These two quilts were made for a special friend of mine who lives in Guernsey. I met her and her family eight years ago when they lived in Cape Town and have kept in touch (sporadically, neither of us are much good at emailing!) since then. She is very dear to me though and when she revealed she was pregnant with twins I immediately knew I wanted to make quilts for the boys. The process took a very long time though! I couldn't find the sort of fabric I wanted so I ordered from the UK. Unfortunately it got caught up at Customs and took forever to arrive. Then I started making them and made all the half square triangles before putting it aside for ages. In May I went on a wonderful weekend away with my quilting guild. There are no classes or anything it is just a chance to work on your own projects and spent time with like-minded people. I finished both quilt tops on the weekend. I didn't feel up to quilting them, so I asked my lovely neighbour, Dot, to quilt them for me.
With one thing and another they ended up living with her for longer than either of us would have liked. While waiting for them I made the labels and binding. Eventually I got them back on a Thursday evening. Then I had a race against time; my uncle was visiting from London and could take them back for me... But he left on Wednesday afternoon! That meant +-9 metres of binding plus sewing on of labels five days, in addition to work and family dinners! (We don't see him very often). In the end I didn't quite finish - there was about 40cm of binding still left to do. Luckily my aunt is also a sewer & she was able to finish it for me - what a relief! Postage in South Africa is both extremely unreliable and expensive so I really couldn't pass up the opportunity to use my uncle as a packmule!
These are now in London, finished and being posted to Guernsey next week. My aunt, uncle and cousins have been to New York for five days (lucky fishes!) and are now in Devon. When they get back from Devon & the craziness of work and school starting have calmed down my aunt will package them up and send it on for me. I am very grateful for lovely family.
The quilts are 'same, same but different'. They are both based on Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter's, Lone Star bay quilt pattern. I used two fabrics in both quilts (starts & chevrons) but two different fabrics for each quilt. One had octopi and anchors, the other had vw combis and forest animals. The background was a sweet pale grey with small hearts. I wanted to make it boyish and cute but not babyish with pastels and nursery prints. I also bound them in different bright colours just for a fun colour pop as well as backing them in different materials. My neighbour, Dot, did an amazing job with the quilting. I gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted and she came up trumps. I aspire to quilt like her. This is unlikely to happen though because a)I don't have a longarm (computerised or other) and b)I don't really enjoy quilting. Shocking, I know! I prefer piecing.
I love this photo!
Perhaps it will be a shorter time before I post again. but perhaps not... We shall see.
Nicola
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