Circus Quilt - A finished quilt

 I know this is not the best quilt I've ever made.  There are a few glitches; some of the points are off, some of my quilting isn't straight and some of the small squares would have been nicer if I'd fussy cut them.  And yet, despite all its shortcomings, I'm pleased with this quilt.

This has been an improvised quilt because I did very little planning and drawing and only bought the solids late on Saturday afternoon.  I'm pleased that in a short period of time I managed to make something that looks like something that was long prepared and mulled over.

The backing I bought only on Tuesday.  I had intended to buy some monkey fabric but the lady at my local patchwork shop picked out the large spots and these were a no-brainer.  The boldness of the dots with a white background works really well against the boldness and deep saturation on the front of the quit.  The backing is Michael Miller # CX-5291 Diddly Dot (what a lovely name!) and I'm going to purchase some more soon because I think it is such a dependable and worthwhile fabric for both the front and back of quilts.  I can envisage using it again shortly.

I love variegated thread for quilting and I also love a coincidence.  This quilt is destined for Australia so the thread by YLI called Great Barrier Reef by Luana Rubin is a perfect match.  Obviously, I doubt the quilt will be used in any scuba diving but the Australia theme was enough for me to put an extra smile on my face during the quilting.

I've learned a two key things along the way here.  Firstly, good solids can make a great contribution when you have only a small number of novelty or picture fabrics.  Secondly, scrappy binding is a fun way to use up fabric which can also make the quilt a touch more interesting.  I will definitely be doing this again in the future.