Snowy Days quilt progress

Who would have thought that deciding on a quilt back could be such agony. I started this quilt before Christmas and had the most trouble I ever had deciding on a fabric for the back.

My thoughts ventures from a subtle text fabric such as one of the Architexture ones to a cloth I bought two years ago in the South of France to a rough old linen I bought in Dresden and then to a plain white only to get stuck somewhere on the return loop.

Then finally just before I went in holiday I decided on an Essex yarn dyed fabric that is a cotton/linen blend in the colour Flax (bought at the Village Haberdashery). A pricey option for sure but one that I am finally happy with.

It has a wonderful texture that feels like linen yet very soft and it is quite a heavy fabric which will make for a great winter quilt (never mind that we are moving toward Spring....well at some point anyway when we stop drowning here)

I will quilt in 1 inch spaced lines in a grid which will take foooor evvvvveeeeeeeerrrrr..... just as well that I love this part of the job.

A day at the beach II

Over the past two years I was lucky enough to have had a few commissions and I was doubly lucky that all of them were great and interesting commissions.

The most interesting one so far is the one I am working on at the moment. About 2 months ago or so I got an e-mail from a gentlemen who lives in the Mediterranean asking me if I could make him a quilt like 'A day at the beach' but a litter larger. He also asked if I would be happy to include some vintage fabric he would sent me, amongst them a few old Paul Smith shirts. Of course I was happy to include other fabrics. So the vintage shirts arrived one day and I was astounded how incredibly soft they were (well I guess one should expect that from a Paul Smith shirt) and then a few weeks later more fabric arrived amongst them those beautiful embroidered pieces and the appliqued boats.

So of I went and pulled out the remainder of my 'Going Coastal' fabric and started to work this week on piecing a quilt top and quilt back. 

I framed the ships in red and navy to make make sure they stand out in the overall design. The shirts were cut into squares and the embroidery pieces cut to size and scattered amongst the other squares.

I am so pleased how it turned out and how wonderful the vintage fabric works together with the modern fabric. And now I am off to the most joyous task of quilting.