A Quilt for the Young Lad ~ Part 2

You can read Part 1 here (yes, I know it's been a long time...I've been busy, OK?)



One of the things I love about quilting is the serendipitous way that things just seem to work out right, as if the fabric has it's own plans, and it knows better than me how my quilt should look.  I've always been quite a planner - you know, the kind of person who NEVER does the groceries without a list, and who will add things to a "To Do" list AFTER they've been done just for the pleasure of ticking them off.  You know the type, right?  Well, I like to plan my quilts too.  But, while I'm working things don't always go to plan...at the time, this usually causes me more than a little frustration, but in the end it usually works out better than I had imagined.

So, over the last few days I've been working on the Young Lad's quilt again.  If you have actually been following this much neglected blog, you will know that it's going to be a Four Seasons quilt; this is how it has looked for the past year and a half since I last blogged about it:

I'll forgive you for thinking it doesn't look like much of anything, and for wondering what I'be been doing all this time. The thing is, after I happily cut, carefully placed, and busily sewed all those pieces, I was admiring my handiwork, and suddenly realised that I had placed the pieces with the seasons going in the wrong direction! I'd meant for them to go anticlockwise, not clockwise! Now I would have to flip all my applique designs, or they would all be going in the wrong direction too!!  How could I have been so careless?

And my enthusiasm for the quilt flagged a little.  Which may have something to do with why it has been so long since I worked on it (has it REALLY been year and a half ?!) Also, in between times, I made the Young Lad a quiet book and a Christmas stocking, made this quilt:

(there was a little serendipity in this quilt too, which you can read about here)

earned a diploma, got a full-time job...


Anyway, back to the quilt.  The other day, I was fiddling round with my bit of pieced sky and planning all the applique that was to go round it, and I suddenly realised that I'd been going about my design all wrong. The Four Seasons trees I had planned to have on the sides actually needed to be in the corners, which meant that the applique designs wouldn't have to be flipped at all.  Now, instead of an applique border all the way round, which I didn't have enough designs to fill anyway, the corners will have a pieced background representing each of the seasons. I have now cut and pieced three of these blocks, and I am really happy with the way it is all coming together.  So here is

Spring:

Summer:

and Autumn:

Winter is yet to come.  I didn't have enough wintery fabric, so I'm back to hitting the shops. Interestingly though, one of my favourite winter fabrics is one that I actually wasn't sure if I should buy at all!  And that's quilting serendipity.