Canasta

Loved this one!

And I was excited to finish it yesterday!

We have a big weekend ahead of visiting and watching plenty of soccer games too, so my Canasta had to be done by today.

I knew we had lots going on this weekend and I knew I wanted to finish this up, but somehow I didn't put the two together until earlier in the week. 

 So it was full speed ahead and here is the final result!

I used two charm packs from the fabric line Grace that I won in a giveaway from my friend Linda awhile back.

The Grace fabric has a Christmas look to it, but I'm not sure you'd think that when you look at it now.  

It just doesn't say Christmas to me like I thought it would.

I found some amazing fabrics that I love for the background and the sashing too.

Originally, I was planning on making the sashing the same color as the background, but once I got some of the blocks made, I just didn't like that idea so much anymore.

It seemed like it was going to be too much grey fabric with the baskets just lying on top of it. 

The grey just wasn't working for me with the tan in the center of the baskets.  Hmm...

  

Then I remembered a beige fabric I saw at my LQS.  It had postcards on it with some writing on it too, which I really like right now.

I had auditioned one of my baskets with it, but I had decided it would be too busy as a background, so I put it back.  I went with the grey text fabric that has a more subtle print, and I loved it.

Later, after making more baskets, I realized that the grey just wasn't cutting it with the tan basket centers and the beige in the postcard fabric popped back into my head.

If I used that for the sashing, it would pull in the tan, go well with the grey and add a bit of interest too.  I was just hoping it was still there!

  

When I was able to go back to my LQS, there it was! Yeah!

I had my doubts about it a bit later when I was getting ready to put it all together.

I thought I was either really going to love this combination, or I was really going to be disappointed with it.

Woo hoo!  I love it!

I'm so glad I went out of my box, a bit and changed my plan in the middle of the game.....game of Canasta that is! 

.......Sorry, couldn't resist using it!......

I put in a few close up shots of the fabric so you could see the details of the text. 

You really can't see it much from far away, which is something I really like. 

And now I have plenty fabric to use on something else. 

You know I'm happy about that!

I can't wait to see the beautiful Canasta quilts in the parade and read about them too!

 You can find the Schnibbles parade on the blogs of Sherri and Sinta very soon. I've seen a few of the quilts already and they are wonderful.

Canasta is a brand new pattern designed by Carrie Nelson.  It was fun to make one that wasn't even available in paper form, it was that new!

I wonder what Sherri, Sinta, and Carrie have in store for us next?