The 30 Year Quilt

I call this the Thirty year quilt because, if I can go by the date on the bottom Baltimore Quilt block, it took me 30 years to complete it. As you can see, it is quite a large quilt. It was begun as a block per month, designed by Ngaire Brooks as a NZ Baltimore. The squares are hand appliqued (not very well) as I was still very much a beginner.

I daringly discarded some of Ngaire’s designs and replaced them with my own. This was a major step forward from my thinking that I had to follow the rules. I loved doing the applique birds so I put in the keruru and the kea. I can’t remember what the blocks were that I discarded. I joined the squares together and then it sat in the UFO pile for a very long time - not sure what I would do with it or how I would finish it.

As the years past, I decided to go into first machine quilting and then free machine quilting as per Karen McTavish’s great book. I found drawing out the quilt patterns on fabric to be a tedious process so free machine quilting gave me some immediacy and was better suited to my temperament.

In 2018 I joined the on line Creative Strength Training with Jane Dunnewold. Studying the archetypes that affect all of us and learning about the committee in our heads that tell us our work is not good enough or no one will like our work, I discovered that my Saboteur whispered in my head that if something wasn’t completed, it couldn’t be criticised. I decided it was time to put the Saboteur to rest. I took out my NZ Baltimore centre and decided this would be the year that I completed it. It was a mammoth task. First I added the borders, complete with the applique ivy and berries and then I began the quilting. The trapunto diamonds were the first to go in.

As I began the free machine leaf design from Karen McTavish’s book - I think she calls it a fire design or open Cs but my designs always form a leaf type outline. It has become one of my staple designs). I began to feel the quilting needed a bit more. I introduced the random butterflies and dragonflies into the background. I felt this provided an additional design element. I was really getting into free design by now.

I did not want the borders to detract from the squares so the ivy and berries are just on alternate corners . They are stipple quilted around but the rest of the borders are just straight line quilting.

The hand applique hadn’t improved but it was less a focus now.

I include this story because there are many who have UFOs hidden away and maybe this story will encourage them to take out their work and revisit it. I was pleased with the end result and most people who see the quilt are more interested in the overall design and effect than the less than perfect applique.

In the gallery below you can see the individual blocks and quilting a bit better.