Tuesday 2 October 2007

Once upon a time...

Many, many years ago, (3 or 4!) a friend and I did a course on hand piecing. We both wanted to learn to quilt, and our local fabric shop was doing this course. For 6 weeks we would go along and they would teach us a new block and then , at the end of the 6 weeks we had another 6 weeks to finish off our blocks or do extra if we wish. The plan was to then return for what was called a finishing class - a class that would show us how to put it all together into a completed project. About 4 weeks into the course, I had made about 4 or 5 blocks which were in a box of all my quilting stuff. This box was in the boot of my car. In order to get my pram into the boot, I had to take the box out. Doing this one day at the local shopping centre, I forgot to put it back in. The box and all the stuff (blocks, fabric, scissors, rotary cutter etc!) was gone never to be found again. Not to be deterred, I started again, redid the blocks and continued with the new ones. (Remember this was all hand pieced, not machined) Anyway, get to the end of the 6 weeks and we have 6 weeks to continue making as many blocks as we want before our finishing class. I decided on 12. 2 weeks before our finishing class, the shop burnt down. It never reopened. So, for years I have had these completed blocks and no idea how to put them together.
Fast forward to this year and having received only one mothers day present in the last 5 years, I took matters into my own hands and booked myself in for another quilting course. This time it was machine piecing and the shop didn't burn down! So now I knew how to finish my other quilt.
A group of online quilting friends from a website called Essential Baby, decided to set ourselves a challenge of finishing a project we had been working on for awhile by the end of the year. I nominated my hand pieced blocks. So, today I spent the working on it and this is the result!



Two of the blocks in this quilt are a the Grandmother's Garden which I quite enjoyed doing,

and a log cabin, which I am telling you is a bitch to do by hand!



So given the history of this quilt, I was trying to think of a name for it and can't come up with anything catchy. Any suggestions?

5 comments:

Emma said...

Burning desire (to get it finished?) I was thinking along the burnt shop lines, but I'm sure you acn think of something not so daggy!

Leah said...

Bright beginnings? - it looks great! My first quilt was hand pieced too - makes for a very portable project :)

Unknown said...

Not daggy Emma, definite possibilities. Quite like Bright Beginnings too. Hmmm....

Helen said...

Wow Kylie! All those obstacles in your way and you still finished this quilt top! It looks amazing, well done for getting there! I can't believe someone didn't hand the box in that they found in the car park.... it couldn't have been a quilter who found it as they would have handed it it in. :) No suggestions for names from me though, I'm hopeless at that, but I like both Emma and Leah's suggestions. :)

Helen said...

Tagged you Kylie! Details in blog...