Grand Designs

I'm making this quilt for my Sister, Kelly. I chose the fabric and design with her specifically in mind. She has a lovely modern artistic flair, and her new home is bright with lots of natural materials (wood, granite and stone). I hope this will fit in well there.

I think she was a bit apprehensive when I first showed her my sketch. Isn't it wonderful how an idea can start as a scribble on a piece of paper, and then be brought to life into something you can hold and enjoy. I actually got the idea for this design from an episode of "Grand Designs". I love that show! I tried to find the peice of sandstone artwork which inspired me, but I couldn't lay my hands on a picture (I think its at the top of these stairs just out of the picture).

I briefly toyed with the idea of leaving out the sashing, but I like my fabrics to have a bit of breathing room around them, and these Alexander Henry June Bug fabrics deserved to shine!

I made up my own templates for the curved blocks, and although they don't all line up perfectly, I'm surprised they line up as well as they do!

This hasn't been a quick project, but I'm thrilled with how its coming along. I will be combining machine and hand quilting for this one. It will be nice to have a hand quilting project again.

Now I just have to motivate myself to get started on the back (not my favourite part). I'm planning on doing some sort of curvy pieced back, but we'll see.