The '3 Year Quilt' Coming Together

I am a sucker for a pretty craft project. Even more so when there are gorgeous colour combinations like pink, green and blue.

So when my boss (at the time) incited me to start a 'block of the month' quilt project at a craft fair 3 years ago I was keen. I even kept up with the block-per-month thing for the first two months.

The almost finished quilt on the line today (yes! blue skies!)

It was the embroidery that broke my progress. Each month had at least two blocks to embroider, some quite detailed. All that embroidery is what drew this project out from a 9 month project to a 3 year one.

The quilt design - Polka Dot Girls - by Bronwyn Hays of Red Brolly
I must admit I edited some of the embroidery blocks to suit my tastes.

However, at last there is an end in sight! Earlier this week I completed stitching the last embroidery panel and today sewed all the panels together. The sewing isn't wonderful - it's my first real attempt at patchwork and I learned a lot of things along the way - but it is complete and the colours and embroidery draw attention away from the mis-aligned seams.

Fuu inspects my work. The angle of her ears signals approval.

Next I have to put on the borders, buy batting and backing fabric then I (fool that I am) will be doing the quilting by hand with embroidery thread. If it has already taken me three years I might as well drag it out to three and a half and make it look exactly the way I want to!