Diwali lights

Stephanie's new pattern Confetti  felt to me like Diwali lights twinkling in rows on a moonless night., while anticipating for the festival and making preparations in the house last week, I sat down to sew blocks for this quilt.

A bright Echino fabric in purple with mint dots looked perfect for the glowing star lights in the center of each block. I only had 2 fat quarters of this print but seemingly endless supply of scraps for the background. So to make the quilt a reasonable size, I had to divert a little from the original pattern and added a sashing of scrappy squares in between the blocks.

With chain piecing it didn't take long to prepare the blocks and put them together.

Every festival is exciting for kids but Diwali is a special time because along with new clothes to wear, they also get a packet of fire crackers to burn in the evening.. coincidentally I have a fabric with happy girls showing off their new dresses. There is also one naughty girl throwing tantrums on a pillow, may be for an extra share of Diwali sweets..  hehe. .  I added 2 1/2" wide strips of this fabric as border.

For the backing, I went through some of my long forgotten fabrics and got out a flower print that was purchased in a busy market place in Delhi, years ago. Without meaning to, a bit of Indian fragrance seeped into this baby quilt. It is 36" x 46".

I have always been in awe of Stephanie's creativity whether it is coming up with beautiful patterns reflecting a hint of old quilt traditions or making those designs come alive with playful dots and pop of brilliant colors. Now I am thrilled to hear that Stephanie's book Uncommonly Corduroy is about to come out in February.. I can barely contain my excitement for this book and fresh dose of inspiration waiting inside!

I also made progress with the 'Scrapitude' mystery quilt and completed units for the next step.. 128 big triangle patches and another 44 of the smaller triangle patches. According to the fabric suggestions, this quilt requires only medium and dark colored scraps, so I was able to put left over light scraps to good use with the Confetti  pattern. Thank you, Stephanie!

Have a happy week!  ( ' u ' )

country side

dry lands

rolling hills

gathering clouds

windswept trees

resting horses

wild flowers

showered in morning dew

Black sand beach was very peaceful with a lotus pond on one side and ocean on the opposite side. 

As we drove through Big island the terrain kept changing quickly without any caution. We didn't expect to see as many dry lands with shrubs and rolling hills of grass, as there are green forests. We also came across many kinds of tiny wildflowers that we haven't seen before.

Finally, my souvenirs from the trip. .  cotton fabrics from a Japanese shop called Dragon Mama in Hilo which had a great selection of teas and tea sets and small section of fabrics and other home goods from Japan. With so many pretty things around, I found it hard to limit my purchase to just these two cuties. ( ^ _ ^ )

Thank you for cheering me with your sweet comments! Kalyan and I are very happy to share our memories of this trip with you!