My first quilt.

My very first quilt, was made in the quilting group I attended at that time. It was an ongoing workshop, making one block each week, then finishing it at home, led by one very talented lady who is a member of the group. Unfortunately, before it was finished, I stopped coming to the group because, at that time, we had just received our puppy in the home and with him needing to be housetrained etc, al spare time was taken up... (it would take two years before I went back to quilting !! - with one thing and another.. not just the dog!).

Rafael was very active from the beginning, here he is "helping" sail the boat in his very own lifejacket at the tender age of 9 weeks..


At the time, being so young, he was still on the lead when aboard and on deck, lest he fall overboard, but he learnt surprisingly quickly how to balance and it is now safe for him to be off lead. But I digress... (funny how that happens when talking about puppies...). Back to the quilt.

I had made all the blocks but not put them together. So I went and got some fabric, made an amazing find of a 100% cotton french designer sheet, and set about to put it all together. Don't you just love the dot pattern on the sheet (that I used for a border and backing ) ? sort of retro and psychedelic all at once and fitting so well with the blocks. It took me a long time to put it all together. And even longer to quilt it ! (First quilting... massive stitches.. still can't do the little uns...), but it was finally finish last December 2008.