No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee 2 – Round Three

Oh David Barnhouse! What a quilt you started. A quilt I found so dreadfully boring. That’s right, I said it, the big, bad B-word. All that grey Essex linen surrounding little blips of improvised colour … inspiring, well, *cough* ahem. When I saw your centre block for the first time I immediately struggled with thoughts of, “What am I going to do with that?” To make matters worse, as it progressed through the normally colourful hands of Christopher Thompson, Giucy Giuce and John Q. Adams it just seemed to become more … grey.

Now let me say that I love my NGAQB2 brethren. I do! I really do! That’s why I feel I can speak truthfully about your quilt and their contributions. Otherwise, I’d just be all like, “Oh, that’s nice.” You know that’s not me. Instead I have to tell you how I really felt about it and, honestly, that’s the greatest form of flattery from me. So grey, yeah, I understand that is sort of some people’s style; muted sophistication, or whatever. Mr. Sparkles even warned me not to ruin it with my typical flamboyance. But I needed me some drama, and this quit was begging for some Molli Sparkles flair! Grey is blasé!

Can you not see how those fledgling pieces of orange Carolyn Friedlander in the centre were crying out to be a part of something bigger and better in their quilt life and destiny? My heart ached for them! That’s why I had to make them the hero of this quilt. Linen, blue, nah–that’s your dad’s quilt. This, David Barnhouse, is the quilt you deserve and need to be! So I let that grey bleed out into flames of orange, coral, tangerine, and pumpkin. I wanted to keep my border structural but also referencing all of the triangular, improvisational piecing that came before it. That’s why I chose a Delectable Mountains block (tutorial here!) structure as it has plenty of pointy peaks and valleys, but also creates a uniformity around the quilt that was lacking before. Loud, proud, and god-damned well dressed!

So mister, I hope you like it and the new vibe-ing direction I took your quilt. If it’s not your favourite flavour of frozen margarita (how you could even pick one I’m not sure!) I’ll happily keep it and finish it off for myself. I am seeing more navy, midnights and black curves surrounding those flames. However, much like the light-blue Doe extends into my grey border in several areas as an element of transition, I’d hope that the orange could do that with the next border. That’s up to Nicholas Ball though, as I’m sure he’ll want to improv the hell out of it again. I’ll leave you with a quote from John Q. Adams, as it seems to sum up the whole experience, “The international leg of the NGAQB2 is where all the drama happens!” Only if I have something to sew about it, and you know I always will!

To be fair, all that grey really allows my piecing to sparkle, so kudos to those who came before me. Also, no hate mail for the sake of my NGAQB2 fellows. They know I’m writing about them, and it is all said out of love, and the utmost respect for their talents. A wink, nudge, poke and a cheeky grin!