Beauty in Taupe

I wouldn't typically consider "taupe" a beautiful shade, but in this case...

Unnamed (2012) from Brasstown Star block pattern. 60 x 76".

Sometime last year I picked up a stack of 10-inch squares from the free table at my chapter meeting. These weren't the sort of fabrics that I'm usually drawn to, but something about the collection of them drew my eye. I searched around for a block pattern that used no more than 10" in a particular fabric, then pawed through the stash to find some neutrals to pull them all together.

I filled multiple pages of graph paper with notes to figure out how to use what I had without much waste and without needing to buy more. I was especially pleased with how I worked the same block pattern into the sashing of this quilt; I tried to use the lower contrast squares in the dark sashing and the brighter higher-contrast fabrics in the light blocks. I do wish I had had a bit more of the dark batik to make a border frame, but c'est la vie...I love it anyway. With the leftover corner bits, I even made a wallhanging and a mini: a three-part series!

This top sat in the UFO bin for over a year, but after I found Elizabeth Hartman's orange-peel quilting tutorial I knew it was the perfect motif for this quilt. Quilting one quarter-circle arc at a time was tricky for the first two rows, but it got a lot easier once I could complete the circle shapes by eye.