Mint Chocolate Monkey
it's been a while since I shared a quilt, so this is this summer's project. John's cousin, Jessica, had a baby in June, and I'm only now getting around to making the quilt (Bad, SortofAunt!!!).
The predominant colors in the top are mint green and chocolate brown, and the motif is monkey. And since there are little bits of yellow in the fabrics *and* the quilt mostly reminds me of mint chocolate ice cream, the backing fabric will be banana yellow flannel. Hence, Mint Chocolate Monkey. :D
Here are the fabrics:
I wanted to make a fairly simple top, in terms of piecing, since I was so delayed in making the quilt. But I also wanted to do a feature block that had a monkey face centered. I thought about, and quickly rejected, applique. I wanted the quilt finished before Baby Colby started kindie, after all. then I thought of a bow-tie block, origami style. These are fun to do, and fast and by making all but the center fabric the same, I would get the effect I wanted.
Here's a quilt top I made with traditional bow tie blocks.
And here's a fun little website to show a fun way to make them without a lot of different sized blocks and trimming and such--it's often called the origami bow tie, but I kind of love how these folks call it the "cheater" :)
The Cheater Bow Tie Block
Anyway, what I wanted was to feature the center square in this block, so I made all the outside fabric blocks the same and my little fussy-cut monkey face took center stage!
Originally, I wasn't going to make more than 7 or eight fussy monkeys, but as you can see, the quilt top just needs more monkeys!
So I made more fussy monkeys, and took out the dots/stripes fabric. I'll be using that as a wide border on the top. and I'll use more of the brown with white polka dot fabric as the binding. Here's a picture of the top (Now, With More Monkeys!) but without the border.
