This quilt was made for my brother Angus, who is younger, athletic and bursting with energy. His favourite colours are blues, purples, and greens. The quilt started life as a foundation pieced travelling project, so half the blocks are hand pieced.

To my horror, when I had made about fifty blocks and laid them out I found I had made an old lady's quilt. The lighter shades I had used - pale blues and mauves - had a 'lavender and old lace' feeling to them which was not Angus - and was not really to my taste either. The whole thing went into the UFO box for a year.

I put aside blocks with greyed pale shades, and substituted lights which sang - like lime and clear pale blues. I added some glowing hot colour. I had drafted the original block as a nine patch - not knowing that a 'correct' Kaleidoscope block is drafted like an eight pointed star. This meant that in some places I could drop in other nine patch blocks and the lines would still connect. I really like the block and its possibilities and have based other quilts on it.

The title refers to 'full speed ahead' in Dragon Boat racing.