Showcase: Alex's quilt

Alex's quilt is the second quilt I ever started, and the first one I ever finished. (My first-started one still exists, and just needs the quilting finishing, and the binding attached. Must get around to that sometime.)

Alex's quilt was intended to be a 30th birthday present, but I didn't finish on time (typical!) and it was given to her shortly after her 31st birthday party.

The theme of the quilt is 'chillies', as the lass loves her hot food. She's also mentioned numerous times in the past that she has always liked triangles, and, as a child, designed many things with triangular motifs. I wanted to incorporate that into the design, too. Anyway, here's the whole quilt spread on our (superkingsize) bed: The block is a basic 'Flying Geese' block, chasing round the quilt in a simple knot-type design. I selected only fabrics with a black ground (or a solid print), and used black cotton as the base fabric, as I really wanted the hot colours to 'pop'. I was careful to incorporate enough green into the design to provide a contrast; too much red, yellow and orange would have looked 'flat' and uninteresting. I was particularly pleased to find the 'flame' fabric, as it carried the 'hot' theme wonderfully, whilst at the same time being very contemporary and having a hint of 'punk rebel grrrrl', too. The 'pepper slice' fabric was another lovely find, providing a definite variation in shape that was still consistent with the overall theme. Here's a couple of photos showing most of the fabrics used in the quilt:

I quilted it using 'chilli' designs of my own:

plus a 'flame' logo that I also designed, and which proved to be a little too complicated to work very well:

The back of the quilt uses irregular blocks of the design fabrics: And, as I said, it was supposed to be a 30th birthday quilt. Errrr, yes:

Spread on Alex and Martyn's couch: I think Alex likes it!