Folded Ribbons Quilt

This was a commissioned quilt for a friend's great-niece.

I started out with this idea from Quick Quilts magazine (actual pattern Dancing Stars from the Summer 1998 issue): a sort-of friendship star pattern, and I wanted to use some fabrics with a Japanese feel to them, but not overwhelmingly so. I found the cranes and Japanese writing fabrics in the Quilts and Other Comforts catalog, and ordered 2 yards of each, figuring that I would use them as my inspiration pieces and find some other fabrics here at Joann's.

I found a couple of fabrics that I thought would be perfect with these two. The light fabric I bought is a cream with gold flecks throughout it. There was also a mottled pink floral print that I bought and a darker purple hand-dyed fabric that I bought for the border.  When I put them together (border of course not shown yet), this is how it turned out:

 

The picture shows the first row (of 4 to complete the pattern). Because the value of the fabrics which I chose for the mediums and darks turned out to be so similar in value, you don't get the same design as the magazine's photo. This one is more of a folded ribbons, as my friend Glenda commented when she saw the picture. It's much more interesting this way.

Here is the quilt all sandwiched and ready for hand quilting. It was finished in 2001, and I hope that I can find a picture of the finished quilt around here somewhere, as the original is with its new owner, Lena Mei, whom I believe lives in Virginia now.