My first quilt

It's been almost a year since I wrote anything here - not that there was nothing to say, just was too busy to get round to it! Whoever said retirement was the busiest time of their life, I agree...

Anyway, my biggest ever project (not the longest lasting, but the physically biggest) is now finally complete. This is my first (who knows, maybe also my last!) full (double bed) size patchwork quilt - based on Lynne Edwards' Sampler Quilt book.

The blocks and the border were made from scrap fabrics, though I did purchase fabrics for framing, joining and binding. The batting and backing fabrics too were "pre-loved" - the batting taken from curtain interlining and the backing from bedlinen. In this way I think I more or less used the original idea of making patchwork quilts.

Each block was quilted separately before being joined to its neighbours - I had decided on this after making a throw which I found extremely difficult to quilt using just a standard sewing machine. Only the final joins of the borders had the whole quilt on the sewing table.