My Baltimore Album Style Quilt is Finally Done After a Mere Thirty Years!

Well, it is finally done!  If I get truly inspired, I may add some more ruched roses in the border but don't hold your breath!!  It is 90 inches x 90 inches but may never find its way to a bed!  It was hard to find a place to even take a picture!!  My fingers are still chewed up from all the hand quilting.  However, that whole cloth quilt top that has been sitting in my closet for years might be the project of the year for next year's trip south as I do like having a quilt to hand quilt.  All my early quilts were hand quilted but the past few years that has changed -- mostly because the type of quilts I do has changed a lot!!  

This is a closeup of one corner where  you can see the ruched flowers and the hand quilting.  Note to self:  don't add applique after your whole quilt is finished including the hand quilting!

When I started quilting almost 40 years ago now, I thought I would be doing hand and machine applique and took my first quilting class just because I thought I couldn't call myself a quilter unless I knew the basics of piecing!!!  I always tell people to try anything as they never ever know what they will like.  It was advice I gave my kids when they went off to college as well encouraging them to try a bit of everything.  My first dyeing class was taken just because I had to choose three classes to enable me to get into an Elly Sienkievicz class taught at a local venue 30 years ago!!  

 Here are the remaining four quilts that will be in the Genesee Valley Quilt Show next weekend.  You can see how eclectic my quilting is.  This uses fused applique and machine quilting techniques and contains my hand dyed fabrics.  Called Colin Deconstructed.

 This is one of my many Serendipity quilts called Snowflakes.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

This of course is my Serengeti Lions drafted from a picture my daughter took in Africa her last trip.  It is totally machine pieced and machine quilted and contains my hand dyed fabrics.  Pictoral quilts are really my favorites so maybe I am not as far from my origins as you might think!

Another of the Serendipity quilts from Sara Nephew's books.  This one is called Calypso because of the colors.

 The snowy winter was wonderful for our azaleas which were more colorful than I have ever seen them!

 Dear Husband planted this fragrant lilac in our yard this spring!

 He has also been purchasing more and more hibiscus which we cart down to NC each winter.  I think the van will only have space for plants this next trip.... I do like this white one though!

Our neighbors have planted these beautiful tree peonies and I got some pictures just as they unfurled!

 Another of the new hibiscus plants.