Here it is! My answer to the #UANDUQAL challenge. I combined this with the #AHIQRED challenge over at Adhoc. Improv.  blog and I think that worked very well. There's only so many projects I can work on at one time and as usual, the idea of using an Unconventional and Unexpected quilt as inspiration could not be ignored!

Approximately 58" x 72"

You can read more about this quilt top over here at my blog. Both challenges are ones that I want to think more on, maybe have a deeper play with. So many possibilities... Thanks Sujata for another interesting quilt project!

Lattice Quilt, My First Attempt at the UANDUQAL

I've finished with all the Lattice blocks now and am attempting to figure out the proper layout. You can read more about this quilt over at my blog. This particular quilt is a combined effort of trying to play with the #AHIQred' and also the UANDUQAL challenge of making an Unexpected and Unconventional inspired quilt. 

#UANDUQAL first attempt

It's not terribly obvious at this point, but I didn't try to center the lattice, just trimmed as I went. I'm hopeful that there will be a slight 'make-do' look and feel when all the blocks are finally sewn together. The book 'Unexpected and Unconventional' has been a favorite book of mine since it was first published. So much inspiration to be found within its covers! This isn't my first quilt made from that wonderful starting place and undoubtedly it will not be my last....

NOT a Mystery Begins

This is the quilt from Unconventional and Unexpected

that Sujata suggested for our quilt along.

I knew from the beginning that I would not

be making mine in the style of the original,

so I've been waiting to see which direction

my version would take.

In the meantime, I ran across this vintage beauty

photographed by Ann Champion and shared on Flickr.

And my brain immediately leaped to a quilt design

I've made twice before.

This version was named Happy Happy Joy Joy 

(or HHJJ for short) was made 

during the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And this version, named Girly Girl,

 was made shortly thereafter

to celebrate our great niece's birth.

In HHJJ, I used strings to fill in the side triangles.

In Girly Girl, I used half square triangles.

So with the design method settled,

I moved on to my waiting fabric pulls.

I had pulled these scrappy pieces

shortly after Bonnie Hunter introduced

her 2018 Good Fortune mystery quilt.

I never planned to make her mystery quilt

but I was drawn to the colors and her inspiration.

This photo was taken by our DIL in the Forbidden City 

during one of her Asian business trips.

It captures Bonnie's inspirational color palette perfectly.

(I even used this photo as my desktop wallpaper 

back when I was working at the law firm)

I also had this fabric pull set aside

for the current AHIQ Red challenge.

Once I started looking, the overlap between the two

was obvious and they quickly became one project

that suits both the UandU QAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge.

With the intensity of my colors,

it was clear the low volume prints

needed an upgrade.

This long-stashed Marblehead was my choice.

  

I pulled these four fabrics from the stash

to use for the quilt's pieced back.

Initially I was not going to add the narrow strips

along the sides of the center insert.

But when I cut one WOF strip of a well-aged red batik

and laid it alongside the first pieced center segment 

you can see the results -- Those rich red 1" strips 

simply HAD to be part of this quilt.

I'm planning a layout 5 blocks wide x 7 blocks long

for a top that will measure 50" x 70" 

8 blocks made, 27 more to go.

And when I trim the center strips to 4.5" wide,

these marvelous lengths are the cutaways.

I already have a plan to use them 

in another small quilt!

Hooray for the UandUQAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge

and for shopping my stash to create this project.

Quiltdivajulie