A quilt for Nat and Andrew

This quilt seems to be a master of late-ness.  It was finished approximately 12 months (and a little more) after Nat and Andrew got married and then it has taken another few months to be blogged about.  No very good reason for either delay.  

When my lovely cousin got married I wanted to give her something special but I know she is quite particular (in a good way, of course!) so she would have to be involved to ensure I made her a quilt she'd actually like and use.  We decided on one for the double bed in their spare room and a blue, with a tint of purple, colour scheme.  Nat picked out the four lovely simple and modern bi coloured fabrics which feature in the star and I suggested teaming them with the vintage florals (from Sew and Quilt) - I felt we needed to add a bit more colour and movement without overpowering Nat's choices.

I was too scared to make a full double bed quilt (and thank goodness given the way I ended up quilting it) so this one covers the bottom third or so of the bed and hangs down over the end and sides.  I picked out Klona Copen (such a pretty blue) from Backstitch for the surround and binding.  The backing is a snuggly creamy coloured flannel.

I wanted to go for something fairly striking for the quilting, to bring some interest to the large ares of solid colour.  I started with sewing 1 inch to the outside of the central vertical and horizontal lines - making a cross shape.  Then I worked out from there following those lines but with no measurement and random spacing (from around 0.5 inch to 2 inches I guess).  Each line was started from the centre and worked out to the edge.....and then back to that point to sew out at 90 degrees from the last line and so on.  It took forever, and so did tying and burying all those ends.  I am so pleased that I persevered though as the quilt has a lovely texture and the quilting does work as I had hoped it would.  

I think it finished at 75 by 47 inches (around 190 by 120cm).  And I hope it will bring Nat and Andrew many years of happiness.

This last photo is 'just because', it was taken while I was photographing the quilt - isn't it wonderful?  I do love that shade of orange - not that I would wear it or make anything with it, nor do I have anything in the house that colour........but it really looks the height of happiness to me.  What colour would you pick for happiness?

I have been playing with my blog - perhaps you have noticed?  Not everything is quite as I had hoped and I haven't managed to get everything to work the way I had ideally intended - but I think it will be okay for now, and I'll try again another time.  The main area I'm still not happy with is the menu bar along the top - I would really like it to show thumbnails of related posts, and to show+ specific pages of text and photos.......but I haven't figured that out yet. Any comments and thoughts would be gratefully received!