Nine Patch Plaid 2.1+ (or &*%$@)

When I wrote my post on Friday night, I'd left everyone wondering about a small quilt I'd been working on that I'm calling "Nine Patch Plaid" mostly because it's starts out as a nine patch but changes dramatically into a plaid-looking quilt.   I spent Saturday morning finishing up the little quilt and then photoing it.

When I came in to the house to work on the pictures, I got sidetracked (as I am want to do) and left the camera on the sofa, where I sit comfortably to work with the laptop.

Enter grandchildren, exit camera.  Fifteen of us spent the next 24 hours searching the house for the camera.  After a bit of torture, one child admitted to having played with the camera.  One child refused to answer any questions concerning the camera and another just kept saying, "I didn't touch the camera."  The others escaped to their own houses.

Since the last known place where the camera was seen was the living room, we cleaned putting stray items in their rightful place--the trashcan.  I searched under the sofa cushions, ran my hand in its dangerous bowel region, turned it over to look under the hood, started it up and drove it around.  

All to no avail. 

To no avail, that is, until Rich turned the sofa over one more time and discovered a suspicious lump caught in the bowel regions.  We consider X-rays and MRI but those require appointments and it is Sunday.  So I did the only thing I could: inserting my head, shoulders, and both arms into the places where trash, weapons and small dogs go to hide, I fished out my camera and a piece of paper.  

As luck would have it, the paper was a ten dollar bill, which everyone claimed, but I fought them off.  After all, MY upper body took the plunge into the depths.  

So we're back in business, everyone forgiven, ugly words erased from memory.  Camera back in good graces.

Do you remember why I was looking for the camera?  Ah, yes!  I had taken pics of this little table topper.  

Short version of my process: added a wide white border, appliqued a few flowers and blue birds, quilted with close, tight seams that sweep across the quilt to create movement.  I've seen a couple of Karen McTavish's videos on youtube.com and a couple of her quilts at the Houston show.  It's rather time consuming and really eats up thread, but it's great on a table runner because all those close stitches really stiffen the quilt, smashing the batting down.

Enjoy the photo gallery, getting it here was a dangerous, difficult endeavor!