quilt as desired: Pick up Sticks

I won a bundle of fat quarters from guild awhile ago and I struggled trying to figure out what to make out of them...I finally realized that these colours were similar to the ones my friends Rick and Karen in Michigan use throughout their home. So a gift for them was in order. I liked the pattern City Tracks in Cherri House's book City Quilts....but I felt it was too busy....then I thought well I would try sashing in between but I could not find the right fabric for the sashing.

This project was put away for almost a year before I thought of the shadow idea. I had a clipping of pattern from Quilt Mania of a quilt called Aussie. It used squares of lively aboriginal art patterns with a black shadow behind it to make the block seem 3 dimensional....but I didn't like the idea of black on this quilt. In the mean time I found the perfect sashing fabric, a cream fabric with little dots and scratches in all the colours in my blocks! how perfect!...but the black that would be too dark. I had come home form BIQR with some left over solids, when it occurred to me that any solid would do for the shadow, it didn't have to be black.