Fifth Finish

I've already listed five finishes for 2010. There certainly won't be five this February but it's a good start even it was only because I had various quilts near to completion. However, I hope to press on with the finishing and that finishes should easily outnumber new starts. There was one new start AND a finish in January, my Kente Quilt done for the BQL list challenge. The goal for January was a quilt for a soldier and I determined to do this using fabric on hand and an idea for a quilt I'd had in mind for a long time. The woven is Indian cotton and was bought at Hancocks of Paducah. I still have a lot left. I used alternate directions of the weave in alternate rows. The others are mostly Ghanaian wax prints from Magie Relph's African Fabric Shop. http://www.africanfabric.co.uk/  I attended a workshop with Magie making blocks for a similar design based on traditional Kente woven cloth; her blocks were various foundation pieced patterns but as time was of the essence and the fabrics were in themselves so super I just used plain oblongs. I used a sort of ladder stitch in the ditch and variegated thread for the diagonal quilting. The quilt measures 54 by 72 inches. I shall send it to my local Quilts ofValour contact here in the UK (hence the spelling) with the proviso that if they don't deem it suitable for any reason it go to Project Linus as a teenage quilt.  They specified heirloom quilts which put many people off. This is not an heirloom quilt but it is made well from good quality fabrics and should stand up to wear and use. Quilts do not have the same emotional and cultural charge here in Britain as they do in the States but it is by such dissemination we create an audience and perhaps a market for quilts.