At some point during the last few months, I decided I needed a wider variety of green fabrics in this quilt. Unfortunately, I like unpopular colors and designs (dark olive green in reproduction prints, for example), and I only need small amounts of each one. My normal avenues for scraps of unpopular fabrics (estate/garage sales, community sales, the free table at quilt guild meetings) were not available during a pandemic. If I wanted more fabric, I was going to have to shop online.

I’ve never been a fan of shopping for fabric online – you can’t feel the fabric quality, you can’t get a good sense of the true color, and it’s really difficult to get small amounts of a wide variety of fabrics … even if you’re looking for popular fabrics. Olive green is not popular. After a bunch of surfing online, I turned to my quilt guild, putting out a request for online shop recommendations where you could get reproduction prints in small amounts in a single color.

The response was overwhelming. I did get a recommendation for the Two Thimbles Quilt Shop about 70 miles away that sells reproduction prints online – I sent them a photograph of some of my other dark greens to give them an idea of what I was looking for, and they mailed me 8 fat quarters that they thought might work for me (I’m planning to use at least 5 of them in this project). The shipping was pretty steep, but it was worth it to not have to go into the store during a pandemic. I’ll definitely make the drive up there to shop in person once it’s safe.

What was even more touching to me is that my fellow guild members went digging through their fabric stashes, sending me everything from small scraps to entire fat quarters of green fabric. For a few weeks after making my request, I would receive bits of fabric in the mail, people would drop if off on my doorstep or make arrangements for me to pick it up on their doorstep … I am so blessed.

Here is a photo of my embarrassment of riches (the fat quarters from Two Thimbles are at the top left):

This block is my first one using my new green fabrics. I chose a medium green with square spirals generously donated by my friend Kathleen. I had a limited amount, so I tried to be extra careful with my cutting, so as not to make any mistakes.

One word of caution: it turns out those diamonds in the corners aren’t symmetrical – the pointier end goes towards the center of the block. I marked a dot on the back of each one on the end that goes towards the center, to help me keep it oriented correctly.

While the block looks pretty complicated, it’s basically just a nine-patch block with eight very oddly-shaped patches and one ordinary square patch:

Once I got over the fact that the points of the diamonds weren’t supposed to match up with the points of the green trapezoids, it went very smoothly. I even began to appreciate that those points didn’t line up, because it meant the bulk of the seam allowances were not all concentrated on any single part of the seam.

I sewed the patches into wavy rows of three, and then sewed those wavy rows together:

I’m so pleased with how this block came together, and am inspired and excited to use more of my new green fabrics in future blocks.

Writing this post a couple of months after my online shopping request, I’m still getting a little teary-eyed at the kindness of my fellow guild members. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I joined this (my first) quilt guild 17 years ago, but I’m so blessed to be a part of this community.

So now I’d like to share my wonderful guild with you. Quilters Anonymous is having our virtual quilt show next month (it runs March 12 – May 1, 2021). I don’t have anything entered in the show because I quilt at glacial speed, but many of my fabulously talented fellow members do, and I sure hope you will make time to attend virtually and appreciate their art. You can view over 400 quilts, wearable art and masks (including 35 gorgeous antique quilts!) starting March 12th at qavqs.org. Details are below.