Back to my Nearly Insane…..

Now that Mrs Billings ( refer previous post) is on holiday awaiting the Festival of Quilts, I thought I would get out my Nearly Insane blocks and try to finish this quilt.
I have done more than half the blocks, and decided I should get some of the half blocks made so I can start piecing the quilt. I need to do this to decide if I have the colours in the right place. This quilt is pieced on the diagonal.
Half Blocks 97 and 98.

Last month I was down with a bad enough cold and cough to have a few days in bed. Why Not? I did ‘cause I could! Anyway as I came right I managed to complete a few easy blocks.Blocks 76, 78 and 46


Hopefully I can keep up with these blocks in between all the gardening and lawn mowing that have been sadly neglected for the last  6 months or more.
Thanks for dropping by

Mrs Billings Returns….

and I MADE my self imposed deadline.
As those of you who follow my sporadic blog…<smile> I have been piecing and hand quilting Mrs Billings Coverlet. A pattern reproduced by Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork in Australia. I have included a little of the history of the Quilt as written by Karen on her Blog. 

The Billings’ Coverlet 1805-1810
The original coverlet can be found in the collection of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles. This is the amazingly detailed quilt on which I based my Mrs Billings. A square coverlet made from fifteen frames of printed cotton hexagons, squares on point, kites and long diamonds made from triangles. Some of the fabrics date from the 1770s, and several have three blue threads in the selvedge. The majority of the fabrics are made from dress prints, although there are some furnishing prints represented. The coverlet had been passed down through the donor's family from her Great Grandmother, who was a housekeeper in a large house in the Leeds area.
 
This is my version
 

At last it is now finished. At this stage this is the only photo I have as its in storage awaiting the Festival of Quilts show in Auckland on the 7th, 8th and 9th November.
I am really thrilled with how it turned out, and if I’d known what a mammoth job it was I may not have kept at it….but I did. Over 500 hours of hand quilting!




Thanks for dropping by