Quite a while ago I started a project. Honestly I started quite a few projects, but there is one project in particular I would like to finish but I can’t. I ran out of the fabric. I probably only need a fat quarter or 1/2 yard to finish the blocks I need for this quilt, but I have been looking for a few years and I’m beginning to lose hope of finding it. Periodically I google for it or search online quilt shops in the hope that I will find someone who is clearing out their back room and they had a bit more on the bolt. So far no luck and to me it is pretty sad.
Here is a picture of the quilt I am trying to finish.
Pretty cool isn’t it? The centers of the blocks are from a woven panel I had picked up at at quilt show and held back for a while. The panel is Japanese in origin and there is a folk tale about the rabbit. You can find more about that here. I really love the Asian fabrics and when I came across this panel I had to have it. I did walk away and come back to it and thankfully it was still there. Whew! Of course it sat for a while waiting for inspiration to strike when I came across one of Inez’s books about two block quilts. Actually it is called Pairing Up and you can find it for a really reasonable price here.
I very carefully cut out the rabbits and the 4 Japanese word squares. Then I was fortunate to be talking about them and Blanche knew of someone who could translate them for me because I had a hard time trying to google them. Turns out they are the 4 seasons so I thought they would be perfect in the four corners of the quilt. However, while making some serious progress on the blocks, the unthinkable happened. I ran out of one of my fabrics. Everything came to a screeching halt and has until this day. To give you perspective, I was getting all of this progress done at a retreat in 2008. To this day I have not found a match to this fabric and while preparing for our latest retreat I had pulled the project out and then was brutally reminded that I could not do any further work on it. I probably only need a fat quarter or a half yard to complete the blocks (a half yard is being very generous).
I know you are wondering what fabric is it? I might have that in my stash somewhere. Well, here it is and I hope you do have it in your stash and that you would be willing to sell it to me. I believe that it is a Hoffman, but I can’t even find the selvedge anymore to know for sure.
I found another website called Find My Fabric and thought I would give it a try. You can even upload pictures to help you search. I unfortunately did not have any luck with my search and I have been hoping for a reprint of the pattern but so far no luck for me. I did find some cool patterns though and some other gorgeous fabric, but I refrained since I really need to find this so I can get this project complete.
I was doing pretty good for a while about getting some of my ufo’s finished and I would love to be able to get back to that. I would love to be able to finish up this project as it should be fairly quick to finish once I get the blocks pressed and get my bearings.
So, if you happen to be going through our stash and see this fabric and you have no plans to use it, leave me a comment and I would be happy to take it off your hands.
Don’t worry, I’ll be getting to the most recent retreat shenanigans soon. This was a project that I was going to take to retreat with me, but instead I sat in my comfy chair, fondled the blocks, and lamented that I still couldn’t finish it. I was hoping that I had enough scrap to piece together to make it work, but that just didn’t seem to be in the cards either.