I am keeping this quilt.

As I mentioned in my first post, I have a habit of giving away the stuff I make. Crochet rugs… given to my MIL, and all the babies born in our congregation. Quilts… well I even gave away my first and best effort. It’s not a bad thing, some of us show our love by making things after all. But then you start a blog and realise your quilt gallery is empty, because you gave everything away, un-photographed.

So, I have promised myself I will keep this quilt!

A summer version of the Gypsy Wife Quilt by Jen Kingwell.

There was a QAL for the Gypsy Wife Quilt in the recent past, but I joined the trend a little late to join in. I did make the most of the hints posted by participants though, especially the note to sew very scant quarter inch seams. There have been some beautiful versions of this quilt made, including one by Catherine Mosley from New South Wales, Australia, which was exhibited earlier this year at Quilt Con.

To make sure I keep this quilt, I have deliberately stitched the hand-quilting with a no returns policy. No unpicking, no do-overs. I reasoned that this way I would be too ashamed of any mistakes to give it away. No matter how worthy the cause.

A little bit of Wee Wander from memory. I included a few fussy cut blocks to break up the Sidewalks fabric range (by Riley Blake) that dominates the quilt.

So far I have quilted about two thirds of the ribbons that run up the quilt, and few of the blocks. This is mainly because quilting the blocks requires me to rotate the quilt 360 degrees. So, I am procrastinating about that for now. Quite successfully too.

No matter how wonky the stitching, it stays!

The one issue I am having is with pulling the knots through from the back of the quilt. It looks like some of the threads on the quilt back are being broken by the knot passing through. The Perle 8 cotton I am using is fairly coarse, and I wonder whether I need to change thread to something a bit finer. Any suggestions?

Now that the evenings are cooler, and the fire is lit, quilting is no longer a potential cause of heatstroke, so I average a couple of ribbons along the quilt length per evening. At the present rate it should be done before the end of winter. It’s a very summery quilt, and will be lovely on my bed, come a return to fine weather.

Must not give away!

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