Surprise Patchwork Quilt

I can finally show you the custom order quilt I have been working on since April. I delivered it to my friends in Porto this weekend. I was nervous of course having worked on it for so long and knowing how bad surprises can sometimes go. But I am happy that both Olivia and Paulo are also happy with their new quilt.

I started with the center flower, a pattern I got from the Quilting Arts Magazine. Then everything just kind of grew from there. The only request I had was that the colors to be used were brown, yellow and orange. The rest was up to me. This much freedom is not always a good thing especially if you are as indecisive as I am. But somehow things fell into place quite naturally. I love it when a fabric chosen for a particular place is just enough to the mm as though it was meant to be.

The batting I used is a 50/50 cotton and bamboo blend. It is a good choice. Easy enough to quilt, all natural and eco-friendly. The quilting part is always the hardest. First finding the space to lay the whole quilt flat to baste all the layers together, then quilting all those tiny stitches. By the end my fingers were bleeding and I have a tiny whole in one of them from the back of the needle constantly pushing into it, totally my fault for not liking to use a thimble. 

This was the good news.

Now for the bad news.

The corn we planted has all but almost died because Spring decided to turn to Winter overnight and it frosted.

The birds that had been reusing a nest from last year right at the entrance to our house forgot to do some much needed home renovations and upgrades and all 3 of their baby birds fell from the nest on the same day, before they even got to grow feathers and... died.