Saturday, May 19, 2012

Why not!

That’s exactly what I said, to no-one in particular, when I read that Amy (of Amy’s Creative Side) was once again holding her Bloggers’ Quilt Festival.

So, inspired by my dear friend Linda’s win – but in no way placing myself in her league! – I’m entering “Alhambra Romance”.

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Please excuse me if you’ve seen it before, but since I tend to take the scenic route when I make a quilt I don’t have a huge pile of finished works to choose from, and this one is definitely one of my favourites.

When I offered to make my son and soon-to-be-daughter-in-law a wedding quilt I expected them to ask for a nice, simple modern quilt, not something along the lines of this tiled wall they had seen at the Alhambra in Spain. Gulp!

Alhambra

It’s amazing what a Mum will do out of love for her offspring, and with little more than a deep breath (but with a sinking feeling inside) this mathematically challenged Mum tackled the geometry involved in drawing up a grid for the tile placement on this over-all design that had inspired Escher’s art!

Over a period of around 5 months I hand appliqued each tile onto the single quilt-sized piece of background fabric, leaving narrow spaces in between to look like grouting, and the quilt travelled with me as my handwork on an extended holiday to Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Italy, France and England. Some of those tiles were stitched in places as romantic as a café beside the Grand Canal in Venice, and as unromantic as a hospital in Cairo (don’t ask)!

Finally, I hand quilted around each tile and finished the quilt just in time for their wedding.

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I think they liked it!

Now I’m off to check out all the other fantastic quilts in the Bloggers’ Spring Quilt Festival – are you coming too?

 

BQF-Spring-2012-Button

Di

27 comments:

  1. How beautiful! This is just lovely.

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  2. Di, it's just GORGEOUS! Such a brilliant rendition of the tiling. And I adore the border too - your creativity is just amazing.

    Thank you so much for taking the time to share this piece. I really hope you do receive some kind of award for this piece. Youv'e really captured the spirit of the tiled work.

    Make sure you share this one with the QDU Facebook page. I'm warning you, if you don't, I will!

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  3. What a fascinating history behind this quilt, and the fact that you stitched it all over the place! Definitely my favorite appliqued quilt. Well done.

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  4. Wow, what an amazing quilt! I can't even guess at how you managed to divide that up into managable blocks. You recreated the wall with fabric so beautifully. Congratulations!

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  5. Your quilt is amazing just to look at and to find out that the "tile" was made all in one piece is even MORE amazing. Great work.

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  6. Wow what an incredible work of art that is - you must have some kind of a math genius brain in there to have figured out that pattern and the patience of a saint for the piecing and quilting!

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  7. I admire your creativity! I imagine they were floored to recieve such a thoughtful gift!

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  8. What a request!!! What an accomplishment!! Beautiful.

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  9. Mom of the year award to you! It's a beautiful quilt, great job.

    Happy Quilt Festival!

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  10. There are a lot of love and work in this beautiful quilt. I am sure they like it.

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  11. What a great mom you are! That quilt would have taken me a lifetime.

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  12. I too like to design quilts around tile floor mosaics. This is amazing!

    Check out my blog if you can...

    Margaret Gunn
    www.quiltsoflove.blogspot.com

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  13. Beautiful! What a labor of love!

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  14. Wow, you really came up with a winner! That is stunning.

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  15. It's absolutely beautiful Di! Don't you dare belittle your gorgeous workmanship. You're an excellent model of dedication to those of us - me, in particular! - who tend to flitter among projects. Very well done. I hope you win in this festival.

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  16. Fantastic quilt - I absolutely love it!

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  17. Oh my goodness, hand applique and hand quilted! Beautiful!

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  18. Oh my golly gumboots!! This quilt is amazing!! I stopped at the first photo trying to figure out how you'd made it. What a lot of work but I love that you stitched in places far and wide. It's a wonderful quilt and a very very special gift made with love, you can't get better than that!!

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  19. It is a beautiful quilt, gotta love those kids for giving us such good challenges! You did an amazing job.

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  20. Wow, you certainly rose to the challenge,Di! This is an incredible quilt. Thanks for sharing.

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  21. beautiful! lovely quilt for a lucky couple. thanks for sharing and have a great day

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