Secret garden - reissued
I started quilting in 2005. I had no access to the Internet, so I borrowed books from the library to teach myself.
I wanted to make a blue and white quilt for my bedroom. Whenever I had some spare cash, I bought fat quarters in various shades of blue, and started to put simple 4 patches together. At the same time, I found a huge amount of white damask linen at a garage sale. I combined this with the four patches which I sub-cut whichever way they fit, to create a top that I liked. I didn't know it, but I was improvising, as I did not use a pattern and just trusted my instinct to put the top together. I've always loved the top, but I was terrified of trying to quilt it. And it has survived 6 house moves!
Clearly, the quilt top is dear to me. I has a lot of history attached to it because I made it during a pretty dark time in my life. I didn't know when to stop adding to it, and the resulting huge king size quilt top is my oldest UFO. I paired it with a beautiful Moda backing which has never been cut into as it was waiting for it's moment of glory.
And the moment of glory is coming soon. I plan to get the top quilted by a long arm quilter that I have just discovered locally. Robyn assures me that she will be able to cope with the white damask.
Robyn is currently quilting my butterfly quilt. Again, I was terrified of attempting to quilt this. I couldn't bear the thought of ruining it with my clunky straight line stitching I want loopy loops, and preferably, butterflies too!
A few months into my quilting journey in 2005, I enrolled in a creative quilt class. Our class teacher was very innovative, and part of the curriculum involved creating an art quilt each week of the 6 week course.
I gave two finishes away, threw out another two, and kept two.
I've just unearthed 'Secret Garden' from a dark cupboard, and looking at it again, I wondered, "What happened to the creative spark that made me make it?" I guess part of it is still there as I rarely use a pattern to make my quilts now, so I do still improvise. But I am definitely less brave about it.
I looked at the way I had sewn, slashed, appliqued, layered, embroidered, and generally played around, to create 'Secret Garden'. I need to get that spark back. I think that, around this time, I was happy to let loose on little quilts, but a real scaredy cat when it came to anything bigger. Also, I was really intimidated by free motion quilting on a domestic sewing machine. I still am, and this often dampens my confidence, and my enthusiasm.
I feel that free motion quilting anything big is now beyond me. However, buying a new semi-industrial sewing machine for better and more accurate straight line quilting is my next go-to. I recently bought the Janome MC6650, and I'm finding out how to use it now. The Terry Rowland scrap quilt will be its first test run.
Anyhoo, back to this little picture. I like it. It's based on my garden in Canberra - the bird bath, the bird houses, flowers, a water feature with leaves floating on it, and best of all, a Currawong that visited the garden often. I have fond memories of my first house in Australia, so I want to keep this quilt. Both my sons were born while I lived here, and one of my favourite dogs is buried under the Gladitsia, with his own time capsule, in case anyone ever unearths him!
The background in 'Secret Garden' has all of the fabrics that I used in my first quilt top. Twenty years later, some of the same fabrics have made an appearance in the Terry Rowland quilt.
But the binding was all wrong. I decided to put a new binding on it, and include a way to hang it properly.
It will come to my new house in March and will no longer be stashed in a dark cupboard.
The creative spark is starting to sparkle again. I can see a version of this in my mind's eye as the centrepiece in a lap quilt somewhere in the future.
So, here is 'Secret Garden - Reissued' with its new binding.
I can't tell you how many fabrics were auditioned for the new binding. I settled on this very dark blue floral after spending a couple of hours auditioning far too many other fabrics, and scraps. The good news is that I don't believe I have a single 20 year old scrap left from my first quilt top.
And if I do, they are all going into the compost bin!
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