Mam's Quilt

There almost wasn't a hand quilting category in the festival this year (it was one of the least requested categories when Amy asked for feedback but she kindly added it back in after hand quilters made their feelings known! *ahem*) so, to celebrate its resurrection and to show that hand quilting is alive and well, as well as in a spirit of 'use it or lose it', I've decided to enter one of my quilts.  I'm afraid it isn't a new quilt as I haven't finished any quilts in quite a while (I'm hoping that I'll have my hexy quilt finished by the autumn festival next year - that's not a promise!) but then I remembered that I finished this quilt before I started blogging.  I've mentioned it before as I entered it in The Great Northern Quilt show in 2011 so it will look familiar to some of you!


I'm entering this quilt in the hand quilted category:

Mam asked me to make her a lap quilt for the colder evenings and requested that it be red and gold.  Her only other stipulation was that it had to have a border of flying geese so I designed this quilt from the outside in - not something I'd done before (I think this was maybe the third quilt I'd made, it was finished some time towards the end of 2010).  I decided that I wanted the blocks to reflect the border so decided to piece Sawtooth Star blocks but added an economy block centre (or a square in a square in a square - I'm not very good with quilt block names, I'm afraid!) to add extra interest, both while piecing it and once it was finished!  I seem to remember having quite a debate about what to do in the corners of the borders as I didn't want the geese to come to a dead halt at the edge so, in the end, decided to reflect the centres of the blocks and let the geese fly round the edge.

The quilting simply outlines the main shapes in the blocks and follows the line of the border:

It wouldn't be my usual choice of fabric but love the way this glittery fabric sparkles in the sun!

The fabrics are quite traditional as that's what Mam likes - we spent quite a while choosing them from our LQS and stalls at various quilt shows - and they reflect the traditional nature of the quilt.  It's got a cream flannel on the back which I remember being quite a bargain in a sale somewhere and the wadding is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20, a dream to hand quilt through.  I used a YLI variegated thread to quilt and, having looked at the YLI chart, I think it was 'Pyramids of Giza'.

This quilt is a favourite with my two young nieces who like to either be wrapped up 'like a doggy' in it (like Archie does with his quilts) or play 'sausage rolls' with it (lie, outstretched, at one end of the quilt, get rolled up in it (like a sausage in a sausage roll) and then someone pulls on the end and out you roll!  Some people think that you need to be gentle with a hand pieced, hand quilted and hand bound quilt, I beg to differ!!


Quilt stats:

Name: doesn't really have one!  Commonly known as 'the red and gold quilt' or 'Mam's quilt'!
Design: Sawtooth Star variation - designed by me, with lots of graph paper and a pencil.
Pieced: by hand
Quilted: by hand
Wadding: Hobbs Heirloom 80/20
Backing: flannel/brushed cotton - lovely and cosy in the winter!
Size: 78" x 62"
Category: hand quilting

Thanks for popping in!

P.S.  I can't possibly blog without including a photo or two of Archie so here's one of him in the sun, taken this afternoon:

And here's one of him taken while I was taking photos of the quilt:

Can we go in yet?  You should be in there, sorting out my tea, not out here faffing!