The task begins

I can now share with you 'Part 1' of the quilt that I making for Thorngrove Manor. Thanks Nydia for allowing me to do this….all very exciting and I hope you the reader enjoy sharing this journey as well. It has taken a few weeks of just "thinking" about what I would do. I have been given free reign which is amazing, so with that my main theme was to make the quilt quite 'regal' as it is for the King's Room. At the same time I wanted to reflect some of the designs that are already in the suite, so here goes! I have spent a few late nights in the wee small hours doing the drawings……...

 and then it was time to select the fabrics. I have a very special stash at home of fabrics with gold so naturally these seem to be appropriate for a King's Room. The fabrics have obviously been waiting to be turned into something special and I am glad they will be put to good use……….

 The background is from Lakehouse fabrics - This design is "Antique Acanthus" in black (Thankyou Tim from Lloyd Curzon Textiles for providing me with this delicious print)…….

 And Tim for you…a week on and your beautiful flowers are still bringing pleasure. The other image is through our front door where you can see a new urn and I am pleased to say there are quite a few roses too! (more pics when they too are blooming)…..

 Sunday afternoon we went for the drive to Thorngrove to show Nydia and Kenneth my drawings and fabric selection……..

 And this is the beautiful bed that my quilt will adorn………...

 My drawings and plans and you can see some of the centre on the right…...

Then it was the task of all the tracing and ironing…..that took a couple of days and you can see in the image the "bridges" that I talk of in class. These are imaginary connections to assist with placement…..those bits on the bias can be a struggle but these really help to hold it all together……..

 This is the pencil I use for all my tracing….never have to sharpen it…...

 And now the long task of cutting out all those little bits!…...

 and my very favourite scissors - Fiskars Softgrip that have wide handles for comfort - and they are so very sharp too……..with a pen top for protection!….

Today I started the centre background placement of all the appliqué pieces and at the same time I caught up on two episodes of Silent Witness and two episodes of Inspector Frost! And then this afternoon while I was still working our new curtains were being hung. I didn't have enough William Morris fabric for full drapes so instead had padded pelmets and tiebacks made. I am so thrilled and to think that the fabric was a gift from a very special person…...

 Thankyou Michael and Linda for your hard work…..and to Kym…..we just love them and the 'silk dupioni look' curtains are divine! We've been told to let the drapes hang a few weeks before using the tie-backs so I will show them off again then!….

 Back to the work at hand……another view of those little bridges on my appliqué and then the trimming before you press……..

And Nydia and Kenneth..this is the first reveal of the centre minus a few little pieces. Now all the stitching begins!

Thanks for visiting the blog and I look forward to sharing more of this quilt in the future xx