Mia's quilt - finally

I have had this quilt - in various stages - on the go for literally ears. I had started it as a gift for my newest neighbour when she was born, with the intention of giving it to her as a first birthday present. Well she celebrated her 5th birthday the other day, so I'm incredibly glad to have handed this over.

You might recall (or maybe not, seeing as it's been *forever*) that I made this using a couple of charm packs  and made it super funky with sashing all the way around and "Mia" right across the top...  But I hated it.  Like, actually, really, truly hated it.

And because I hated it, it sat, and sat and sat. And every time I pulled it out to work on it to try to just get it gone, I would stare at it and hate it some more and have to put it away.

But, I finally resolved my conundrum of what to do with this quilt. And no, it did not include watching it burn nicely in my fireplace.

I chopped off the top and bottom sashing.  Doesn't look like much (and I was sad because I lost that "Mia" that I really had liked... only I hadn't liked it, and that quandry was what had me paralyzed with this quilt.) and taking off the big header helped bring it back into balance.  I liked it again.

But I had this big "Mia" that would have just gone into my cupboard to be clutter, so I grabbed it and all the spare sashing material and a bunch of cordinating solids (and 1 not-a-solid, but it worked), and I whipped together a improv backing for it.

I learnt from the Carpenters Wheel and reminded myself to keep the pieces big. There are a couple of smallish strips, but predominately the whole thing is fairly solid. And the best part is that I have used pretty much every inch of this odd pink ginghammy material that I bought. It's pretty, but it frays like a mother, and it creases if you so much as look at it, and it's the sort of material only a beginner quilter would ever kid themselves into using. So having none left leaves me in my happy place :-).

I took it with me to a retreat with the Brisbane Modern Quilt Guild, and after moaning about how hard it is, one of the incredibly lovely ladies offered to FMQ it for me!!! This is the most generous thing ever!!  She covered it in loopy swirls and little flowers and it's just perfect.

That's Monica, doing such an amazing job quilting this baby.
Love your work, Monica!!! <3

I put a simple pink binding on and handed it over to Miss Mia with love.

I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with this. And now it's up to it's new owners to decide which part is the front ;-)

E xx