When I finished my 16 patch top I had a lot of cut two" squares left over. I was going to just put them away for another day when I came across his photo of an antique quilt that I'd saved years ago. I'd always meant to use 2 1/2" squares, but I had these 2" leftovers, all in the right colours....

 Then I remembered I'd actually bought some blue fabric intended for this top, in the form of a 70's style "Brunch coat". I loved the pattern of the fabric, but the style of the garment left a lot to be desired.

 It was full length, had cape sleeves that were completely lined,  a gathered skirt, round yoke, also lined, and lots of white daisy lace in various places. What a pity I didn't take a photo before I deconstructed it! It was cotton, and I would say hardly worn at all; although it's a bit flimsier than todays quilting fabric I thought it was quite sturdy enough for piecing.

So off I went, thinking I might get a small top finished before I ran out of setting fabric..

I called a halt at 50 pieced blocks, and 49 6 1/2" setting blocks, and I still have most of one skirt panel left over.

Thanks to the four cape sleeves and huge yokes, there was a lot more fabric than I expected here. A nice surprise, but as I want to make a pieced border as well, I don't want to make it any larger than this.

I'm planning to make the borders my leader enders for the rest of the year, while I work on finishing something else. I haven't actually chosen what to work on yet, but I'll let you know.

In the meantime, I think we're putting up the tree at Keryn's place, Christmas has really snuck up on us this year!

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 The colour in these photos is really bad, the greens are much more vibrant in real life. I've already chosen a backing fabric and cut the binding, but I doubt it will be quilted for a while yet. I like having it all organised in case I have a spare moment to throw  one of our tops on the machine, but that didn't happen much this year. I'm hoping January will be a quiet month and we can get some quilts of our own done.

I weighed the top, and according to the scales I've used 7 1/2 metres of fabric making this. I've only used a total of 73 metres all year which is pretty pathetic, but if I finished all the projects I'm currently working on the total would be more respectable. I'm doing my best, but things are only going to get busier from now on, so I might have to settle for whatever I can fit in.

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I thought I would be clever and include a little twist to my piano key border by adding a 2' by 2 1/2'  strip to the top of each 2 1/2" by 5 1/2" 'key'.  That sewed up really quickly, and I was congratulating myself on doing something a little different...when I came to a screaming halt at the corners.

I hadn't worked out what to do when the little bits met, because I'd need a 2' square to make the border turn the corner....hmmm.

I often just run the border off the side in a butt joint, but that didn't look very nice with this configuration of strips, so I had to figure out a little block in keeping with the look of the rest of the piecing.

Back to the piles of green still on the cutting table, new 2" strips cut, and I had this little filler block whipped up.

 Then off to the sewing machine to get these borders sewn on; photos of the finished top in the next post....
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