Joseph's Coat

By a wing and a prayer, Joseph's Coat became a completed flimsy this afternoon.  It's my second string-along quilt top for Lori's (Humble Quilts) challenge this year, though the first one to reach the completed stage.

In my earlier posts I had toyed with the idea of adding the yellow batik fabric strips between the rail fence blocks, trying to bring the top to a useable throw size.  I loved the yellow alone, but by itself it just took over and somehow diminished the lovely bright effect of those wonderful batik rails.  Several kind readers suggested black for the alternating strips.  I loved the idea of narrow black batik strips to separate each section so added those.  But how to tame that yellow, or provide a viable substitute?

This top needed to come entirely from my scraps and stash. There is a medium tote stuffed with beautiful batiks, now mostly in strips and scraps since I've already completed two queen size quilts from that tote.  The possibilities with enough yardage were few:

Loved this orange-red batik but not exactly what I had in mind.

Nope, looks too much like a kitchen countertop.

Yes!!  Of course this was the best choice ... the smallest piece of the bunch, with about 25" by WOF.  Could it work, at least for the wide sashing strips between the rail blocks?   Measuring once, twice, three or more times, trying it with a narrow strip of the yellow batik sandwiched between two strips had a nice effect I thought.

So that became the plan.  Strips cut, pieced together, and there was 10-1/2" of that precious batik leftover.  Now the dilemma became how could I make that 10-1/2" stretch into bordering the entire quilt?  Good question, and the answer finally turned out, I couldn't.  Those narrow black strips outlining the rail sections were cut from a little over one fat quarter, and I had the remainder of the second fat quarter left.  So, that plus the 10-1/2" of the other gold/blue/green batik were carefully cut into 2-1/8" strips.  Side borders got the gold/blue/green, and top and bottom were pieced to alternate the black with the gold, and finally a finished top measuring a healthy 55 x 66 inches.

And here's what is left from that 10-1/2" of border fabric

This morning the quilt's name Joseph's Coat came to mind, partly because of the strong vertical lines and many colors, and mostly because Dolly Parton's famous "Coat of Many Colors" kept playing in my mind.  Now to find a backing fabric, something a bit more subtle perhaps?

I'll be linking up with Wendy's Peacock Party and Lori's String-along Challenge.

Til next time, happy quilting!