07 Oct A long time coming

I can’t believe this quilt top is actually finished!  It has been my long-term, no deadline or need to hurry project for over four years!  It is hand appliqued using bias strips and only two fabrics from April Cornell’s Sunshine line.  Mostly, I have worked on it during our biweekly Handwork group meetings.  I took at least one extended break during that time to hand applique and hand quilt my original Raindrops quilt.  But, as the other members of our Handwork group have hand quilted their way through many quilts, I have returned to this one project nearly every meeting.

The design was inspired by a ceiling in Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. We visited there in February 2007 while staying with my Dad and his wife.  In an effort to lighten my purse for a long day of sightseeing, I had left my sketchbook at Dad’s house.  The Biltmore House does not allow photography.  So I stood there, staring at this ceiling, figuring out the pattern and how I could remember it.

As soon as I got back to my sketchbook, I made some very rough sketches to help me remember.  Once we returned home, I finalized the design.  If I recall properly, I purchased the fabrics while in South Haven, MI on our summer vacation that year and then purchased a little more of each fabric when some other quilty friends and I stopped at a quilt shop in Ohio on our way to or from Quilt National that same year.

I love the way the petal shapes in the block create the secondary circle pattern.  I knew I needed to make enough blocks for that design to really show up.  There are sixteen blocks in the quilt, but I cut out and appliqued them in large blocks of four.  The inside of the quilt is about 48″ square and the borders are 2″.

I have to be honest and say I have no idea when I’ll get around to quilting this quilt or what I’ll do with it when I’m finished.  But, it feels very good to be finally finished with the top.

What on earth am I going to do at our next Handwork group?!