Finished!!....

...well almost finished!!
I have always been pleased that my daughter, Anna, takes an interest in my patchwork.  Quite a while ago (sigh) she asked if I would be interested in making the pastel version of Kaffe Fassett's "Jane's Diamonds", from his book Quilts In The Sun, of course I was happy to oblige!  She loved the colours and prints in the original so we hunted to try to find these prints, many of which are now rare and not available.  (Now comes the fun bit of substituting fabrics - I love fabric auditioning and finding lovely prints that will work just as well or even better!).

The above picture may not look like much, but poor Anna had to wait months and months to see even this little token of her lovely quilt.  We undertook a home renovation project in 2011 and playing with fabric was sadly back-burnered.  I hadn't forgotten though, and when her 18th birthday was 3 months off, I began with gusto.  I almost immediately lost the wind from my sails though when I discovered that I had no experience in butting up seams and matching perfect points on diamonds! 

It was slow and painstaking, but with the patient advice and tutorials from Jacqui and Jody at Patchwork at Homespun, I began to make progress.

It was a joy to work with these happy colours and luscious prints.  They were a beautiful sight strewn around my sewing area!

Yummy Kaffe prints!

This quilt is entirely symmetrical!  Something perhaps that isn't noticeable at first, but Anna loved this aspect of the quilt and so I challenged myself to keep everything where it should be. 

At some sad point I decided that I didn't like a bright coral coloured silouette rose print and so I began the task of removing all of these diamonds.  Reverse sewing when a deadline is looming is not the happiest of tasks, but one that i felt was necessary.

goodbye Silouette Rose

"Reverse Sewing"

Anyway, progress continued, borders were added, it was all carefully pressed,

Donna Lawrence, from Calico Quilters, quilted it beautifully!

Finally her 18th birthday arrived and I was able to present my labour of love to dear Anna.  Although I had closeted myself away during much of the piecing process, Anna did suspect I was sewing for her, and she had caught some glimpses along the way.  I must confess, it was presented without the binding (shameful!) and without a label, which is why, way way back in this long post I had titled it "Finished... well almost finished!".  I sign off with 2 final photos of anna opening her lovely new Kaffe quilt.  xox to Anna!!