Sandra’s Quilt

Okay, the coast is clear! Sandra has received her quilt. I posted about it a few weeks ago on her Birthday but I didn’t want to post any photo’s until she received it and saw it first. TA-DA! Here it is!

Actually, that’s only a detail. Here is what the full thing looks like.

I made it back in February of 2012 for the Habitat challenge our guild was given by the Modern Quilt Guild. The fabric was from Free-spirit and designed by Jay McCaroll (Winner of Project Runway). Our guild was a little late to the party but we were able to catch the tail end of the challenge. Most guilds had all their challenges finished and posted by October 2011! Even so I sat on mine until November 29th of this year, waiting for Sandra’s Birthday to come around. Her Birthday was kind of an important one and I wanted to mark it as so.

The back reminded me of that wood paneling from the seventies that everyone had in their basements!

Before I started my quilt my friend Cynthia was telling me about an interview she saw with Jay McCaroll where he said the collection was about urban nature. Which made sense to me since when I first saw the fabric I thought some of it looked like frog eggs, grass and, of course, leaves contrasted with the colours of the city. When I heard that, I immediately thought about all those hours Sandra and I would spend outside making our forts as kids.

We we lived on the edge of town in a new development which meant our forts weren’t in trees but more like outlines made from rocks, bits of wood and garbage – hey, when you’re a kid you don’t care! The world melted away and we didn’t see garbage, bits of wood or rocks. We saw fancy houses with all the trimmings! Even then, I knew I was so lucky, in that moment, with my best friend Sandra, making those forts!