The Quilt that Waited

This week I have been having a major sewing room clean out.  Some things I will never use again are going out - to charity or sell on Ebay or garage sale - but they are going.

Amongst the drawers I found an old treasure.  This is my first attempt at an applique quilt.  I had done all the classes on how to do it, and practiced with little things.  It was now time to tackle something big.  The local quilt shop was having a BOM for a Folk Art applique quilt.  Hmmm, looked like I could do that, big pieces, not too hard.  This was in 1997.  I started the first block on my trip to the US at about the time of my mothers death.  So I remember it well.  I never touched it again for a good few years.  I got all the patterns, but never touch them for at least 7 years.  All the other blocks got finished in a big hurry when I found it again, for the first time.

There is a pattern for a big applique border, and applique sashing. Too hard!  It went back into the drawer again

See how crinkled up the blocks are after all those years in the very bottom and back of the drawer?  Poor things.

Today I decided to just sew all the blocks together, get one of my border fabrics - I found them all, so I know where they are.  I put the blocks together and used this great border fabric. It is so perfect.  I wanted something dark, and the flowers even have the same shape as the applique.  This is going to be a good teaching quilt as it will show the progress.   Not quilted yet, and that will be the next thing to think about - should I do it by hand or machine?  I think it deserves hand quilting, see it waited so long, another couple of months won't matter.