Antique Quilt Finished

I finally finished repairing the antique tumbling blocks quilt for my neighbour Barbara and her Mum. These little diamonds are 1" wide! The quilt came with the backing separate but the pieced top was stitched to the "batting" which was an old blanket (the done thing in those days). I had to remove the blanket in order to replace some of the diamonds. Rather than using new modern fabrics I asked Barbara if she or her Mum could find some older fabric that would suit the quilt. She brought me some upholstery fabric and also a piece from an old dress. Just the thing for the quilt. Although they were newer fabrics they were pieces from the family which I thought was wonderful.

The fabrics used in the original quilt were brocades, velvet and satin like fabrics. I didn't have any extra black velvet and a couple of the pieces in the centre of the quilt had deteriorated and needed to be replaced. I decided to move the pieces from the edge to the centre and replace the edges with the fabric Barbara gave me. It was better than leaving light diamonds in a row of black. I attached the blanket and then hand stitched the backing in place.

Some pieces of the quilt are very delicate but I think it looks good now that it's all back together again. It has been, for me, very interesting and fascinating to work on this old quilt. I have a huge amount of respect for the maker. I found it really hard work stitching the backing to the pieced quilt through all those thick fabrics.

Yesterday we spent the day in Stirling. I wanted to visit The 88th Scottish Salon of Photography exhibition at the Stirling Smith Museum & Art Gallery as part of my work for Module 2 of the Judging course.

Before going in to see the exhibition we had a look around the grounds. The above photograph is of wooden chairs they were fascinating.
Here is another chair made from tree trunks.
This one was delightful. Beautifully made and very comfortable.

I loved the colour of this one. There were other treasures and the grounds themselves were beautifully laid out.

We also visited another exhibition in Bridge of Allen at Moss. It was an exhibition of 6 artists
It was a lovely exhibition in a nice space. You can see some of the work of these artists on their blog.