Kay & Wayne's Paprika Wall Hanging 2009

Over the years I have made quilts for people to realize that often they are the quilts I wanted to make and not necessarily in the design or colors that the people wanted to receive. Although I don't always have a destination in mind when I make a quilt, I have come to realize that if I am making a quilt for someone specific I am better off if I have their input.  When I consider the money in fabric and time in assembly plus quilting, it would be nice if the recipient liked the quilt from the beginning.  (My son once described the fabric I intended to use in a king sized quilt for him as a "migraine in fabric".  I did change the fabric with his input before he knew my intentions.)

I have decided that going to the lake with Steve's family gets me into trouble.  There is a quilt shop relatively close by that has a way of parting me from my money.  I had never made a quilt for my sister-in-law of 35+ years and decided it was time.  So I asked Kay to pick out some base fabric with a design that pulled in 3 or more colors and select some quilt patterns she found appealing so I would have an idea of what she would like for a quilt. 

Kay found a great fabric that really pulled in the paprika color that she was using in her home.  The dark reds and greens played well with a gold/beige background colors.  We found a pattern called Savannah Star by Mary K Ryan designs that was well setup to showcase a 2 color quilt on a neutral background.

I have come to enjoy putting unexpected backs on my quilts and had seen this back in Scraps and Shirttails by Bonnie Hunter.  Although she did not have the pattern in the book her photo of the back was enough for me to play with and come up with my version of the design.

This photo is out of focus and doesn't do justice to the back.  Each of the triangles is an 8 inch half square triangle.  Since the star block is 4 by 4, the star block ends up at 32 inches - making the 4 block center 64 by 64.  I just needed to add more of the theme fabric for the border to finish off the back. 

I really like using leftover blocks or block parts plus unused fabric from the front to make my back.  As long as I am not trying to hand quilt the final project (and can keep my seams reasonably straight) I think the interesting back complements the front.