What was I thinking? Jump?

I never gave much thought to fabric designers. I knew someone had to "design" the fabric. But I made my fabric choices purely by aesthetics. I never cared who designed or manufactured the fabric. That is until I became serious about quilting. And when I discovered Marsha D'yans fabric (art).  I was hooked. I love the whimsy, motion, colors..Well everything about her fabric, all her work. I always keep an eye on Clothworks web site so I never miss a new fabric line. I've already picked out the fabric I'd like to purchase from her upcoming winter collection.

This quilt started with an irresistible piece of fabric from Marsha D'yans Forest Wonder Collection. There are cute frogs jumping around. Water is splashing and the frogs are having one heck of a good time.

I purchased this fabric when it first came out. It's been sitting in my "special fabric" bin for a while.

I knew it found a home when I picked "song" for this year's quilt challenge. I knew I would use this fabric. My first choice was the song "Singing in the Rain".  The more I looked at it I realized the only song that really fit this fabric is Jump by Van Halen.

Jump, Jump, Jump?  What could go with jump?  All of a sudden the thought jumped into my brain. Hopscotch!

Within a few minutes I had the center piece to my quilt designed. The frog would play hopscotch in the puddles in the garden. The hopscotch would be bordered by garden rows of dandelions.

Things began to go array when I made my first mistake. My center block was to be 8.5 inches. I used the wrong ruler and cut 10.5 inch squares. Add 2.5 inch border and the quilt began to grow. By the second row I realized what I had done. Any sensible person would have stopped and taken the blocks apart. Not playing the tape to the end, I thought.."wow this is big enough to actually hopscotch on, what fun that would be", so I decided to keep the larger block.

The problem? The center panel is 84" tall.

Can you imagine how huge it would be with  borders? So I decided to break any quilt rules and go wild..and make a quilt with panels.  So this is a work in progress. I'm using a little (maybe a lot) of imagination.

What we have here is frogs playing hopscotch in a water covered walkway. There are flower beds on each side. Eventually all the panels will be surrounded by some fabric that resembles more water (at least in my mind).

Center panel and outer panels

Next step is to put a 3 inch border around the entire quilt. I am out of the blue fabrics. So the search is on for the perfect fabric to finish off the quilt. I've tried several purples and a aqua. I really would like more of my raindrop fabric. But everyone seems to be out of it.  So I am hoping this unusual quilt will be fun and funky. It is certainly unlike anything I have done before.

The quilting will be the thing that brings this together. I found the pantograph drip.

http://www.longarmquiltingsupplies.com/shop/product/drip/. I am sure my long arm quilter

So the quilt has been put to bed for the weekend. I'll be searching sites for the perfect border and backing.  Till next week. Thanks for checking in. Hope you get to quilt together with someone this week.