Meet Botanica

...or formerly known as Greek Cross. I decided to rename the quilt to 'Botanica' after a comment from my fellow Brit Bee and name companion Judith who said said that it was a 'fabulous botanic quilt top'. I thought this was such a good description and promptly decided to adopt the name as it is a much better name for the quilt. Thank you Jude.

So I guess you can gather that the quilt is done. It took me a little longer because I could not help myself and stitch up 'Lucky Summer' in between but it was worth it. This quilt includes a lot of fabric that are rather precious to me and I finally really love it after some initial hick ups.

So here it is in all its glory.

For about two years now I had in my stash this wonderful bright Philip Jacobs print 'Geranium' in duck egg which I saved for something special. I always wanted to use it as a quilt back on a quilt that would feature mostly green floral prints but when I was working on the top of 'Botanica' it became quickly clear that 'Geranium' was made for this so I decided to cut into it.

For this quilt I made big strides into two of my most favourite floral prints and whilst I was agonising over it while I was cutting, I am now really glad that I did it and the fabric looks so much better in use rather than sitting on the shelf and gathering dust.
 

I quilted in a petal pattern/orange peel pattern because I wanted to emphasis the floral feel of it. This I did with my walking  foot and not free motion and it really was very easy to do.

 

I used two different variegated Gueterman Sulky thread, the greenish one (no 4125) for the back and the greyish (no 4028) for the front.

I wanted something really bright and cheerful for the binding that complements both the front and the back and found this Kaffe Fasset Fuchsia Dot in my stash and luckily my local quilt shop Tikki had still some in stock as I would not have had enough otherwise.

The quilt measures 60 by 72 inches (1.52 x 1.82 m) and the perfect sofa size. Well, I better get on that sofa with it then.....

'Very Berry' aka the Beast in finished

Well here it is at last ! It's been a journey, not an epic one but a long one nonetheless. Starting with a quickly drawn design during dinner with friends to the finished and now photographed piece.

Thank you to everybody who commented on the last progress report; all the comments really helped as I was struggling at bit at the point. I love Archie the wonder dog's comment about the 'Beauty and the Beast'. I really should have named it this rather than 'Very Berry'. Well, since this comment the quilt is called lovingly 'The Beast' amongst my friends and colleagues.


I am not going to repeat the whole story (you can read it here, here and here)  but just want summaries that my friends Claire and Mica commissioned me to make an oversized quilt for them it's dual purpose being to cover up an ugly sofa and cover both of them ! Well at 3.2 x 2.5 m (98 x 126 inches)  this thing will certainly do both.

I quilted with Gueterman Sulky in no 1045 which is a wonderfully variegated  thread in purple and green. I wanted to offset the quilting a little bit from the base colour on the front of the quilt but also didn't want to large a contrast on the back which is largely done in Kona coal and Kaffee Fasset prints.

The quilting is done in wonky/straight double lines following the lines of the patterned areas. I added a couple of double lines on the vertical to create large rectangles. Of course one could have quilted a lot denser or even involved a longarmer but the agreement for the commission was that I quilt it on my Janome Horizon 7700. I wanted to keep the quilting within the realms of the overall pattern which I hope I have achieved. My machine coped wonderfully with the quilt thanks to its longer arm.

I photographed 'The Beast' around the corner where I work as the space is much larger there than around my little cottages. I laid it out on this bench which is outside a huge office building in city and people kept coming and going and one woman actually stopped and commented that she loved it which really gave me a huge lift.

 

I used Quilter's Dream batting but in this case I used a thinner than normal batting as I thought it important to reduce weight wherever I can. I think it makes a large difference to the quilt as it is not as bulky as it could have been if I used my usual Hobbs Heirloom or Quilter Dream Select Weight.

These two images here are the best I can give you in terms of showing the size. My colleges were kind enough to dangle it down this wall but it really is to large to photograph properly without using a wide angle lens at which point one loses to much detail.

The binding is done with the wonderful Kona Pepper which is almost black but not quite with a few bits of red leftovers thrown in between. I really love this effect.

And here all folded up and ready to be handed over to its new owners !!!

Very Berry - part 3

Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend here in the UK - the only holiday we have between the bank holiday Monday at the end of May and Christmas. Most people go away but I like to stay put and use the precious extra day either for lying in the sun in my garden (no chance of that this weekend, more like lying in the rain) or sewing. So given that the weather was disappointing (I really would like to use another word here !) I spend it sewing. The 'Very Berry' quilt commission I started here several weeks ago for my friends Mica and Claire had to move forward.

You may remember that it is a super sized quilt at 2.5 x 3.2 m that is 98 x 126 inches and so far I had only finished the first third of the top.
My goal was to get the whole thing basted.

I apologize upfront for the poor quality photos but I could not find a wall high enough to hang the pieces nor a wall high enough to stand on to properly photography the quilt from atop. In addition the sun kept peeking out of the clouds when I least wanted it.

On Saturday I finished the top

On Sunday I pieced the back with some lovely Kaffe Fassett prints and lots and lots of Kona coal. I wanted to keep the back in a more neutral colour but with just a bit of red. Piecing it made me feel like being in  'Gulliver Travels'. If you look at the back you see that it really is just rectangles with some sashing in Kona coal but we are talking series measurements here. The rectangles are each 36 x 20 inches and the sashing in proportion around it.

 And on Monday I basted the beast...................
(sadly no picture) 
I wrestled with it for hours in my small living room basting it in 3 stages. That actually worked surprisingly well although I could only unroll 2 meters at a time.



 Next is the quilting and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) it will be done in 10 days time......