undecoratable quilts

Dear Everybody:

I am pleased to present...

ta-da!! 

My very first quilt!

It is finished, and I am so very happy with it. I am also so very happy to be done with it. 

I really liked most of the process of making it. I don't know if I am now 'a quilter' by any stretch, mostly because decent quilting materials are kind of expensive and I am kind of a miser. But I loved the project, start to finish. I loved the fabric-fondling, and tossing the ideas around, and all the goofs and gaffes in planning, and putting patches together. All in all, a great first experience. 

I can offer but few specifics on this baby. I didn't buy the fabric so I don't know about its origin, but the 'solids' came in a jelly roll and the batiks came in a pack of 20. (Thanks, Cathy!!!!!) I was determined to use the batiks as soon as possible, because I am a little bit obsessed with batiks. 

What I do know: It's a square (90ishx90ish) 9-patch patchwork quilt. The batting is bamboo...Quilter's Dream, I think? and the backing is light blue with a Chinese motif. I'll show it to you later when I make curtains from it. I started the first 9-patch squares back in September, before we even knew we were moving. With the move and the unpacking and the lack of a flat surface, it took me a while to get back into the groove. I finally finished a couple of weeks ago, in July. 

Right now it lives on our bed. It's a big quilt, but it's lightweight. Now that fall is beginning to think about rolling in, and the nights are really cool, it's almost too chilly for this, and soon I'll be changing it out for something a little heavier. 

Now, my question for you is this:

How do you coordinate bedding for something so colorful? 

(As you can see, I went with the off-white sheets and pillowcases.)

I have a kit waiting to become my next quilt. I'm taking a little break from quilting to do some knittingand some other stuff, but it's nice to have my next project lined up. And the project after THAT will be made of some fabrics that my cousin recently sent me from Japan. Because she is awesome. And I am so in love with these fabrics that I am afraid to cut into them. So I need some space between the arrival of the fabrics and the use of them. (Thanks, Jackie!!!!!!!!!)

(They might be sitting on the mantle so that I can admire them all day, every day, by the way.)

So what I want to know is this: what's the latest project you've finished that makes you ridiculously proud?