I have a quilt that I started making when Mr Acorn and I had just got engaged. I bought packs of Laura Ashley hexagons in blue and white - on sale - and some black material (with a very small, almost unnoticeable pattern in red and white) that was all I could afford for the background. Unfortunately I had never made so much as a patchwork cushion before, and had no idea how much fabric I would need.
Of course I ran out of fabric with one vaguely diamond shaped piece of quilt made, and wasn't able to find any more of the background. It got put away for quite a while.
When I got it out again I started trying to match the background. As any quilter will know, there are many shades of black, and after a lot of trial and error I matched this with a batik-y blue-black (almost entirely black) fabric. Now that sounds absurd, but believe me, the shade matches.
It has been taken out and put away many times over the years, because it is entirely hand stitched, including the (pretty basic) quilting. I can only do a certain amount before the needle makes its way into my finger, and I just can't get on with thimbles. I have made quite a number of machine quilts over that time though!
I am intending to finish it completely this year, because our 30th anniversary is this summer, and it would be nice to get some use out of it in the time we have left!!!
There is no doubt my aesthetic senses would be much happier if all the background fabric was the second one (much better quality than the first), but actually I quite like the idea that the centre of the quilt is noticeably the section I made before we were married. It has a story.
12 Replies
2573 Views