Tuesday 6 January 2009

Millennium Quilt: still crazy after all these years

























It's Twelfth Night and my Silent Stars Christmas quilt has come off the bed till next year and I've put on my New Year quilt which was made to mark the Millennium with 2000 different squares, 1.5" finished. I made blocks 4 squares by 5 and the quilt's inner section is composed of 40 by 50 squares. I would probably have been defeated by this project had I not been living in Kuala Lumpur for a year with no job, cleaners and lots of meals out! Bliss - I pieced like crazy. I started in the middle with yellows, reds and pinks alternated with squares with white backgrounds and then moved out to different colours and darker background squares. Black and white patches were pieced into 4 patches and dotted over the surface of the quilt. Plain squares were sited alternately in the outside row - 90 different ones. I'm ashamed/proud to say I sourced at least 1000 squares from my stash; others were acquired by 2" square swaps. Maggie, a fellow Crab & Winkle, suggested the exact shade of blue for the border strip and I used foundation pieced crazy blocks for the outer border, sourced on the net. It's completely hand quilted. If the centre represents the last 2000 years the crazy border represented the future as yet without form. The black and white fabrics are dotted with red, turquoise and parchment patches signifying conflict, environmental issues and scholarship respectively. In the event the blood red patches reflect the path we are taking in this 21st century. Let's hope the new leader of the free world will be able to redirect us. . . .

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