My Ineke Berlyn quilt

So, I have finished my quilt from the Ineke Berlyn workshop that I did last week.  I am really pleased with the way it has turned out.  I enjoyed the hand quilting on it and the dense machine quilting worked really well.    I couldn’t resist stitching a few beads on, and found some turquoise tear-drop-shaped ones which were exactly the right size to fit in the pieces:

Turquoise beads

And I added a few small almost seed beads to an orange strip which needed bringing into order:

Turquoise seed beads

It was refreshing to stitch some seams for a change and to use a wide range of prints.  I usually use plain silks or hand-dyed fabric, so the prints in this make it sparkle a bit.  I think the borders worked surprisingly well – I was intending to use very dark or black cloth, but in the end the dark petrol blue made it look much moodier.  I like to think there’s a storm brewing.

Border fabric

The orange piece here has colonial knots which are supposed to look a bit like cabbages or some other crop.  This is supposed to be a summer landscape so cabbages might not be in season.  I should spend more time gardening and less time french knotting.

Anyway, I do like this, which I didn’t when I first finished the central panel.  It looked really garish, even for me and I like bright colours.  I was intending to put a tulle over the top, but in the end only had to knock back the turquoise strip of sky in the centre. But, once I put the house and trees in and then the borders on the whole thing seemed to tone itself down.  And everything looks better when you get the binding on.  I think this would like nice with a plain wide frame, boxed and floated, as they say in the framing trade.  I think this will bring out its picturely quality.  All I need now is a good framer.