Mocha Leftovers

I'm sure everyone is familiar with this wonderful book by my friend Kim Brackett. I'm a little afraid to say this, but I must admit I was not a fan of the whole jelly roll thing when it started. Mainly because I don't like someone else making my fabric choices for me. I like to pick my own fabric for a quilt. I want my quilts to look like me. The beauty of this book is that you can cut your own stash into strips or you can use a jelly roll. This is my quilt - Mocha Swirl. It was great fun to make, and almost every piece was pulled from my stash or Kim's stash. I did have to buy some darks as I didn't have enough variety.

Here's the quilt out on my front porch the other day. I'm not the best photographer, but I guess it doesn't look too bad.

The colors really are rich and warm. I knew what fabric would be used for the border, and so I worked from the outside in, pulling the color for the blocks from that focal fabric.

This is another favorite from the book. And since I had so many strips left over, I decided to make this one. Actually, Kitchen Sink uses the exact same unit as Mocha Swirl, so it was a natural fit for all my extra units.

I call this quilt Mocha Remix. No additional fabrics were purchased except for a few more darks. I seemed to run short on fabrics that were either a deep brown or black. All the lights are the same.

One thing I realized early in my quilting journey, is that I have a hard time following directions. I almost never make the quilt exactly as it is in the pattern.

So, if you'll notice the border, I did not use any setting triangles or a border like in the original quilt. I figured the scrappier the better. I just made some double dark units and continued around the quilt. That's probably why I kept running out of the dark browns. The only problem was that these units have a bias edge.

So the very last row is cut on the straight of grain, with a diagonal seam to join the random pieces.
This quilt went to live with my sister, it was her Christmas present last year. She let me borrow it back to use in this post.

Then there's the problem of what to do with all the little corners from all the points. So I made little triangles. These are the extras still on a design board.

Here's a close up - aren't these just the best colors?? I still love them.

Here's what I have so far. The border fabric is actually the backing of Mocha Swirl. It's not quilted yet. I think it's going in a guest bathroom we've just finished renovating.

I'll share when I get it finished and hung.

I hate to even tell you I still have more strips left. I do have one more idea for the rest of the little triangles. Not sure if it will look good. I'll let you know.

Until next time,

Karen