This quilt has been a long time coming. I had the patchwork strips sitting in a basket just waiting to be finished, but when I went to make them up into a quilt for my nieces, I felt like they needed something more.
I added the border and then remembered the quilt that I was completely in love with when I first started quilting as a 13 year old. It was a quilt that was my dream quilt to make for the next 5 years, but I just never got around to it. It was a simple patchwork quilt with a border that had flowers and vines in the top left and bottom right corners. So, 20 years after first seeing that quilt, I finally copied it! For my flowers I used the exact shape that is featured in one of the prints. I found it in an old Moda catalog, took a screen shot, and then enlarged in photoshop. I printed it in several sizes and used those flowers as a template.
For the actual construction, I appliqued the flowers during the quilting stage–I used fusible web to adhere them to the quilt top and then sewed them on with the long arm quilting machine my friend Melissa so generously allows me to us!
This quilt was supposed to be an Easter present (I’ve titled it All Things Great and Small in my head), but nursing school got in the way and I only had one side of the quilt bound when they arrived for our belated Easter celebrating (hand binding is my favorite, but it is time consuming). Luckily they are very understanding (as 10 month olds tend to be) and so it’s a little late, but I don’t think they care. 😛
Diane Dikeman - I fell in love with this quilt. I love that both sides are quilts,and either side would have a great story!