Quilting Beauties: Florentine

Last summer, I showed you some miniature blocks I was piecing in silk, but I never showed you the completed quilt.

Here's the finished quilt: (colours are weird in artificial light, especially so in silk - I need to shoot it outside!)

It's a miniature version of Florentine, from the book Quilting Beauties.One of the nice things about having the templates available on a CD is that, with a little experimentation, you can vary the size according to the scale you choose. This miniature finishes to 14".  It was a real challenge to bind in that slippery silk but all in all I don't think it turned out too badly.  More importantly, it was a lot of fun and I learned things I will apply to future silk projects.

Here's the full sized original of Florentine (34" x 39") pieced in a gorgeous gold-laced collection generously supplied by Hoffman Fabrics. I can't recall ever loving fabrics as much as these...I could sew with them forever. There was no solid black in this collection, so I added a VERY black Hoffman batik - "raven" it's called. Gorgeous.

Florentine was actually one of the quilts chosen for the book cover. I love the way the New York Beauty blocks fit together, with a gaggle of Flying Geese circling the outer edge. While in progress, you can see I briefly considered adding a black circle to draw your eye to the centre of the patchwork...but in the end, decided to leave it off.  That may be something you choose to add. You'll notice the miniature version above has a silk-covered button in the centre.

The squiggle quilting adds just the right flair.

Here you see my assistant adjusting the quilt so it hangs perfectly straight. Maddie was such a big help with the photos.

If you zoom in, you may be able to see the feather quilting which encircles the outer border of geese.

You can order your copy of Quilting Beauties here.  Purchases made through my website are signed, and accompanied by a cute little lapel pin.