Sunday, December 11, 2011

Fabulous Fabric - Finally

The long awaited parcel from the US arrived this week. Seldom have I been so pleased to receive a text message from my daughter while at work! It was the cause of much celebration and swept me into almost immediate activity. Luckily for me I had the next day off so I spent most of it in the sewing room.

First up I had to finish off the Frida Khalo blocks. Having made 20 I decided that it really did need to be a bit longer so another 5 were made. For a change I had the perfect amount of fabric to cut the feature blocks - it could not have been a single block larger. It was clearly my time for something to go my way.
Having completed that and taken a quick photo, they have now all been taken off the wall and will now wait until sometime in the new year. They still all need to have borders put onto them I think. Time will tell.

By way of comparison, one of my friends has used the same block for a quilt for her granddaughter. Marilyn's version is just about as different from mine as you can imagine - pale and soft with the most wonderful dogs and cats featuring in the blocks. It's hard to imagine it not being adored.

So with Frida tidied away I turned back to the medallion quilt and am delighted to have the top finished without too many further incidents. I did have a heart stopping moment when I thought I had cut the precious border fabric too short but I'm pleased to report it fitted perfectly, once I had removed an errant extra row of checkerboard which had somehow found its way onto one side. How I managed that I will never know - but as I said this quilt has certainly presented me with some challenges.

And I know they are far from over yet - I have one month to get this quilted before the big birthday. It's only 85 inches or 2.2meters square and there's only the small matter of Christmas and a beach holiday standing in between me and its completion....

Oh yes - ever quilt certainly has its challenges!

3 comments:

Jacky said...

You certainly do push the boundaries Philippa...four weeks to quilt that beautiful (large) quilt by hand!!!! I dont know how you do it.
Looooove the Frida Khalo quilt. Those colours look amazing and I love how different the two quilts look (yours and your friends). Amazing how you both use the same pattern and they look so completely different. Both very special quilts (do love that cat and dog fabric too).
Enjoy your Christmas and your beach holiday.

Jacky xox

Marilyn said...

That border fabric was worth the wait. And the Venetian Dreams block comparison is so good. We could probably make a dozen and they'd all be completely different.

Ali B said...

Its hard to believe its the same block. Both stunning quilts. Well done.

Have a great xmas.