Not Really Mocha Trail

Sometimes the way a quilt happens is a story in itself. More than a year ago when I was out in Lancaster County at the place on 340, I saw the pattern "Mocha Trails" and bought it. This was odd in and of itself because I seldom buy individual patterns. I put it up on my bulletin board over the cutting table and pondered what fabrics to use for it. Nothing came to mind, so it hung there pleasantly and quietly.

In the autumn of '08, I had a BOM project that I'd accumulated and realized I was never going to complete. So I put up a trade offer on da blog and within literally hours, a nice person had offered to trade me a bunch of CW FQs for the set. When her fabrics arrived, I was dazzled. There were many, many terrific FQs from the "Civil War Crossings" line. I didn't think they were true, pure CW repros, but rather fabrics in the style of CW repros. I liked them. But I'd no idea what to do with them, so I put them at one end of the cutting table and let them rest until inspiration struck.

All at once it was the week before March 1 and it was my turn to send out fabrics and a block request to my on-line group. I had thought about letting my friends help me get started on my SITP (Shakespeare in the Park, Diana, a gorgeous quilt you can find by googling it!) but I didn't have everything in place. As I was standing at the cutting table working on something else, the pattern on the wall and the fabrics in the corner came together and -- viola!

While my friends worked on the blocks (I had asked them to add CW shirtings as background to the two fabrics I sent each of them), I tracked down the yardage I'd need for the alternate blocks and the borders.

The focus blocks have come home and by golly, aren't they great? Today I started on the alternate blocks.

Only trouble at present is this quilt is not a "mocha" trail. It's going to need its own name. Any ideas?