30 May 2013

Lily's Quilt - now with added Winnie Hair

It has had a long gestation, this quilt for Lily.  For more than a year I have been waiting for inspiration to strike.


She requested red and blue and pink - not the colours I would have selected and I still don't know whether I should have listened. None of the other girls had a say in their quilts. Nevertheless I finally came up with a formulation I felt I could live with.


I do still feel that I made a mistake in the choice of the background colour. I went with Kona 'eggshell' and I think it is too creamy/yellow and should have been more like Kona 'snow'. Live and learn.

Initially I used 'eggshell' to join the squares, but that was definitely wrong.



I sampled grey, just using some ribbon to get an idea, but it didn't work either.  I was trying to balance out the pinkness but in the end I think I had to embrace it.


I think red was the right choice, though the quilt took on a different look than I had envisaged.


As I was quilting it up I kept finding hairs from our ancient old pug, Winnie  - you can spot one in this photo just coming out of the presser foot.  I had laid the quilt sandwich out on the carpet and had then been distracted, only to come back to find Winnie curled up on top.  I think I got most of them out, but if the odd hair got quilted in, well, perhaps that is a fitting tribute for the old girl, embroidered into the very fabric of our lives as she is.


I backed it in a grey and cream floral print.  I'm pretty sure it was called something like Art Deco but I now can't find it on the internet or locate the selvage.  It is very pretty and against the red binding is probably my favourite part of the quilt.


Not that there aren't lovely fabrics throughout:


There's some Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy and some Storyboek by Jay-Cyn Designs, some stash and some spots as well as at least one fabric from each of the other  girls' quilts.  I liked each block, I like the granny squares design, but overall it is a little too pink for me, even though proportionally, it is just as blue.


(I could have arranged it a little more neatly on the bed, couldn't I?)  It does add a bit of cheer on a grey day to the rather dark room Lily and Grace share, and it complements Grace's quilt quite nicely.


Anyway, it was nice to finish it finally, even if I'm not completely in love with it.  Lily is thrilled and sometimes a thing just has to get done, doesn't it.  Or am I just kidding myself?  Whatever, it is done.

2 comments:

  1. The red sashing really balances it out nicely, and the large blocks look great. It looks like a quilt that is traditional but made with fairly modern fabrics, so pretty timeless.

    I'm with you though, the backing is just lovely.

    Congratulations on another finish!

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  2. It's lovely! And you're so productive, I'm very envious.

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