Bicycle Trails

It's finally starting to feel like spring around here, even if it doesn't look like it just yet. (still soooo much brown in the background)  The weather has been absolutely glorious this weekend, and after finishing up my latest quilt, I decided to tag along with my husband and wild thing to a local park for a photo shoot while they hit a few baseballs.

As I hoped it would, this quilt has grown on me as I've worked on it.  I still wouldn't say that it is one of my favorites I've ever made, but I do like it.  I don't usually go for novelty fabrics, but I have to say that I love the bicycle print from the Bluebird Park line.  Doesn't it just make you smile?  I just love the basket and balloon details.  I can't help but think of riding my bike when I was a child, with the wind in my hair, feeling like I could go anywhere at all.

I''m really trying to use every bit of fabric I can when I make quilts to keep my scraps in check lately, and even though it takes longer to piece a backing, I really love sewing the scraps together without a plan to see what I come up with.  Somehow, when I buy one fabric for a solid quilt backing, I always end up having tons of it left over because I don't want to have more than one seam.

I thought the quilt could use a brightly colored binding, and I really like the way the teal chevron works on it.  There are so many lower volume fabrics that the bright binding frames it pretty well.

I decided to pay homage to the bicycle fabric that was the starting point for this entire quilt and name this one Bicycle Trails.  The long strips give a nice illusion of trails, or even bike tracks I think.  This quilt finished up at about 60x60 inches.