one big quilt is finished!

Oh yeah, sometimes I am too stubborn for my own good.

I have always wanted to do things a different way, my way.

Quilting is no different. First I set forth to learn the basics, then my brain starts to twist and turn to find an alternative to the expected.

This quilt I call "Gypsy Dream". It is one big-ass quilt, measuring 120" by 120".

And I free-motion quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.

I know, I could have taken it to my mother's and used her long arm. I have, and will again, do that with such a large quilt. But this, I really wanted to do all here.

It started with a bundle of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably prints. I am not normally drawn to these, but the bundle of rich saturated color (heavy with red, orange and fuchsia) was just delicious. And on sale. (ahem). Then I found the natural background fabric, a Moorish ogee by Laura Gunn. And I remembered all the cool rooms I had read about in World of Interiors. This is a European interior design magazine we used to get at work. It was filled with villas owned by wealthy European Bohemian types. The walls fresco-ed, the furnishings centuries old. The light in the pictures is always so even and the colors of the real Persian rugs just lept off the pages.

This quilt is my interpretation of all that.

I used 30 bobbins and quilted it in 1 1/2 - 2 hour segments in the evenings over the last 2 weeks.