Another Christmas Present complete - Yay!!

One of my closest girls friends has two favourite things - purple and horses.  She is my Kris Kringle Recipient in our small group (we call ourselves the Sisterhood) and I was. for at time, trying to work out how i could combine both.  Then I searched on www.equilter.com  and found the perfect fabric - purple bali batik with horses all over.  There were only about 2 meters left so I snapped them up.  Once the fabric arrived i set about finding a way to use as much of the fabric as possible to make her quilt.  Once I had settled on the pattern I dragged a quilting buddy of mine to our local Quilt Shop, www.countrypickins.com.au and together we chose a fabulous fabric that goes from deep teal, thru royal blue to deep navy.

Then it was time to cut out.  I worked out the best size square to cut across the fabric so that I had little more waste than the selvage and then started cutting.  As I cut I laid all the blocks out and added numbers.  Next I started cutting the variegated fabric.  I cut a strip, then cross cut it and as each piece was cut i placed it in its correct place working across the quilt so that the variegation would not get messed up.  once all the pieces were in place I pinned them all then brought them to my sewing machine and started to sew.  once all the cutting and pinning was done the rest was fairly quick.

I chose the variegated fabric for the borders and then for the binding, trying to get the blue part on the teal and vice versa.  I have to say that i am pretty happy with the end result.   

I quilted this with a variegated thread in pinks and purples (couldn't find one in pinks and teals or blues) on the diagonal in line with the stars and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I think the dark backing would have been quite stark without the coloured lines to lift it.

Not sure if you can read the label but it says "Fate made us friends, love made us sisters" and that just about says it all and I can't wait to give it to her.

I had just enough material left to make two matching potholders and they are the next thing sitting on my sewing machine - tomorrow's job, hopefully, along with guitar practice (much needed) and a little gardening and normal household chores!