Secret Quilt Revealed

For those of you who didn't spot my accidental publish of this wee post back when the quilt was just finished here's the "official" Secret Quilt reveal. 

So remember I started with this

and a sketch of what I was aiming for (I only made a few changes to the plan in the end).

Then I spent a lot of time with one of these

nervously wringing my hands and hoping it would all fit together.

And it did!

Here it is in all it's Roman glory!

I know the border block is Greek key but the Romans used it lots too.

This applique block is the Eagle - symbol carried by the Roman Legions (or something like that)

When Constantine became Emperor and introduced Christianity across the Roman Empire, he had the Roman legions carry this Chi-Rho symbol before them.  Chi and Rho are the first two Greek symbols of the name of Christ.

Close-up of the border blocks and the foundation pieced lettering

Washed and dried and ready for wrapping.

The wrinkly crinkliness after tumble drying hides my not-quiet-so-straight-line quilting!

My 2011 Secret Quilt project was for my lovely hubby who seriously enjoys Roman history.  I'm sure he'll be able to tell me that some of the "Roman" elements are historically inaccurate - but I did try Hubs!   Can't imagine there'll ever be another quilt like this one is the world ever!  Unless, of course, anyone would like me to do a BOM quilt-a-long?.....

Kidding!

Hope you and yours all had a fabulous Christmas Holiday!

PS - I think he liked it - a bottle of whiskey and a quilt to snuggle in, what more could a man want from Santa?

Busy, busy

Life is rather rudely getting in the way of a hefty sewing To Do List and my blogging time these days.  At this point I should be well immersed in my festive sewing projects but instead I'm tinkering around the edges.

The return to work post-op, combined with an office relocation which means I now have to waste spend time travelling that I didn't have to before, is seriously impacting my productivity and fun - ie sewing.  Life chez Sew Me has become manic in the past two weeks and since I'm not envisioning that an extra 3 hours a day will be created just for me, it looks like I'm going to just have to get used to it.  Anyway, moan over!

In a spirit of defiance, or perhaps just hopefulness, I am still clinging to plans to get my projects sorted in time for Christmas gifting.

Last weekend I squeezed in a few hours to make a wee bit more progress on the quilt that's a secret.  There's not a lot I can show you that's very interesting, but here's a wee peek anyway -

I do need to discipline myself and make this one a priority to finish as there will be one terribly empty stocking if it's not ready for the big day!  It is getting there, some bits are turning out better than I expected, but the maths challenge continues on the making of this from the outside in. Another two stages and I hope to leave the sums behind!

Little Miss Shabby has also posted her November Birdie Stitches block (only one more to go!). She has designed a lovely Thanksgiving themed block with the cutest turkey I've ever seen, but sadly since Thanksgiving is a holiday we don't celebrate in the UK this one doesn't feel like it would have much meaning in my quilt.  So time for a redesign ...

November?  November?  It was harder than I imagined to come up with a design that speaks to me about November.  The only 'holiday' I could think of is Guy Fawkes on 5th November, but here in Northern Ireland I'm afraid we don't really celebrate "bonfire night" either!  So what then?  Well, here's what I settled on (with a little artistic assistance from Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching) -

It's a wee personal one and not very obvious to anyone outside my household, but as November is the month we celebrate the arrival of our beautiful son into our lives this one is Birdie Mum wishing Birdie Son a Happy Birthday!  Well, that's the plan anyway, show you more when it's done.

Now I need to head off and make the most of the few hours that are left making some progress on something!

Shagpile Quilt?

Well, not quite ...  Don't think it's a goer as a concept myself, but the rug provided the only layout space with any decent light for taking the picture in our house today.

Photo is sideways (looked weird when I tied to rotate it) - the right hand side of pic is actually the top border.

I beavered away today cutting into the lovely Ravenwood fabrics and making 22 futtery Greek/Roman key blocks for the borders of my custom designed Secret Quilt.  It is very peculiar to be making this quilt top from the outside (borders) inwards, rather than the normal way, but I was nervous about making the centre of the quilt first and then ending up with border panel sizing that wouldn't work or would cut off half a key block. So, this was how I decided to tackle it.  Not sure yet that I'd want to do it again unless absolutely necessary.

This is probably the last decent pic of the Secret Quilt that I'll be able to show.  Future snippets will have to be a bit more cryptic (if my photography skills are up to it) in order not to spoil a Christmas surprise.

So far, it's been fiddly and scary 'cos I'm making this one up entirely by myself and it's not just lovely repeating square blocks.  But if I can get there, hopefully it'll be appreciated and that will be worth all the effort and mild panic over the maths!