I finally finished the patchwork bed quilt a few days ago -
hurrah! I began work on the patchwork in about midsummer 2011 and I loved
working on it. The pattern, heart and nine-patch, is based on a beautiful Amish
quilt I found whilst Googling for inspiration. I didn't have to spend much
money on fabrics, lots of stuff I already had in my stash. Of course, the
special parts are bits with more personal meaning - a blouse donated by my mum
and a couple of fabric bits from friends. I bought the calico specifically for
this project and then invested in a king-sized piece of wadding and a
king-sized cotton flat sheet for the backing. Due to the sheer size of the
project, it was an utter nightmare to put together the 3 layers, but I
persevered and I'm absolutely thrilled with it. To give an idea of size, it's
approx 6.75ft x 7.5 ft plus borders. An uber-quilt. I am especially proud of
the fact that it is entirely hand-stitched. I had dreams of putting it through
the sewing machine in its latter stages ie. to sew the border in place and make
the finish look super-neat. However, it was simply too heavy and cumbersome. I
could have perhaps done it if I'd asked for help - but I have to be desperate
to ever ask for help with anything..... The border isn't stitched perfectly by
any means but as they say, a blind man on a galloping horse won't notice!
Here's Nutmeg giving her seal of approval to the quilt construction....
I have every intention of actually doing some quilting on
this piece of work - something basic like stitch-in-the-ditch probably, since
I've never quilted anything before. For speed's sake in this case ( it's
February, it's cold, we've had snow! ), I have simply tacked the 3 layers
together at intervals with embroidery silks. I figured that this short-cut
would enable me to get the quilt onto the bed and start earning its keep!
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