2020
What a year that was, surely one that we are all glad to leave behind. We will all share a collective memory of the year but have many mixed memories of our own and our families. As a family we were lucky and apart from missing being together we are all safe and well.
Our youngest granddaughter, Florence. turned one year old during the year and there was a shuffle of bedrooms at their house and her big sister, Olivia, moved into a bigger bedroom and became the proud owner of a new, bigger, bed.
A New ‘Big Bed’ Quilt
So it was time for a new quilt. Like most 4 year old girls at the moment, pink, as is the trend, must be the colour, with a little bit of glitter and bling of course. She has always loved animals so when I came across Art Gallery Fabrics ‘Selva’ I knew it was the right choice. I love working with AGF fabrics, they are such great quality and they make up like a dream.
I had also bought a panel, ‘Junglemania’ by Mia Charro for Blend Fabrics some time before and the animals in their floral crowns were just perfect for what I had in mind.
The creatures in the panel are not all jungle dwellers right? I think they were chosen for their charming ability to carry off wearing their floral crowns. Very 2020! It’s sure to be a talking point for Olivia, she’s very keen to be precise about facts.
I’m rather fond of the cheetah myself, Olivia loves the giraffe. What about you?
My ‘Meadowland’ quilt was nearing completion and I really enjoyed making the blocks and thought it wouldn’t be difficult to change the measurements slightly to accommodate the individual creatures. I took a break from ‘Meadowland’ and worked out the measurements to include a rectangular centre block rather than square.
I liked how the block worked out so as soon as I was able – and in between my lockdown gardening and daily exercise – I began work on the quilt that became known as ‘Pink Jungle’.
The garden was a huge part of my lockdown life and I have to admit that I became pretty much obsessed with it and I was outside as much as was possible . Apart from our daily exercise, in the main exploring the local lanes by bike in the eerie quiet of lockdown , gardening took up the majority of my time.
Since this was early Spring though, there were times when the weather made being indoors the more attractive proposition. During these times progress was speedy, the blocks came together quickly and I was soon laying them out
There’s a weather clue in the photos! The red socks are gardening socks, suggesting ‘rain stopped play’ outside. The indoor slippers suggest that the only gardening that day was watering the trays of seedlings on all the window sills, there’s also a lack of daylight in the colour in the second one bears that out too!
The animals in the ‘Selva’ – Jungle in Spanish (something else to interest Olivia) – are delightful, the sloth is so cute.
The finished top was very bright and I had to remind myself that was what I was aiming for. I decided to be more reserved for the backing so I chose plain pink with just a single row of animals.
Eleventh hour
All was complete but for the binding when, as often happens, I found myself with a new project, or two even! So it wasn’t surprising that I found myself finishing off the binding on Christmas Eve. But it was done and wrapped and waiting for Olivia with her new Scooter on Christmas morning.
We were lucky to have our Aberystwyth family with us for Christmas day but sadly our planned whole family gathering wasn’t to be. Changes to Welsh lockdown rules, and our daughter having to self isolate meant that our Bristol family couldn’t travel to be with us.
Because we’re back in full lockdown I have yet to see Olivia’s quilt in situ but she loves it and I’ve seen pictures her, and Florence too, enjoying it. The next new family quilt will be for Heidi when they move house in the Spring.
