Project-a-month resolution: March

This is a quilt I started about twelve years ago. It was meant to use up the scraps from another quilt (still unfinished, naturally) that I made out of Japanese prints in indigo and green. I didn't put a lot of thought into it, just cobbled it together. In hindsight, I could have made better use of the fabrics. Oh, well – live and learn.

The quilting is a mixture of machine and hand. I did a few lines of straight machine quilting on the cream parts, and started hand quilting the patterned strips, then lost interest. I didn't really like the combination of machine and hand quilting, and I considered unpicking the machining and re-quilting it by hand – as though that was ever going to happen! Hence its relegation to the Chest of Shame for several years.

What appeals to me about Japanese prints is the mixture of traditional designs …

… and wacky ones. Purple chillies and mixed seafood, anyone?

I still don't love the combination of machine and hand quilting, but it's there and it's staying. I've done the hand quilting in a criss-cross pattern. I bound the quilt in another Japanese print that I had hanging around; my economical side (usually thoroughly repressed) rejoices that I didn't have to spend an extra cent on this project.

It's not my greatest creative moment, but it's okay, and it's finished, and that's good enough for me.