Cathy's Southwest Finished!

Cathy's Southwest

For friend and co-worker Cathy C.

59" square

New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail quilt blocks

Original design

Completed 12/12/2011

Above: Cathy's shirt that inspired the quilt

Last night I finished Cathy's Southwest quilt for friend and co-worker Cathy C. The quilt was inspired by a Southwest-themed shirt that Cathy wore many years ago (I'm guessing 5-6 years). I told her back then that it would make a great quilt. A couple of years ago I began working on the quilt during one of my quilting retreats by the sea. Then I set aside until my most recent retreat during early November. I usually work start-to-finish, but this was one of my few UFOs (UnFinished Objects).

I chose Southwest-themed blocks for the quilt: New Mexico and Santa Fe Trail, and added a lot of Diamond in the Square units to fill some of the empty spaces.

Purple fabric - last width-of-fabric piece

Only 1/4" - 1" wide!

Near the end of the quilt, I became nervous that I would run out of the purple fabric. All of the fabrics dated back to 2009 or earlier, and I figured I wouldn't be able to find the exact color. I did a lot of calculating, careful cutting and holding of my breath. After the final width-of-fabric cut, there was a WOF sliver - a mere 1/4" - 1" wide. Talk about cutting (literally) it close!

I want to show the quilt at Saturday's Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild meeting. So I'm going to wait until next week to give the quilt to Cathy, who has known about the quilt along, but who I hope has no idea that the quilt is for her. She is my Facebook friend, and I even blocked her temporarily so she couldn't see what I was doing as I posted my progress. I'm hoping she'll be surprised.

Design notes