Quilts – part 6

This is a post about a quilt from it’s beginning to it’s end.  It’s tragic.

I was given a bin liner of fabric by my mother-in-law to do whatever I wanted with, I decided to make a quilt for her with a piece from each piece of fabric (more about that in another post).  I was working on it when my brother and his girlfriend came to visit from Germany, he was impressed with it and suggested in passing that I could make one for them.  I stored that thought away and decided that I would make them a quilt for a wedding present.  They married in June 2000, no quilt, no sign of a quilt, still just that thought that one day I would make them a wedding present.

Feeling slightly guilty that I’d done nothing about a quilt for them I went through Kaffe Fassett’s Patchwork book trying to find a quilt that would be good to make for them.  I suppose in the back of my mind I wanted it to be quick and easy, something I could start with a view to finishing before they had children and they were getting married!  So I opted for the Pieced Stripes Quilt.  The quilt top is made from 14cm wide strips of random lengths with each end cut at an angle of 60 degrees.  With three colour groups I used were a range of green/orange/gold, grey-blue/grey-lavender and lastly brick/magenta/purple and dull rust.

I had a number of pieces of fabric which would be great for the job and only had to buy a few extra pieces.  So eventually in 2004 (yes really, if you’re a regular reader that shouldn’t really surprise) I was pregnant with our first child, working full time, about to move house and office at work, I thought it would be a good time to get started!  Once maternity leave started I had time on my hands waiting for the baby to arrive (I’d planned it so I had a weeks leave and then 2 weeks maternity leave before my due date) and space in our new house to not have to pack away whenever I finished working on it for the day (something I now dream about!).  Despite have a bump which was a slight obstacle (I’ve been ‘small for dates’ in each pregnancy so it’s wasn’t too bad) I managed to lay everything out and then piece it all together.  Baby was 14 days late so I really did have time to work on it, something needed to stop me going insane!  My brother, his wife and their 15 month old flew over to visit 3 weeks or so after Bethan arrived and we met up at my mum’s the quilt was handed over and flew back to Germany with them.

So that was all more than 6 years ago, when I started to write this series I was making a mental list of all the quilts I had made and so emailed them asking if they could send me a digital photo of the quilt.  This is the really sad bit, (deep breath) my brother emailed me back writing ‘we had to throw it out ages ago unfortunately, mould got hold of it in the cellar and it didn’t look too good.’  So that was that.

How did I feel? Devastated, gutted, shocked etc, Tobi said something about the fact that it was a gift to them, I suppose saying that once something is gifted then it doesn’t matter what happens to it.  Maybe he’s right, but with all the things I make and gift I want them to be treasured.  I’m probably wrong and should get over it, but a case in point is when Bethan went to a friends birthday party recently she gave one of the pencil rolls that I make and his parents were delighted with it (I think he liked it too!) and that made me feel great.  I’m possibly just shallow what do you think?

Anyway that is the story, I don’t even have a photograph to console myself with and share with you.  I’ll just have to content myself with the beautiful picture in the book!  I had a search on flickr but couldn’t find any photo’s of anyone’s quilt following that pattern,  but I do however like to have a photo or two in each post, so here is the aforementioned pencil roll: