Love is All

This is my last post for 2018, and it is fitting that I first of all, I finished this little quilt this year, and second, that I get the post published before the end of 2018! The fabrics, batting and some of the thread were provided to me by Island Batik, Hobbs Batting and Aurifil respectively. I am just so happy to have had the opportunity to work with these fibres this past year, top quality products all. This month's challenge was to create something whimsical and/or wonky. I did a little of both with mine.

You may remember the flimsy and the story from this post.

I knew I would quilt it with wavy lines, maybe swirls here and there. And that's exactly what I did.

I used Aurifil 2600 for the quilting and pieced it on Billie, my 1947 Featherweight. I quilted it on Avril, my Avanté. I used a tawny gold Aurifil for the piecing.

For the backing, I had a nice almost-half yard of Check it Out left to use. And when I went to layer the quilt, I thought, no...it needs some more rainbow on the back.

You can see that I made the binding with the same rainbow Paisley Dot Brights fabrics, just slicing off a 2.25" X 10" piece from each of the leftover squares. Both were done in rainbow order.

Here's a closer look at the Christmas label:

Love is All comes from a discussion I had with my mum in a dream. That, and the experience of having not one, but two sad Christmases in a row, yet having such good times this most recent Christmas amongst the sadness, thanks to being surrounded by loving people, all of which led me to try to show this idea that love heals. It is what helps you come out of the dark, the sadness, and find light and rainbows and love.

Of course, quilt-loving, helper pussycats help with healing too! She gets so excited over new fabrics and new quilts in progress, especially at the trimming stage. See that lone pine tree amongst all the wonky and whimsical ones? Originally it was meant to be the top of another tree peeking into the quilt, but then the quilt said it needed to be a bit wider, and so I added a top and bottom band across it, and it didn't look right with this chopped-off tree top floating there...so I did a little reverse sewing and made a full little pine tree. I like to think of it as a symbol of Mum: she LOVED green, all shades, and this tree is a dark tree but on the rainbow side, so she's there too, in the rainbows and bright colours, and she's different than the wonky ones, because she's Mum. It's her. The other trees are feelings.

Here's a closer look at the quilting. Sorry for indoor shots under fluorescent lights, but A. it's dark out, and B. it's blowing like crazy, and C. it rained most of the day, so outdoor shots wouldn't have happened anyway!

This rainbow line is so happy and bright, isn't it? I hope 2019 will be as well. All right, one more hour until the ball drops, as they say, but I won't be watching; I'll be asleep!

Update:
Still indoors, but in natural light on my kitchen table. I'm thinking the quilt beneath may just be my TBT quilt for this coming Thursday's Throwback Thursday linky party.

I totally didn't plan for the green binding to be under Mum's tree, but maybe she did...

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: original design
Size: 15.25 x 31.5"
Fabric: Island Batik Paisley Dot, Basic grey, and various scraps all from Island Batik
Backing: Check it Out and Paisley Dot Brights both by Island Batik
Batting: Hobbs Thermore

Quilted: on Avril my Avanté; 14 250 stitches
Threads: pieced on Billie, my 1947 Featherweight with Aurifil 2910; quilted on Avril with Aurifil 2600; The Bottom Line in the bobbin

I hope you'll be back in a week to see my last project for the Island Batik year. I am one of two ambassadors who get to go first in the final year-end blog hop whose theme is Getaway!