Don't Read the Comments

In recent years I’ve been struck by the power the internet has to bring quilters together. Yes, quilters have always had social circles and guilds, but the virtual world has allowed us to make global connections, transforming what can sometimes be a solitary craft into something that is hugely connected - for better or for worse.

I’m active in a lot of social circles on social media. For example the Men Who Quilt Facebook group, another group called UK Quilters United, and of course the 52Quilters project I run on Instagram. Recently I have been thinking more and more about the power that the internet has in our creative work. It holds the power to connect us, but also it has the power to cause much misunderstanding and division among us.

I’ve experienced this as the organiser of 52Quilters where comments have occasionally spun out of control, but thankfully I do not have to moderate this feed very often. Still, behind the scenes emails are often misinterpreted or people who work hard to promote a social, warm and aspirational tone on Instagram turn out to have a surprisingly different tone or attitude behind the scenes. There are inevitably problems, misunderstanding and communication barriers when you are organising a project that connects 52 participants across a year to a channel with many followers.

Rather than just think and stew about this, I've started taking on projects that explore the impact of technology in my life. One is a series of works I’ve stared called “Don’t Read The Comments” another is my “I quilt for...” project, which responded to a call out I shared via 52 Quilters.

I’ve been over at @52quilters this month hosting the wellbeing theme as the first theme of the year... one of my new projects for 2018 is a response to asking quilters to finish the sentence “I quilt for...” - I’ve collected many words and will be improv piecing them throughout the year as part of a new project - #iquiltfor

A post shared by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Feb 1, 2018 at 1:42am PST

In advance of this year’s Festival of Quilts I was anxious about sharing a mini quilt I created that features the face of radio presenter Chris Evans. Last Summer I had taken a day off work and was planning on going to the Festival of Quilts, but woke up to a fury of comments on the UK Quilters United group that were spurned by some coverage Chris Evans gave to the festival on his radio show.

Some of the comments were fair and considered but some were very strong and I found it interesting to see how divided the comments were among a community that seeks to be united.  Some of the comments were personal views on Chris Evans but as the tangents split off there were also comments about how crowded the festival gets, that it shouldn’t be promoted to new people, and many other unrelated complaints. The seemingly light-hearted coverage, opened a pandora's box of complaints including a unfortunate rant about the presence of mobility scooters and wheeled shopping bags/trolleys. The moderators had their hands full on what for many quilters is already one of the biggest days of the year - the opening of the Festival of Quilts.

I see the online quoting community like family - UKQU in particular is a wonderful group that I value being a part of - I think of it a bit like a family, sometimes things are lovely and smooth and other times people clash, but ultimately there is love and support... but as I sat in bed reading the mix of comments, I decided not to travel to the FOQ that day. I was already feeling run down and the comments I were reading made me feel less and less like making the journey. 

I totally own that decision and know that it was the best one for me - I’m not blaming anyone for me missing the show, I’m just saying that if how I felt in the moment and that is what got me thinking about the power that social media has over me and others.

I decided to turn this into a project and have begun making mini quilts that reflect some of my online experiences.  The ‘Don’t Read The Comments: Chris Evans' piece is the first of a few that I will share when I’m ready.

The quilt is a mini quilt featuring a foundation paper pieced graphic of Chris Evans, and the fabric features anonymised quotes from the Chris Evans discussions that took place on the Facebook group.  I've submitted it to the Festival of Quilts, and sheepishly shared with the Facebook group in fear that it might start a fury of comments - but the feedback has been largely positive. Proving that much like family, the online community can also reflect and laugh about their falling outs and flare ups... as long as a bit of time has passed!

Ultimately I don't see this as an entirely negative piece, it’s just an exploration of one of the many sides of online interaction. I do understand that not everyone will like it - but hope you’ll appreciate me sharing it and hope you'll share your thoughts with me.

Vinyls Quilt

Amidst full-time work, other projects and life stuff, it is often hard to find time to sew.  Projects that I'm making for fun or for the sake of making, are easy enough to dip in and out of (I currently have two quilt tops in the queue to be quilted, and a few more unfinished projects to catch up on) - but projects with a deadline like a wedding or baby arriving have to be planned and managed - otherwise I'd always be giving baby quilts to toddlers.

One of my favourite things is making gifts for people. I understand that not everyone appreciates a hand made gift, but when I think of a special occasion and plan to make a quilt for someone, it is a process that I really savour and enjoy from start to finish, despite the fact that it often comes with a deadline. 

When I was growing up my great aunt was an epic quilter, and often made us quilts for Christmas, birthdays or other life events and so it is a tradition I happily carry on - making gifts for my family, and extended squad in Canada and the UK.

This summer some dear friends of ours were getting married, and I was determined to make them a 'festival' style quilt, inspired by their love of music and festivals. I selected a number of fabrics that I felt had a real festival vibe, but something in the planning just didn't fit right and I couldn't quite work out how to execute a patchwork that reflected the vibe I wanted. I went around in circles, unable to decide what to do before packing it in completely.

I was only when I was on the verge of giving up that I looked more closely at one of the fabrics that had reminded me of vinyl records, that I started to look at the fabrics differently and instead of going for a folky/festival vibe - decided to take a much more graphic approach and create a quilt covered in iconic album covers.

Colour scheming this morning. Festival vibes. #menwhoquilt

A post shared by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Apr 30, 2017 at 3:42am PDT

A few weeks later, I had shortlisted a few album covers to try and decided to have a go at creating a patchwork version of David Bowie's Alladin Sane cover, by sketching out and testing a foundation pieced design.

Still going 😬... #vinylsquilt album 6 of 7 - can't have these classics without a touch of #Bowie. This was the first album cover I did, as a way to testing out the idea... each one got more complicated, but I still love the simplicity of this one.

A post shared by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Oct 24, 2017 at 11:32am PDT

My first one was a success, and from there I went on to do album covers my our friends' other favourite artists including Prince, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, Grace Jones and Bruce Springsteen.

The process of creating six album covers worked well around my other commitments, instead of working on a massive project - I was able to focus my attention in one one 12 inch cover at a time, sketching and making each cover individually as mini project.

Of all the blocks I made my favourite was the cover of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. It was a slightly more complicated design with the body shapes and took a bit of consideration in terms of interpreting the many shades of black/grey/white so that the design wouldn't become too muddled, but I'm really pleased with the result.

My favourite cover from the album quilt I made, only because I listened to the bands while making the covers and it's been tooooo long since I've listed to #FleetwoodMac - it was also one of the most challenging blocks to work out the piecing on and I wanted to do Stevie justice... 🙌🙌🙌#menwhoquilt #foundationpiecing #vinylsquilt

A post shared by Chris Webb (@chrismakesthings) on Aug 19, 2017 at 4:29am PDT

When it came time to fit my six album covers into a layout, I felt I needed one more - and opted for a playful modern twist by including Taylor Swift - an artist who is a slight anomaly in this musical roll call, but totally appropriate for the gift I was making.  I'd also realised that all the album covers featured the artist in one way or another, so Taylor Swift's 1989 serendipitously fit with this unintended theme.

As the album covers came together, so did my playlist - going through the back catalogues of each artist and adding to a growing playlist as I worked on each cover.

In the end I think I was able to capture the literal references to music as well as the festival vibe I'd originally intended. Looking back this quilt is not unlike my Canadian Wild quilt I made a few years ago, with just a different subject and colour scheme - but this one is more my own because I used entirely my own foundation pieced designs, and adapted the overall plan as I went.

I now have a bank of foundation pieced designs which I'm tempted to digitise and share, but I don't want to take away the uniqueness of this project and that time I savoured working on the quilt my friends in mind. Music and memory are strongly linked for me, and so making this quilt has added a new layer for me - I know I'll never be able to listen to Rumours again without thinking about the quilt and my friends.

2015: Focus

Welcome to 2015! Regular readers might notice a few changes around here, but not necessarily obvious or cosmetic ones: This year I'm trying to do more blogging, make my blog a bit more personal and post on a wider, more dynamic range of topics. So as a kick start to this new journey, I'm sharing my first major project of the year (second quilt) along with my elected word of the year:'Focus'.

At the end of my week on 52 Quilters, I posted over on the '52 about lessons learned in 2014 and my plan to apply the word focus to my work and life throughout 2015. Focus on my work, focus on my practice and what inspires me and keeping focus in the moments I want to savour, enjoy and remember. 

So my first personal project: my Rainbow Mini Swap quilt is bringing my focus together in lots of ways.

1) I'm really thinking about my design and taking measured plans to create something and really enjoy the process of making, instead of just speeding towards the finished product. Here I am working on my sketches and planning my pattern.

2) I'm trying to hone my digital skills by creating my own digital paper-piecing blocks. Here is one step of my design in Illustrator, and the final version printed and ready to start piecing.

3) I've created a design that embodies the idea focus - a geometric pattern where all the lines and colours draw to one single point in the middle: a point of focus (I know, I know... maybe a bit too literal? but I like it!)

Part of this new reign of focus is accepting patience. Something I am going to need when it comes to piecing together this 12-sided quilt made up of 24 segments. Each segment has three paper pieced pieces, which I've cut out and written letters to help me know my colour layouts...

You can see my pieces grouped and ready to go. I've made two out of 24 segments about, and here are the other 22 segments waiting to become patchwork!

I'm not really into new year's resolutions or introducing sweeping changing into my life just because of the calendar, but I do think its nice to think and nominate some words or principles to guide me year-to-year. What are you New Year's rituals? Do you have any words of inspiration for 2015?

Check back for more updates on my #rainbowminiswap project and more! Lots ahead for 2015 including new projects and my first quilting bee!

Thank you for reading!

Written in the stars - Part 2

Now the time has come for the big reveal of my "Written in the Stars" quilt which I posted about last week. It was such a challenging project for me because it brought in some new techniques that I had probably not practiced or mastered enough to start working with! I went from practising one basic new york beauty block, to drawing my own and adapting it to place one of my stars in the middle.

Starting the New York Beauty inspired block

To make matters more complicated I also decided that I wanted inset the block into the piano-key border I set out around the edge of the quilt... and I just about managed it. Sewing with curves in Patchwork is not that new to me, but what I've never done is quilted a patchwork with curves in it.  It was not too much of a struggle to get the patchwork together, but as I quilted through this block the fabric behaved in all kinds of strange ways I'd never expected... pulling and stretching in odd places, and resulting in much unpicking.

New York Beauty with inset start and inset into border of the quilt.

With a few cheats, I just about managed it but I will have to be more patient with curves the next time I tackle them.

I quilted using tight parallel straight lines running across the quilt and tracing some of the stars, and then filled the remaining space with randomly angled intersecting lines.  Not my neatest quilting job, but I was happy with the overall effect.

And for the finished product? My hope is that you'll be inspired by the quilt, but forgive my photo composition! Sadly, I live in a small urban flat and don't have fields of wheat or rolling green hills to use as a backdrop for my quilts: Instead you get a crowded floor space between an ikea desk and a laundry rack and my very dingy garden!

But here it is:

And my wonderful friend (of 10 years now!) showing it off her gift.  Not the greatest photo, but I hope it shows off the overall look. The lighting makes the puckering look a bit worse than it was, but it does at least show off the mix of textures between the tight straight line quilting and the more random lines that run through the rest of the quilt. Plus the smile on her face is the most important thing to me!

Excited to see what the next 10 years brings our way!

Written in the stars - Part 1

In follow up to my always secret crafting post the "big reveal" on my most recent project has now come and gone, but because I haven't had a chance to blog-as-I-quilt, I thought I'd just post a little teaser with the online reveal to follow shortly.  So this will be part one of a two-part-post - I promise not to drag it on too long! Remember: good things come to those who wait.

The gift quilt I've been working on came about as a way to celebrate a 10-year "friendiversary"with one of my best pals.  We met at uni when fate rolled the dice and we ended up working in offices next to one another and we became friends in July 2004 when, barely knowing each other, we ended up travelling to and sharing a tent at Hillside Music Festival in Guelph, Canada.

This first friendezvous came about somewhat unplanned, and we awkwardly shared a tent and shivered through the weekend's unexpectedly cold nights, while enjoying food, good music, and a few workshops each day. The rest was written in the stars.

Nine months later we moved to different cities and have never since lived in the same place (or for that matter the same country). Despite this distance we've sustained the friendship, via emails, skype, visits and meeting up in a host of amazing places. So as our 10 year friendiversary approached, I knew I had to find a way to mark the occasion!

Thinking about the theme of "written in the stars" I knew I wanted to create a constellation themed quilt using paper pieced stars and an adapted new york beauty block. I wanted to weave in lots of hidden stories and themes related to our friendship, but I struggled with finding a way to tell the story through the quilt so despite starting work on it with this initial star block in March 2012, the project sat on the back burner until I had my lightbulb moment earlier this year.

My first attempt at a star block.

The slow and sluggish thought process that went on over two years on the back-burner of my mind went something like this:

I love the star and definitely want to work with stars...
... but what can I do with stars, how can I arrange them?
Hmmm.. constellations, I could make it a constellation quilt...
... I wonder if there is a constellation of a unicorn? (we share a joke/affirmation about unicorns) *rushes to google*... Oh yes! There is a monoceros constellation...

"Sidney Hall - Urania's Mirror - Monoceros, Canis Minor, and Atelier Typographique" by Sidney Hall

... but what do I do with this now... and how do I work in the rest of the stories... Am I taking on too much? Can I really tell a story in a quilt?... *excited but totally overwhelmed*

Then one day it hit me: I had reached a point where I knew I wanted to lay out the constellation across the main body of the quilt and had chosen Dan Bennett's Premier Lord collection as my fabrics for the stars... but I was struggling to find fabric in the right deep and dark blue tones to form the contrasting background which I wanted to be the sky. I even searched for constellation fabrics, but struggled to find the right balance of dark, muted blues that I wanted.

So I decided to take the plunge and make my own fabrics via Spoonflower! This allowed me to challenge myself to do some design work and get exactly what I wanted, in the right colours, and gave me a way to literally sew the story of our friendship into the fabric of the quilt.

I designed a pattern of constellations inspired by our friendship, the things we love and the places we have been together and had them printed in three different shades of blue. I also used the placement of the stars in this constellation design, to create a secondary connected constellation fabric (now for sale on Spoonflower!) where the stars were all joined together differently to create a geo-metric fabric.

Here are the three main fabrics:

Here I'm piecing my fabrics alongside Dan Bennett's fabrics

Here you can see the supplementary connected constellation fabric bringing in a geo-metric design that breaks up the more graphic designs of the other fabrics.

And here is your sneak-peek taste of the quilt - my first completed star block ready to go into the quilt. 

I was really happy with the contrast of the colours I'd chosen to print my fabrics in and felt that the designs I made and the scale I printed them at worked really well to achieve the look I was going for.  I wanted the stars to stand out against a very blue background, but didn't want that background to be flat or dull... I think these fabrics work just right to give a defined but not lacklustre backdrop for the stars which are the real focus of the quilt.

 Part two is coming soon!

always secret crafting

Here we go again, I'm writing one of many secret crafting blog posts, only this time I'm writing before the big reveal.

When you quilt, you constantly come up against a tension between the traditional and modern, and although it's a tension I love to embrace and explore in my work, when it comes to quilting and blogging, the tension is quite hard to balance.  Bloggers need things to blog about, but very special, long-term projects don't produce the kind of exciting tidbits and progress updates that suit a blog. Inside you are dying to share all those little things and anecdotes about your work, but because you are working on a gift it is all top secret!

It can also be very hard to remember to share my many thoughts and ideas when I'm working hard and purposefully keeping my head down so as not to arise the suspicion of the soon-to-be recipient of the project I am working on.

So without giving it all away, I've been busy working on a very special project the last few months. Really it is a project that has been 10 years in the making, but I've only been properly working out my ideas in the last six months.

The project has been a tough one that has introduced a few new things into my repertoire:

1. Mastering curves (yikes!)
2. Completing some New York Beauty blocks (double yikes!!)
3. Designing my own fabric (what the what!?!)

Am I up to the challenge? A new york beauty piece from Canoe Ridge Creations

Number three really hits the "traditional meets modern" nail on the head. Get me - I've had a go and digital fabric design! I've designed with illustrator before with my own laser-cut patterns for my Bristol Cityscape coasters and mobile designs, but I felt very overwhelmed at the task of taking my skills further design fabrics.

Fabrics are so much more layered, colourful and complex than simple line drawings, but to ease myself into it, I kept it simple - using my experience with line design to draw some constellations and create some custom fabric. I am desperate to show it off to on the blog, but the design would be a dead giveaway for the person I am creating the quilt for, so for now I'm going to have to be a textual tease.

I ordered my fabric through Spoonflower, but have since discovered that there is a range of fabric printers here in the uk: check out these listings at the Sewing Directory.

Have you designed your own and had any fab or tragic experiences? If yes, I would love to hear about them. Comment or drop me a line or two and I'll work them into my "big reveal" post which should be coming in about two-weeks time!

Week # 40 - Baby Quilt and pattern

Hi there folks, just a little update with this week's project and a bit of news on the 52 weeks : 52 crafts front!

I've had a favourite little patchwork pattern of my lying around for a few years which I often use in teaching courses and what not, but have never got around to making available through my blog or online shop... we'll in celebration of the final 12 crafts countdown to Christmas, I've whipped up a sample and prepped my pattern for sale!

Now I'm not one for symmetry or things that are "too match-ey match-ey" but I've always loved this pattern of mine for the simplicity of it, as well as the versatility that the pattern has for taking different fabrics and colour combinations.

This little quilt measures 36" by 42" when its finished (about 3 feet by 3 1/2 feet).  It's a great pattern for beginners to follow as well as a quick breeze for an experienced sewer. All you need for it is 7 fat quarters in matching/contrasting fabrics (it's up to you!), some wadding and a back fabric and this whips up with perfect proportions and fabric usage.

Check out this one I made for the craft challenge using Mint Blossoms 'Karma Baby' fabric (if the quilt looks a little damp its because I sprayed it to remove the fabric pen lines before taking this photo... a non-damp photo will appear shortly!)

.... now I normally like to mix and match fabrics from different collections, but the Karma Baby fabrics work so well together and are just so sweet that I kept it simple. I especially love the fabrics because they are perfect for babies, but at the same time they aren't too childish or too gendered in their colours and patterns. Perfect for boys or girls!

I also embellished the pattern by throwing in a little touch of white into the binding, for a piped effect which I think makes the fabrics stand out even more.

This quilt will go up for auction tonight on Ebay with 100% of the sale going to Macmillan Cancer Support, and then the finished pattern will go up for sale on my website later this week...  I'll be selling the complete pattern and tutorial for £5 with 100% of the profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support from now until Christmas.

Stay tuned as this quilt will be joined with other baby/kid friendly items tomorrow when I post my 52 weeks : 52 craft round up Part 2 tomorrow afternoon!

Craft #2 - Mug Rugs

I've been seeing lots of photos, posts and tutorials about 'mug rugs' in and around the crafty interweb, and decided that as my second craft in the 52 week challenge, I would finally get around to making a set.

I've been meaning to get making a set for a while, as the 'mug rug' appeals to me for a number of reasons

1. They are basically mini-quilts, and I like the idea of making a one-day project that involves all the elements of a patchwork quilt.
2. I like that making mug rugs might give me a chance to try out fabric combinations and pattern blocks while putting my test patches to use.
3. I like the idea that we can brighten up tea/coffee time a little bit with these little placemats. Although they are by no means necessary, they make a nice gift and are great for those special times where we sit down and have a catch-up over a cuppa.

Although there are a range of mug rug tutorials out there, I took my cue from "That Girl" (aka. Jennifer) of "That Girl... That Quilt" fame. I particularly liked her mug rug tutorial because it incorporated a blend of cotton and linen fabric, and added the extra feature of a pocket for biscuits, tea bags, spoons, and what not.

Her tutorial is easy to follow for those who are comfortable putting together a basic piece of patchwork as a starting point, and gives a nice, clear explanations for making the pocket and applying the binding. For those who may not be experience enough to build a patchwork top, you could easily attempt your first mug rug with just one well chosen piece of patterned fabric for your top, and then focus just on the pocket and binding techniques.

My work in progress as I follow Jennifer's tutorial.

In the end I was really pleased with what I came up with, and love the combination of linen and cotton prints.

Many thanks to Jennifer for allowing me to follow her tutorial and feature it in my 52-week challenge.

My little set of mug rugs are going sale this week on ebay - so please visit the auction and bid generously!

more secret crafting

When this project started out I didn't know if it would all come together, but I knew exactly who I'd finish it for if it ever did. I was impressed by several map-inspired quilts that I'd come across online and in exhibitions including this stylized interpretation of the tokyo subway map and these much more literal (for lack of a better work) interpretations of maps as quilts showing terrain and landmarks.

I set out the challenge for myself to create a patchwork based on the London Underground. Using my trusty grid-paper notebook I drew out a scaled version of the map, and slowly built up a patchwork using nine-patches made up of 1-inch squares, which I then used as blocks to create nine-patches of 3-inch squares, and built the patchwork up so forth and so forth.

For a more varied effect (and perhaps to give my patience just a little bit of a break) I also worked in 2"x 1" rectangles and 2" by 2" squares into the map. I started out with a trial 'nine-patch of nine-patches' and by the time I finished my first one I was hooked and determined to continue.

In the end I had roughly 35 'nine-patches of nine-patches' plus more large scale ones to finish out the quilt. As I approached the outside and border of the map, I expanded the size of the pieces and blocks and faded into some purple and grey shades to frame it.

This was a very fun and rewarding project for me, and working with 9" blocks made up of smaller blocks, meant that it was a project I could work on at my leisure; putting it away and shelving it at times when I wanted a break, as well as pulling out small pieces to work on without ending up knee deep in fabrics and notions. To organise myself, I kept a "master box" with all the fabric scraps I was working from, as well as tray full of pre-cut 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" strips I was cutting from. I only needed the tray to prepare each nine-patch, and only needed to go back to the "master box" when it was time to replenish my tray.

It was really nice to make a gift for someone without the pressure of a specific birthday or special event in mind (although timing meant it worked well as a birthday/christmas gift).

Sometimes it's just really nice to make for the sake of making and give for the sake of giving, and as I worked on the project I became more and more pleased and inspired by the fact that I knew it would be a gift for a person who loves and appreciates London more than anyone else I know.

secret craftings

Crafting requires patience, a resource that I have very little of in all other aspects of life (and even when I'm crafting its pretty limited)... so the process of imagining, designing and then creating something can sometimes drain my resources of patience. Especially, when my mind is raring to go on the creative side, but it takes time to work out the logistical method of creating what I see in my mind.

Add into the mix, the fact that sometimes we craft very special gifts, for very special occasions - with the result of my very patient self, having to sit on my work in secret waiting even longer for the day that I get to reveal it to whomever it is made for.

In this case, its a wedding gift for two dear friends.

After visiting the Quilt exhibition at the V&A in London, I was overwhelmed with amazing ideas and wanted to find a way to incorporate a quote into a quilt. A few days later, a conference took me to New York where I found myself knee deep in a wealth of amazing fabrics patterns - putting a few ideas together, I bought up some material and came up with the idea of make a simple scrap square quilt, with a featured quote from William Wordsworth as inspiration in the centre.

I tried to use some fresh colours which weren't too tied to any season or style... and chose fabrics which had a vintage, but modern look to them.

Check out the results.




Quote from William Wordsworth, suiting Her penchant for the pastoral... and nostalgic of a road-trip we took together through the lakes district. (Although, I must admit its not terribly suitable to His scottish heritage) For the next gift, I'll have to quote a Scot.


Close up on the fabrics. I tried to find an interesting balance of matching and constrasting, so each combination of materials would have a difference effect.

a present unveiled

I am so excited to finally be posting photos of this quilt... Although Lazy Crafternoons often produce things you want to show off and be proud of, you have to keep mum about the things you make which are going to be gifts.

I've been sitting on this work for a while now, waiting until my friend's wedding day when I can let the secret out.

I took this photo a few years ago during Autumn, and was inspired by the way the leaves looked scattered across the patchwork-like tiles.



I actually took this photo, to show off how enormous the leaves were, but when I stood back and looked at the image, it reminded me of a quilt.

With the help of some quilting skills once imparted to me when I was a child, by my great aunt and a heapload of internet tutorials, I have up with a way to interpret the tiles into a patchwork, and then came up with a leaf design which I could patchwork together and them applique to the quilt.

Since it was my first endeavour and I was a bit unsure of doing the acutal quilting, I enlisted the help of a long arm quilting service to finsh off and bind the patchwork. I just wanted it to be perfect, and didn't trust myself to not to ruin it in the quilting process after all my hard work on the front and back.




The back is done with a single wide stripe and a few leaf cut outs so there was an alternative to the busy top... and in one of the leaves I wrote my friends name and their marriage date with fabric pen.



Working on this quilt obviously took more than just one lazy crafternoon, and although my work was inspired by the original photo, it was also fuelled by a wide range of inspirations, much of which came from the quilting forums on craftster.com ... hopefully this quilt can be one little addition to the vast array of works out there, and add to the collective pool of textile creativity!