Mexican Fiesta Eggs

A couple of years ago I taught some classes at my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven - which were part of a collection called The Breakfast Club - all the quilts were made using 2½" strips of fabric. Most of these were made with Jelly Rolls, which are great to use as they are already cut into strips and contain a whole collection of fabric, giving a wonderful scrappy, but co-ordinated look to them. I love this pattern, and it was a perfect choice for a very special quilt that I needed to make....

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.....this quilt pattern is called "Mexican Fiesta Eggs" and this time I have made it with a Balipop, which is a bit like a Jelly Roll, and some fabrics from my stash - bali batiks, in shades of brown and grey and black.....

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.....I made this quilt using a 4x4 block layout, but I wasn't sure what to do for borders, so I sought some inspiration from the brown and black bali batiks that I had already bought.....

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.....as you can see, firstly I  added a narrow border with some brown and black batik.....

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.....then I added a second narrow border, using 2½ inch strips of this black and grey batik.....

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.....followed by a wider 6½ inch border of this beautiful brown floral batik, which I had already used in some of the blocks.....

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.....I chose a mottled black extra-wide fabric for the backing, and Janette suggested using a black wadding too. Janette picked out a beautiful bronze quilting thread for this one, which looks stunning in this design called "Fire Flower". We both thought the flower in the quilting design echos the shape of the flower petals in the batik....

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.....here you can see a close-up of one the blocks. This bronze thread blends beautifully across the quilt, and really shimmers.....

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.....I cut 1½" strips of the leftover backing fabric, which I then folded in half, to make a piped edge - this was sewn to the outer edges of the quilt. Then I cut 3½" strips of batik to make a double-fold binding, which I sewed ½" from the edge to make a deeper binding. I chose the same batik print for the binding that I had used for the border. It was machined to the front of the quilt and hand stitched to the back.....

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.....as you can see, this quilt looks absolutely fabulous.....

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.....and finally - finished with a "Foreman Flourish"?? Of course. Job done! Although this quilt looks beautiful on my bed, it is being packed away as it is a wedding present for a very very special person - can't say who she is yet, I don't want to spoil the surprise!!

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