Out of the closet

Having put my creative projects on a shelf for a time, I got out an old UFO. This had been languishing in the cupboard for at least 6 years. I started it as a BOM in 2001, just before I went to live in Italy. I remember crouching on the floor of my attic apartment, stifling in the summer heat, cutting strips and square and triangles. I think I pieced a lot of them when visiting my parents, where my father was recovering from a car accident where he broke his pelvis.

Anyway, it is 60 by 83 inches, and greens and purples, representing the vineyards in Marlborough. Luckily I still like it.

I started on the quilting last week. I did some meander round the vines, and that looks good. Then I put on the walking foot and have been doing some of the blocks and borders. Because of the size and the weight of the quilt, I am having to do two passes round the blocks, one left and one right, so I don't have to rotate the entire thing. It's a bit like ploughing a paddock or mowing a lawn. The outside passes take a lot longer than the middle ones. I worked out when I was discing or rolling a paddock once, that if you divide the sides of the paddock into 10, then when you have done the 3 outer rows, you have done half the area.

I've experimented with various threads, including metallics, but the subject matter keeps telling me it doesn't want glitz, so half the time I am using standard white economy thread and it looks fine.

I don't think I will finish before I go to the UK on Thursday, but it probably won't need much longer.

It is great to get it out of my UFO box, because it took up heaps of room. It's made with high loft poly batting, so pretty bulky.