The Inky Blocky Quilt: posting the process

I've moved ahead with the quilt I submitted for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. It's made of shot cottons from Reece Scannell and beautiful hand-printed fabric by Tegan Rose of Ink And Spindle. Tegan's hemp/cotton fabric has native Australian blue wrens on it, which are my mum's favorite birds.

I used my scraps to make a pieced panel for the quilt back. I'm fairly new to quilting, and have been using tried and tested patterns while I learn the craft. However I really love the improvised and inventive quilts mothered by necessity, like those of the Gee's Bend quilters, and also those created by techniques like Denyse Schmidt's paper bag piecing. The patchwork panels in my quilt backs are my little steps towards improvised patchwork.

For this quilt I used up almost all of the leftover scraps in the back panel, with minimal trimming. I think I like the quilt back even better than the front!