Solid Science

I'm finally up to my 4th and last swap in this little series of current swap/bee catch-ups.

This last swap is the one that I will be finished with first. It is a new flickr swap called Fab Little Quilt Swap (or FLQS from now on). This is an invitation only group and I was very honoured to be invited to join, and then, of course, I couldn't help myself from signing up to their first swap!

We are swapping doll sized quilts with secret partners. My partner seems very easy going and likes all sorts of things, so I though I would experiment with the Kona Solid charms I had left over from the Colour Picker Quilt I made for Felix last year.

Here's my (slightly rubbish) original sketch.
The idea for this design came from quite an unusual place. I was watching the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures on the TV a few months back, and a scientist was explaining all sorts of things to an audience of mainly children (I can't even remember what he was explaining now, only one thing has stuck in my head and only because it became quilt related!).
He was talking about circles and squares and said, "how can you make a square out of a circle?".
He then drew 4 circles on a white board and then rubbed a quarter out of each circle and, all of a sudden, a square appeared. And I thought "hmmm, that would make a great quilt..."

I've wanted to get down to some serious curved piecing (or Drunkard's Path as I still like to call it) practice for a while now, so after a positive reaction to the idea from the FLQS group, I got to work on the initial blocks.

I finished this first quarter a few weeks back and then got stuck in to other projects. But time is marching on, and I would like to have time to hand quilt this, so I finished the top yesterday.

And I totally love it! I also love the way inspiration can strike you at any old time from any old thing!