Lantern Frenzy ♪♫♪

I am sure you have noticed that I haven't posted in a few days.  What?!?!? You didn't miss me?  I am so hurt - cut to the bone - bleeding....Yeah, well I will get over it.  Ha ha. 

The past few days I have been working diligently steadily  like a mad man on my Japanese Lantern quilt.  So do you want to see the final quilt?  

So do I, but I haven't gotten that far yet.  What I have at this point is a stack of 15 or so blocks that measure 18 by 18 inches.  For the lanterns, (in case you have forgotten - or GASP didn't read that post) I am using all Asian fabrics.  Most of the fabrics have gold metallic overlay to make the lamps glow!  Okay, so one or two of the fabrics aren't Asian per se but they still carry the theme. 

Here are some sneak peaks. 

I am thinking that this may be the prettiest quilt I have ever made.  

All the pieces are cut with my AccuQuilt GO! cutter. This has made the process amazingly easy. 

I am thinking that I will make this quilt 4 blocks by 4 blocks which will take 16 blocks.  That will make it 72" square. I can then add borders if desired to make it larger.  I will most likely add a 3 or 4 inch border all around it. If I can find a mottled back fabric etched in gold it will be perfect for a border.  What do you think?

And so it begins - The Dance of the Japanese Lanterns

The Dance of the Japanese Lanterns - formerly known as "Dancing Accordions"  is under construction. Yaay!
One of my blogger buddies, Sewmeow, suggested "Asian fabrics etched with gold."  We emailed a couple of times and she also said something about a black "smeary" background.  ---I think "Ooooh, I like it!" so I went shopping.  I got the black and a bit of Asian fabric, more is coming later.  Tonight I cut a number of black chisels and enough of one Asian influenced fabric (oh yes etched with gold!) to make one nice lantern. This block is a big old 18" by 18" block.  WOW. 


Wanna see?  Well of course you do! (or else be nice and pretend so you don't hurt my feelings, okay?)

Now this is the same block just rotated so you can see both ways easily. I really wish the photo showed the gold on the Asian fabric. it is very pretty.  You may notice the lower left corner of the bottom picture looks dark, it was hanging off the edge of the table. Sorry!  The lanterns will be in alternating orientations in the final design.  If I have enough different fabrics, each one will be different.  This will be the sample for the pattern I am writing up. 

Are you as excited as I am??? probably not...but that is okay.  When I get the pattern finished (and the quilt finished too) I will be doing something special to celebrate.  (hint hint) So a word of encouragement along will be good.  

What do you think?  Do you like the idea?    I certainly do.  This was a fun block to make and it went super fast since I cut all the pieces with the Go! cutter and chain pieced them.