Take 5 quilt

Today I went to my LQS (local quilt shop) with the intent of taking a look-see at this month’s trunk show, and to find the quilt pattern Take 5. I’d been browsing online photos of Take 5 quilts which various quilters had made. It looked like the kind of pattern I was in search of; I have a set of fabrics which need a pattern which allows at least one fabric to have large squares. The impact of this print is lost if it is cut into pieces too small. Also, the Take 5 pattern appealed to me, because while it needed fabrics which coordinate reasonably well together, it does not require that some be light, or dark, or medium. Further, the pattern seemed to be able to yield quilts of varying sizes. So, I went to find it.

Well, you know the rest of the story. Almost two hours later, I came out with, amongst other goodies, not only the Take 5 pattern, but with enough fabric to do a quilt in that pattern. Yes, I DID mention earlier in this blog entry that I already had a nice collection of fabrics for this quilt! But I saw the most FABULOUS fabric that I could simply not pass up.

It all started with a gorgeous Alexander Henry fabric in the 2008 Sew Now! Sew Wow! collection–the beauty on the left (below). It had a somewhat retro flavor to me, so I chose similar complimentary fabrics. The yellow, red, and green prints are Wee Play by American Jane Patterns, Sandy Klop for Moda. The black fabric is Mod by Metro for P&B Textiles. The turquoise fabric, which will be for the inner border, is Splish Splash Scales by Moda.

Herein lies the dilemma–hence the title for this blog entry. If this is going to be a true, authentic Take 5 quilt, then I should only be using 5 fabrics. The quilt shop ladies and I inadvertently chose a sixth fabric. Oops. While I want to remain true to the pattern, I love the way the aqua (turquoise?) sets off the fabrics. Oh well. Take 6 it is. Besides, I don’t have enough of any of the other fabrics to use them for an inner border, anyway. The luscious Alexander Henry fabric? THAT will be the outer border, thank you very much.

Ah, yes. About those other goodies. I also picked up some back copies of what is becoming my favorite quilting magazine, as well as the Turning Twenty and Yellow Brick Road quilt patterns. And if that weren’t bad enough, I found out that there will be a Yellow Brick Road class in a couple of weeks! Oh, to have the time off to do that! By the way, the trunk show was great. This month’s show was given by one of the ladies who works at the shop. My, but she’s been a busy beaver; she showed some absolutely lovely things, including a Bloomin’ Nine Patch. Whew; it made my tired just looking at all of the work that she’d put into it.

So, not long after I arrived home, I started cutting the fabrics into squares using the Stack and Whack method. This method is exactly as it sounds; I carefully stacked the five fabrics that I will be using for the squares, and cut them into the required pieces. VERY simple.