Russian Doll Quilt

 

For those of you who've been stopping by my little blog for the last few years may be wondering what ever happened to my Babushka quilt....well you can breathe a collective sigh of relief as I have finally finished the top!!  Here it is - apologies for the picture - there were no helpers around to hold the quilt up. 

 

Now to choose the backing and this is another one to be hand quilted.  The dolls are telling me that they really want to be framed by some hand stitches.  I'm looking forward to spending time chatting to each one as I go...there's Olga and Anastasia and Anna and Tatiana and Nadia and Svetlana...they have become my friends over the YEARS it has taken me to put this one together...

 

I'm thinking of renaming my blog to Quilt Interrupted :) I take so long to finish anything. So this is not a ta-dah, just a progress report

Russian Doll Quilt progress

In the January holiday I started sashing my doll quilt together.  I love the spotty linen I've chosen.  It is going to look great when it is eventually finished...not a stitch has happened since I went back to work....sad, sad.... this quilt is years in the making...as are all of my current projects.  I tell myself it's part of the evolution of each quilt.  Because I work on them erratically and interuptedly (did I just make up a word?) they finish up quite differently to how they might have if I'd busted through the process in a weekend....something I just can't imagine...who does that ...is it possible?  I've grown more and more fond of these little dolls as they've lolled around my studio for years.  They're well and truly part of the family, so this quilt - when it eventually is a quilt - will not be able to leave our family - they're just such good company! :)

Russian Doll Blocks

I've sewn the solid colour border around all 25 blocks now and am starting on the the outer strips to build up the block. 

I'm not sure I have enough of the Russian Doll fabric to go round every block.  If I do I will ahve to eek it out by joining bits.  I have lots of plain fabric so I'll be using it to build up the blocks. They are all a bit wonky!

I haven't quite worked out in my mind yet how I'm going to bring it all together.  I just want to do the fabric justice with my quilt and not be disappointed in the end result.

Russian Doll Quilt

Guess who's come out to play this long weekend?

They've been hiding away for eons, waiting patiently for another outing and finally the day arrived. They've had a wonderful time out in the sunshine.  Deciding who to sit next to and what colour they'd like to be dressed in! Still lots more play time required before it's a finished quilt top.

I love the plain borders - my first foray into using plains in a quilt.  Every block is a different size, as the centre doll was fussy cut from the fabric, so I have to work out a way to make every finished block the same size.  Some of the blocks are very wobbly too, so will need to be squared up. All in all it's a very "organic" quilt, growing at its own pace, no strict conditions attached. It's full of home grown goodness and really really good soul food.