Old Tobacco Road "flimsie" & African fabrics

Tada, it is ready for quilting, & even with all those little pieces & biases it is very square & flat. I was so pleased when I measured for the borders that there was less than half an inch difference any which way!
I sewed on the small framing border & it looked unfinished, on further inspection I realised that I had failed to check Bonnie's border suggestions after completing the FG so I missed the first framing border- oh well it's unique! I went digging in my autumn toned stash & came up with only this one piece that was really large enough for 5" borders. It is a bit lighter in tone than I would have liked & it has quite a bit of green but I am working from stash so there is some compromise necessary - I am hoping too that I will have something in my backing stash to go with it. Otherwise I will need to shop the 50% off shelves at a couple of my Phx. quilt shops!
The flimsie measures about 80 x 102, is that big enough f0r a QS bed? I can never remember all the mattress dimensions but I think QS is 60 x 80 so it would just barely do for a normal mattress, one without a fat pillow top. I should have thought about that & made the outside borders 6" or more, but it's hindsight now. This quilt is too large for a QOV & so it will remain with me until the right person comes along. With that in mind I would like to make it to fit a QS bed & I might just make a wide binding that would add another couple of inches, I have enough fabric for that. At this point I have no idea how I will quilt it, some kind of all-over design maybe a leafy thing. It feels great to have it done to this point-I am less uncomfortable with UFO tops than those in pieces still though this does add another quilting project to the expanding list of tops awaiting their turn on the LA. I am expecting several tops in the mail from out of state & I have quite a few already lined up so I will be a busy LA'er once I get to Phx.

I discovered a "forgotten" stash of African theme fabrics, I am guessing upwards of 20 yards & I would love to use it up, anyone have ideas for it? I bought most of them [on sale no doubt] but just when & where I am not sure. I suspect I acquired them the summer of 2006 right before our son died when everything fell through a hole in my brain - these fabrics have been "aging" ever since in a bottom drawer downstairs in the CO. house.
The first collection I think I bought when the Montrose QS was closing, the second Kris brought back from Rwanda & I have a vague memory of purchasing the two motifs at MQS. The plan was to make quilts to raise money for our sister church in Taba, Rwanda so it would be really good if I could get to work on that this winter- I would love to have those fabrics out of my stash, they were purchased with a specific agenda & it's time I followed up.



I designed & made this African quilt & pillow for my friend Kris who makes almost annual ministry visits to Africa & to date this has been my only attempt at showcasing African style fabrics.

Last Friday we turned in our election ballots at the city hall in Ouray. Filling out the ballots was quite a chore there are so many props here in CO. this year & as I was chatting with my friend S we decided that the nefarious plan is to make it so confusing we will simply give up & pass on any decision at all! DH & I both studied all the info. on each prop but I think we were more confused after reading the "facts" than before! Then when we were actually filling in the ballots each of us had to go back & re-read every prop over again to try to figure out what we had decided! Whew, glad that is done & boy I can hardly wait till this time next week when all the political ads will go away!
They will won't they, please tell me they will!
I know that everyone is sick & tired of it so we can all at least say hurrah for Nov.4th, even though some of us will inevitably be disappointed in the end result at least we should be spared any more of those annoying ads.
Last night as I was blogging around I discovered a few new blogs, new to me anyway, & what a diversity there is of people who make quilts-some work in construction, some drive the big rigs, some ride around mostly in campers of various styles, some love cats, others raise goats & so on, it is quite fascinating the variety of talents, occupations & interests in the quilting world!