Autumn Maples - July's One Monthly Goal Finish

I've had an ongoing love/ambivalent relationship with Autumn Maples:  I was enchanted, then uncertain, then I loved it again, and the cycle continued.  I put the last stitches in the binding of the quilt two Fridays ago.  I immediately washed and dried it.  When I pulled it out of the dryer it was love!  None of the photos do justice to the vibrancy of this quilt's colors.  They practically glow, reminding me of the sun's rays shining through the leaves on a bright autumn day.

I began this quilt in the middle of October, 2019, when fall color should have been at its height in Ohio but which, that year, hadn't made any appearance at all.  It seemed like those colors I loved weren't going to happen.  I decided to make my own brilliant fall colors.  And now, with this quilt, I can have autumn any day of the year.

The blocks finish at 9" with a layout of 8 blocks by 10 blocks.  The background colors repeat but the fabrics in the leaves are all different.

I love the texture of this quilt and the way the quilting lines flow, almost as though the wind is rustling the leaves.  It shows most on the back. You can see in the photo below that I quilted each block individually with concentric arcs beginning at the stem corner.

If I based the measurement of the finished quilt on the blocks' size, it should have finished at 73" x 90".  After quilting, binding, washing, and drying it measures at 67 3/4" x 85".  That's a lot of shrinkage!  So often quilts seem too large when I finish sewing blocks together; this reminds me why that's a good idea.  Shrinkage happens.

I used two fabrics for the back:  red in the center with the blue printed fabric as a border around the red.  I would rather have had an all blue backing but the company where I bought it didn't have enough.  It's another make do back. 

When I had this quilt on the living room floor last year just after sewing all the blocks together, a young acquaintance came to visit.  When she looked at the quilt she exclaimed, "It looks like a pile of autumn leaves!"  She sounded surprised--I couldn't tell if she was pleasantly surprised or slightly judgmental--but she was definitely right.  It does look like a pile of autumn leaves--unless you can imagine being under the trees looking up toward the sky. 

Of all the photos I have, I believe this one (and the second one above this one) captures the colors best, but even it is not completely accurate.  Maybe one of these days we'll have a bright, slightly cloudy day and I'll be able to take it outside for some photos.

Finishing this quilt was my One Monthly Goal for July.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to post this month because I've had computer problems--Windows installed an update then a few days later, it configured the computer, leaving me with photos and documents in places I couldn't find them and a mess to sort out.  (I think--hope!--the computer problems are resolved.)  And my daughter and I took a short road trip.  (Maybe more about that trip later.)    

I'm linking this post to
> One Monthly Goal July Finish Link-up at Elm Street Quilts
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie's blog
> Beauties Pageant 139 at From Bolt to Beauty
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.