Meet Miss Polly....

...Actually, it's more like Miss Poly....Poly short for Polyester!
I saw these fabrics at our local 'super-sized' fabric/craft/habby store and fell in love with the designs and colours. Clare and I dubbed them the 'Cath Kidston knock-offs' and we both thought that we'd like to work with them. We agreed to go halves in some 1/2 metres to give ourselves a set of fat quarters.I was in the neighbourhood of the newest superstore during the recent school holidays and whizzed in to pick up a bunch. I was more concerned with grabbing a big enough bundle of rolled fabrics and lining up to be served quickly and dashing out again in the amount of time I had available.
That afternoon my Spotlight catalogue arrived in the mail and after a bit of speed reading to determine what bits I was keeping and what was going straight into the bin, I turned a page to find that what I'd just purchased was a 'poly-cotton'. O.M.G! I had committed a fabric purchase sin. I have a cupboard full of beautiful cottons and I've purchased poly-cotton and didn't even notice it beyond thinking it was a bit stiff....which I assumed was sizing and this would wash out.
I cut the fabrics up and confessed my blunder to Clare. She didn't mind. And, truth be told, I was torn. I hated the fact that these fabrics were synthetic....but I still loved the prints and colours.
We both decided to soldier on and each added some cotton sateen's to the mix.I cut my bunch up into 5" squares and set them on point to create a lap sized quilt for my mum.
After a bit of calculation I worked out how big to make the triangles to set into the corners. These are in white cotton....now we have a mixed marriage!Cutting and piecing was easy...in fact, I think the stiffness helped to keep things straight. But I did notice my needle blunted very quickly.
I've stippled the quilt and whilst I was very concerned about slippage....it's quilted quite well both front and back.The binding is scrappy and uses pretty much the last of the 'knock-off' poly's.....I didn't want them hanging around!
Having said all that, and even with this total fabric dilemma I'm suffering, I think it's probably a good thing to have fabric that's a little more robust for a lap quilt that will endure everyday use by an older person. Time will tell....at least it's pretty to look at!