THE quilt conundrum.

when people think of quilts, the focus is always on the front of the quilt. but after putting hours and hours of work into a quilt, it seems silly to make a boring back. after all, with just a little extra design you can have a second quilt. fancy. sounds simple. but then you throw me into the equation and it becomes enormously complicated. first of all, i want to incorporate each of the fabrics that were sent by friends and family. ohh-kay, that is a lot of fabric, but with the perfect design it is going to work.

the design.

second, i need a base fabric (the large greenish sections of the design) that will be interesting enough to make a "second" quilt, but simple enough that it does not outshine all the other fabrics. oh and it has to be gender neutral, because pringle is a surprise. in other words, the perfect fabric. mmmhmm...no problem.

marimekko unikko.

luckily, mrs. nipper knapp recently succeeded in nudging me to expand my fabric horizons, beyond the local joann's fabric store, to include the internet. now i am confronted with overwhelming amounts of fabric, to say the least. i immediately fall in love with the glorious marimekko unikko fabric, which i have convinced myself, despite the flowers, is not gender specific. great! until i discover it is $43 per yard. jeepers. that is a bit much, even for my beloved baby.

back on the prowl, i  spent three hours perusing etsy, fabric.com, and purl soho. after ogling hundreds (maybe thousands) of different fabrics, i narrowed my list to nine contenders. and then the mister came home and put in his two cents and we are down to four choices. now we need your help. please please tell me your thoughts....or pick a favorite or two (keep in mind these swatches only show 4" of fabric and the quilt will be about 50" square). grazie.

roman glass pastel (kaffe fasset).

illuminating dots lime (penny lane).

paperweight lime (kaffe fasset).

stones earthy (naturella).