I was typing this post, I told BSP that the name of this quilt was "Make something purple."  BSP's response was "Oh, boy..."  :)

Y'see, this quilt was kind of an odd one.  Several months ago, Sonnet of the Moon and I talked about participating in Crazy Mom's Nine Patch Quilt-Along to which I said "nay" because I thought I would find a nine-patch too boring. (Having since made an HST, I can affirm that a nine patch is NOT boring.)  By the time Crazy Mom started her  second nine patch quilt-along, I was in a fallow period, and felt unmotivated to be in the sewing room. 

I was casting around for something that would pull me into the sewing room, and once there, my hope was that I would be encouraged to make other things. I decided that the result would be for use as a “car” quilt (we live in Ontario, and during Ontario winters, a blanket or two in the car are an extremely good idea.)

Since I wasn't particularly interested in making this quilt "pretty", I decided to use some fabrics I'd had kicking around for years - namely, some 100% cotton chambray handkerchiefs that I'd bought at a thrift store about a decade ago which I made the nine patches out of, scraps of purple from other projects for the centres, long-ago thrifted lilac coloured ultra-suede and purple stretch cotton, as well as some purple satin for the sashing and back from an 80’s- era project (I know, I know, satin sashing for a car quilt? But I'd discovered how often purple satin can be put into use - and the answer is - not very often. ;) ). All of these fabrics had been sitting in my stash for years, and I was happy to “get rid of” them all. I finished the top a couple of months ago, and put it aside for quilting at a later date.

This past weekend, I needed to work on something despite my eye situation, and I thought that if I pulled out this quilt and did a quick and dirty quilting job* that would give me something to post today, and it wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t do a good job, cuz it was just a "car quilt".

So, I pulled out a range of purple threads I had and quilted one poinsettia-like flower in each square, and some leaves and vines in the sashing and more of the flowers in the borders, and I did it all rather haphazardly and unthinkingly, and without even really trying as I watched movies and sang along to music.

And as I put the finishing touches on the purple crushed velvet binding (*giggle*) BSP came in and said “I really like that quilt!” and I explained the whole story behind the quilt. BSP’s reply was "When life gives you lemons..." and I finished the sentence with "...make something purple."

And perhaps that's good life advice.  Who knows?  :)

* I've been asked several times what I quilt on, so I thought I would add that I have a little Singer, who I call "The Little Sewing Machine that Could" because I just shove everything through her, and with a little coaxing she does it all.  She's a good girl, but I am saving my sheckles for Juki. 

P.S.  If you click on that last pic, you can see it bigger  - which will you show you not only my rather careless quilting (car quilt, car quilt - don't judge!); but also it's "prettyness"

E.P.S.  I've decided to do another nine-patch.  This one will be planned though, and carefully executed!