Saturday, December 29, 2012

Christmas Quilting

During the Christmas Break I tucked in to complete a quilt I'd begun a year ago or so. 

An annoying neck injury prevented me from making any progress for the last five months, but as I have seemed to recover, I took full advantage of the break from scholarly computer activities to luxuriate in fabric.

Details: the front is a full-cloth Nani Iro watercolour print; the back a shot-cotton apricot by Kaffe Fassett; the binding my hand-made Liberty of London "Tatum."  All fabric was purchased at Purl Soho.

I quilted around each flower, leaf, and bird using an ivory embroidery floss and comfortable stitches; I cheerfully bid adieu to the teeny-tiny needlework that characterized my precise 20-something quilts. (That's in terms of age, not quilt quantity, BTW.)

Letting go of those meticulous stitches has freed me and, I like to think, lends a more artisan quality to my quilts (apologies to those for whom that adjective evokes the same kind of fury articulated by Annette Bening in The Kids Are Alright over "heirloom" tomatoes).


3 comments:

K.Line said...

Oh, that is gorgeous! Hope your wrist is all better.

Miss Cavendish said...

Thank you, Kristin! It was actually a neck injury (disc trouble--super-frustrating) but I seem to be mostly better :-)

materfamilias said...

Stunning! I've never quilted (although did play with piecework/crazy-quilting once upon a time) -- but I can see the appeal here, especially the chance to luxuriate in wonderful fabrics -- the richly subtle quality of that shot cotton calls out for a closer look...