A few days ago, Traci, one of my Facebook friends asked if anyone did English paper piecing and it reminded me of the unfinished ‘Grandmother’s Flower Garden’ quilt that I probably started over thirty years ago. She was keen to see a picture of it so I dug it out of the cupboard so that I could photograph it.

In my opinion the top looks better in the photo than it does in real life but I was surprised at how enthusiastic people were about it and everyone who commented said I should finish it. When I look at it, I see the fabrics and they are so different from the batiks and hand dyes which I love to work with now. I don’t like a lot of the colours and patterns and some of the fabrics aren’t even 100% cotton. Back then, however long ago it was that I started it, there were no shops selling the wonderful quilting fabrics that you get now, at least there weren’t where I lived in England. Quite a lot of the fabrics in the top are ones that I bought for dress making and then others were bought whilst traveling and living in various places overseas.

Floral fabric bought in Morocco many years ago

Many of the blocks bring back memories of living in Morocco and first time round in Brunei, travels to California, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This was dress making fabric bought in California and I remember making a lovely Vogue patterns full circle skirt and top out of this.

 As time went by I started buying fabrics specifically for quilting and so these fabrics have also found their way into the quilt, so it really is a patchwork quilt in the true sense of the word.

This fabric came from the Philippines

The problem with trying to finish it off now is adding more blocks that are in keeping with the original ones, but then maybe that doesn’t really matter as it is already such a mixture. Another New Year’s resolution:  to finish this top, my other is to try making some of my quilts on a larger scale.

My original template set from all those years ago

Of course the cats are attracted by the bright colours and it didn’t take Millie long to spot it and make herself comfortable.

Millie quick to choose her spot.