Another Kaffe explosion

I've had this on my side bar for a few weeks now and not really entered into the spirit of it yet. I do agree that perhaps it is better for others to read and see more than just your final 'tah dah' of a quilt and explain the process behind it. However, all my quilt ideas are not sketches or long thought-out plans. I have ideas...but they are other people's ideas. And then when I get an idea, I never write it down and I never buy fabric specifically for that idea. I revert to my stash to see what I have. And I never work out if I have enough of a particular fabric before I start because I am happy to discover half-way through that I don't because that makes me make another different decision than I had perhaps first planned, which invariably turns out better. Each to his own but I am not a fan of 'safe' quilts. By that I mean where the whole quilt looks like the fabric allocation was planned from the beginning. It's nice but it is 'safe' and doesn't excite me.

So, my inspiration for this quilt initially came from here and how beautiful is this one? I see someone else's idea and I have that 'oooh, I want to make that' thought. But I wanted to make a quilt for two work colleagues who are getting married later this year so the circle idea morphed into...

...hearts. I already had a set of heart templates so all I did was cut out the shapes on as many different Kaffe fabrics as I could lay my hands on.

I then placed each heart on a square of fabric (Kona Coal) and machine satin stitched in a metallic gold around each heart thereby attaching it to the square. I then sewed all the squares together, added an initial border in Anna Marie Horner's first fabric line - Bohemian Beauties - before adding a final border of scraps of the same (and more) Kaffe fabrics that appeared in the hearts.

When it came time to quilt, I decided this would become a 'downstairs' quilt. I can make a quilt in its entirety in my sewing room at the top of the house, or 'upstairs'. It has been noted more than once that if I am awol, this is where I can be found. So...to still appear sociable, I have to have a 'downstairs' quilt to work on when I am with others. I am not very good at just sitting in from of the tv or just talking...I like to multi-task with a quilt as well. So this quilt could well have been finished a long time ago (like last year when I originally pieced it) but hand-quilting it meant it took a lot longer.

A close-up of the quilting, or an ant crawling across it - the choice is yours.

For the back I used a Jinny Beyer fabric I have had for yonks and yonks and as it wasn't quite wide enough I used alternating fabrics to make a strip down the middle. The binding is the same fabric you can see in the stripe that looks like beads/sweets.

And here is the 'tah dah' moment...

I hope they like it.
And all quilts from me that go as a gift have to have one of these labels attached. Just the funniest comments, particularly the 'This seemed like a good idea at the time but now I am not so sure' labels ;-)

Postscript.

A conversation I had today with Daughter No.2 while waiting in a waiting area (with other parents)for Daughter No.1 to finish her music lesson.

Daughter No.2  'Mum, you've brought your quilting with you, people are staring. Put it away and just talk like normal mums do.

Daughter No.1 then appears, looks at me quilting and says in a withering tone)'That is soooo not cool what you are doing.'