Baltimore Album Quilt with a Tropical Twist

The Beginning...It was dark and stormy the night my Dad met my Mom ...NO, not THAT beginning...The beginning of how a Baltimore Album Quilt with a Tropical Twist came to be.

It all started when I raised my hand at our local quilt guild meeting and asked the question "Who is doing next year's Opportunity Quilt?" Next thing I knew I was in charge and had a group of 15 volunteers. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Especially since I am an official card-carrying member of Quilt Fanatics (not really true) and addicted to all things applique (very true). This all happened about three weeks ago.

Since then we have already had our official kickoff meeting, and except for being 10 minutes late to my own meeting, it went extremely well! At the meeting I shared sketches of patterns I drafted (applique of course) in the style of a Baltimore Album Quilt. The theme I chose was Tropical Flowers. No one barfed so I guess they will do.


I then showed everyone the background fabric that a small group of us had chosen. This small group is also in a Baltimore Album Class at our local quilt shop, Quilt Scene in South Miami. While there we spotted the PERFECT background fabric. A light green on green cotton print. The pattern (vines, leaves, flowers) is even perfect to follow for free hand quilting if we choose to not mark the background - not too dense and not too sparse. The green is perfect too - one of those colors that any other color would look great on.


We decided that instead of making up kits, that we would let each volunteer (one to a block/border/etc.) select their own fabrics from their own stash. The only guideline is that they must use a batik or hand-dyed fabric that is pre-washed. A call has gone out to all guild members that we are looking for batiks for this project so I don't anticipate a shortage of batiks or making too much of a dent in any single person's stash. The only tough one will be "whites" for the Gardenia Wreath with Bow block. But we will be fine.

Currently, I am busy trying to finish inking, numbering, and notating the patterns so that they can be handed out to the volunteer stitchers at our next guild meeting.



I will post photos of the patterns and fabrics shortly, and as the weeks progress, post the finished blocks themselves.

Happy stitching,
Mercy
aka The Savage Quilter!
Join the applique journey http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TropicalApplique/