Rapunzel

Over the last year, I have made quilts for the oldest and youngest daughters of good friends of ours.  It seemed like the middle daughter needed a quilt too.  It's hard enough being the middle child, without not getting a quilt.  Once I heard that Rapunzel was her favorite princess, I knew just what to do.  I got my hands on some Heather Ross Rapunzel fabric.  It came all the way from New Zealand and I might have gotten a bit extra to justify the postage.  This is the sort of fabric that must be fussy cut, so perfect time to throw together some improv log cabins.  I also wanted to use some Castle Peeps that I had been holding on to for a while.  The Castle Peeps is so saturated in contrast to the muted colors of Heather Ross, but I knew I could make it work.  

 The yard long cut of castle peeps towers determined the dimensions.   It ended up about 50 inches square.  I pulled bright pinks and yellows to coordinate with the tower print.   The puce people print, in the corner blocks, doesn't play that nicely with everything else, but thematically it was too perfect not to use, so I did.  Sometimes a fabric just needs to be used and especially for a quilt for a child, who will enjoy the images more than she will notice the not quite perfect color coordination, I just went with it.

 Once I had everything laid out it felt like the border needed some separation from the center blocks and the teal in the towers seemed to come from nowhere, so I pulled the dot print with teal, pink and yellow to frame out the components and bring in a bit more teal.  The binding is a pink, yellow and orange stripe that just seemed perfect.

 The back is chunks of pink and white florals with an off center improv piece that used up almost all the   scraps from the front.  Love it when a plan come together.  I cut a piece fo the main backing the length needed, then slice it off center and piece in the second background fabric and the improv section.  Works every time, with minimal waste.

I just love improv piecing, but it feel like cheating, it's too easy.  I'm so pleased with the color combinations that I might not send this off right away so I can use it as an example at a fabric selection talk I'm giving to the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild in July.