#scrappytripalong progress

My first scrappy trips quilt is all finished - quilted, bound and about to get a little soak and crinkle before use.
I couldn't be happier with the finished quilt. Trudi did a wonderful job quilting it, with a rainbow variegated thread, and I bound it with my favourite leopard print from Field Study.



The sunshine and snow is proving to make photographs a bit tricky - it looks incredibly bright here (it is pretty bright to be fair)



I've also pieced a back for the Denyse Schmidt Chicopee Trips version using some Chicopee Corduroy.



The corduroy was a joy to use - it behaves in a similar way to both the flannel and velveteen, probably somewhere between the 2. I used a generous 1/2" seam allowance to control any potential fraying (although it didn't fray much at all).
I took a little while to decide how to piece this quilt back. I don't usually plan my quilt backs, and tend to either use single prints pieced with a centre seam, or extra wide fabric. I sketched out a few ideas for this, to see how best to use the yardage I had. At first I thought I'd make something like a giant block, but I was flipping through some books on the History of Quilts and I remembered when the Quilts exhibition was on at the V&A a few years ago. There was something that I'd particularly liked about the old quilts on display. Quilts often had 2 sides, one for regular use that was simply pieced from cheaper or more abundant fabrics and one fancy side that was for decoration. I love the idea of utility quilts - after all, as 'modern' quilters, that is pretty much what we all make. They may use fancy designer fabrics and cost a pretty penny to put together, but we make them for warmth, for comfort and to show other people we love them enough to make them a quilt.

So I made a really simply pieced square (well, it's a rectangle actually) in a square type of block using my corduroy. It's a perfect juxtaposition to the small squares of the scrappy trips front, and adds an amazing texture to the quilt. I didn't pay attention to the nap of the corduroy, it would have been easy enough to do, but once it's quilted and all the texture comes from that I like the idea of having the different directions of the cord nap adding to the sensory element.



Gosh. Reading this post back it sounds terribly artsy and really quite pompous!

Put simply - I like stroking my quilts, I guess I never grew up from those cloth texture books babies have.

I'm toying with the idea of quilting this myself. But I'm not sure. I'm not brilliant at quilting, and I do think Long Arm Chris will do a far better job than me (plus I haven't been to see her for a little while).