These batiks are entirely from my stash—some of the fabrics are decades old, off cuts from previous work, scraps smaller than a sheet of paper. So far, they are individual blocks that look messy because nothing is trimmed and sewn together. The wider dark bands will not be so wide once they are joined. The lines will be straighter. The colors are close.
This could go on for days or weeks.
About half of my blocks are done—the blue-and-yellows photo shows eighteen of twenty completed so far. I might piece thirty more blocks, but twenty would work for the front.
There are two more lines of narrow pieced blocks to make. And then the dark-on-dark wider strips. I might have all the blocked pieced by next week. Since the pieces are not attached to one another, I can move blocks around. The large wide one in the lower left quarter of the photo looks too light for the wide dark bands. I might cut it down narrower or find another place for it. Perhaps both. Deciding exactly what will go where is an ongoing consideration.
Usually, I end up with more blocks than places to put them in the project they were designed for. I have a strip of pieced squares from a cherry-blossom quilt. I used leftover squares from my grandson’s quilt to make a bank for his stuffed toy. Everything finds a place eventually.
The “Rain” quilt lay on the bedroom floor for weeks while I decided about the stripes, rearranging them, shifting colors. Below, on the left, the first iteration with strips of colors for the center panel laid in place. On the right, the final choices, stitched into blocks but the blocks not yet joined. There would be a double border too, also pieced.
And then there is piecing the backing. (I am already trying to find a way to avoid that task.)
Close-up of “Rain.” Left is center panel, middle is first border, right is second border. I had to purchase only a half yard of dotted gray fabric to complete this quilt, the rest from my stash.
IMPERFECT PATIENCE 
Wow so beautiful! I am not so efficient about putting my quilts together.
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Thanks, Toni! Before I started actually cutting, while I was struggling to get a start, I thought I might make two blue quilts. That impulse died quickly, but now it’s rearing up again. I wanted to do a weaver’s log cabin with squares of blue and stripes alternating vertical and horizontal. Compared to this one, it would be logistically simple. I would love taking two tops at once to be quilted. . . . and then there are all the orange batiks—how did I get so many oranges?
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your colors and batik and way of arranging the squares resonates completely with my sensibilities. not a quilter myself but i appreciate learning about your process and forward your quilt writings to my friend who is an avid quilter!
ca
i love ‘rain’ very much. so original. and train tracks with dark bands. exciting!
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“Rain” took literally years to figure out. The background fabric in the upper part of the center panel was in my stash for twenty years or more!
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Lovely patterns. The top photo with the batik fabric reminds of me of night time drives where headlights illuminate fences that border property. I’m still debating whether I should use or sell my stash. I have fantasies of having a garage sale of only my sewing machines, accessories and stash 😉
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Thank you, Marie. (They are all batiks in these photos. Of course I also make quilts with conventional cottons.)
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