My quilt teacher of the time showed me a pattern for a fabulous Baltimore style appliqué quilt, 12 large blocks of super colourful pots of flowers ...did I fancy a marathon of a challenge.... I paused ..for about half a minute...and thought "heck YES!"
There or thereabouts I was visiting a quilt show with my mum, also a quilter, and we were admiring a display of Baltimore style quilts.
Granny: " They really do take a lot of work don't they"
Me: "Yes, doesn't look like there's many short cuts, but they are beautiful and worth it in the long run..."
Granny: " You'd need a really special occasion to make that much effort worthwhile, historically girls started sewing them so they'd be ready for their wedding night...."
Me: " mmmmm yes you would....I suppose an anniversary would be as good as a wedding......."
And so it started....the 6 year master plan ..or it might have been 7 years ago...to create a Baltimore quilt for my parents golden wedding anniversary. Well if 50 years of marriage isn't a "really special occasion" I don't know what is!
Of course, when I started I had plenty of time, and I was able to pick and choose when I did any appliqué, Some of the early ones I made came together quite easily...
Then I had a rest for a few months (or was it years?) before I attempted the next few...
Deliberately leaving the more complicated ones for last, I obviously needed a rest for a couple more years before I made those...
Then, being a golden wedding anniversary quilt it clearly needed to have some gold about the borders and the setting squares. They took quite some plotting and working out...
But even then it needed a touch more gold, so drew an outline to each flower and bought some special gold thread - shiny but not in a bling bling way....
Of course the blocks needed to be spread out on the dining room floor a few times and moved around a bit before I could decide exactly how the blocks needed to be arranged...
And it took a while to sew them together...
But once together it was much admired at the official unveiling at a meeting of the quirky quilters...
So then the actual quilting with gold thread needed to be got on with...
You wouldn't believe how many loose ends needed sewing in...
Somehow that wasn't quite enough quilting so I decided to add a grid across the gaps between the flowers, so more scrabbling around on the floor, this time armed with a ruler and a pencil...
Of course quilting all those grid lines meant more stopping and starting and the backlog of loose ends began to get overwhelming...
Do you see what I mean?
There was enough to send a quilter with a deadline into a fair old spin....
And of course once I'd quilted all the lines in one direction I had to turn it round by 90' and quilt all the others in the other direction......some times I just got fed up and dumped it for a day...
But all those lose ends weren't gonna sew themselves in (mores the pity) so every spare 20 minutes became a loose end challenge...
Note to self: don't decide on a quilting pattern with lots of stopping and starting, the loose ends drive you mad and you begin to think there's more thread in the pot than in the quilt...
Finally it was time for the binding ...one of my favourite stages of making a quilt...basically because its a lovely way to say goodbye to a project. Lots of strips of lovely fabric come together to hold it all together really neatly...
After a tricky join its just a question of 320" of patient hand finishing, 4 mitre'd corners and tucking in a special label and I'd be nearly there...
And finally it was done!
Well - the sewing bit was ...
...it needed a bit of wash to get all those pencil lines out...if only it would fit in the washing machine...
This is where I sit fretting for an hour and a half that its not all going to fall into little pieces whilst whizzing around at 40'c. It didn't.
Thankfully it was one of the hottest days of the year so it was the perfect opportunity to lie it flat on the grass to dry...
Don't panic!
It's face down on a pile of old sheets - there was no way I was going to risk the sun bleaching it or a passing bird "christen" it.
So the final stage was pinning it to the living room carpet - whilst still very slightly damp. (and also avoid the "I simply can't believe I'm watching you do this" eye rolling of 'im indoors")
Its simply the easiest way to ensure that the quilt is straight and the edges are square...
So than all that needed to happen was deliver it to Granny & Pop on their actual anniversary.
For a project that hadn't gone to plan from the start it seems rather appropriate that the final presentation didn't either.
Pop is currently recovering from a hip replacement operation in Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic hospital. which, though nice, is not a place any of us would choose to spend an anniversary, never mind a special one. So I drove Granny and a big present in golden paper plus a whole stack of cards from well wishers to the hospital so they could unwrap and open them together.
And that's what we did...
Before Granny & I brought it home to test on their bed. Yippee it fits! So now I'm hoping it isn't too long before they can snuggle up together under it.
Love 'n' hugs to them both
xXx
It's the best looking quilt I've seen ever! Well done. What on earth are you going to do now!!!! Get well soon pop's ... Hope your uP and around soon.
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