Where the Charming Roses Bloom

My local quilt shop cuts bolts of fabric into metres and half-metres and sells them for $7 per metre or $3.50 for a half metre. I assume they are old stock and they're making way for new stock, but it's still perfectly good fabric. And when I'm in need of a "fabric fix," I can pick up one or two of these without exceeding my budget or severely taxing my already burgeoning fabric stash.Sometimes I try to pick out several of the same fabric and sometimes I try to find fabrics that would go well together. That's where I picked up most, if not all, of the fabrics in this quilt. I also picked up the pattern there because my LQS has awesome sales on other things besides fabrics. This is the Trellis Setting pattern by Sharyn Craig. It does not provide actual block patterns, but is a setting pattern for 6", 9" or 12" blocks, plus the corresponding smaller blocks. Or a focus fabric can be used instead of blocks, which is what I did. I wanted a quilt that would work up quickly and it did. It has 9" and 4-1/2" squares of the focus fabric, yielding a 70" square quilt. For a focus fabric, I generally choose something with a pattern that really fills up the space. This was what I had available and doesn't fit what I normally would choose. So, instead, I chose to use it to highlight the quilting. 

Initially, I thought those were strawberry plants trailing through the fabric. Then I noticed the thorns on the stems and realized those were roses. So that indicated the direction that I was going to take this quilt. I chose the Abstract Rose pantograph for the quilting.

With all the points and tips and detail in this pantograph, it is rather labour-intensive. But I think it's also the most beautiful pantograph I've used to date. I've used it once before, in the Chelsea Rose Bargello. I matched the thread to that dusty mauve/rose colour in the inner sashing. 
Coming up with a name for this quilt - I thought of Rose Trellis, but that wasn't quite right. Then I remembered this song that a friend in college used to sing. I always loved it and chose to use the line, "Where the charming roses bloom" as this quilt's name. I felt it was especially appropriate as this quilt is destined for a palliative acquaintance.

This is one of the first quilts I quilted on my HQ Amara,

but getting it finished was challenging. While pressing the third quilt top I intended to quilt on my longarm, I felt a lump underneath my foot. And I was wearing a firm-soled slipper! Feeling beneath my foot to see what the problem was, I discovered I was having major flooring issues in my newly installed flooring. The sewing end of my studio was already jam-packed full of the clutter that had been in the newly renovated quilting end, and had yet to deal with. But my handyman (who happens to be my ex-husband, Allan) managed to condense it even further so that the longarm could be moved into that end. That effectively cut me off from either quilting or sewing, while the flooring was ripped up, the Dricore pulled up and reinstalled with staggered seams, and underlay installed. Then I had to wait because the flooring I had originally ordered was no longer in stock and the factory had to produce more before it could be shipped out. I ended up paying Allan to do the rip out and reinstall because the flooring place was not going to remove and replace the Dricore with staggered seams, which is likely what was causing the problems in the first place. The only thing the flooring place did was reinstall the vinyl because Allan didn't feel comfortable doing that. Suffice it to say that that particular flooring place will not be doing any further work in my house. 
Finally, the flooring was done and the Amara was back in its place, but my sewing room is absolute chaos. I finally assembled the sewing table that came with my new Janome that I bought early this year and have managed to clear a place to sew, so was able to get the binding on this quilt. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the thread that I would have liked to use to finish the binding, but this variegated Aurifil worked well. 

Now I need to get this to the recipient and continue de-cluttering the sewing room. I told Allan that I could probably get one of those shipping containers and fill it with stuff for Value Village. Then my resolution will be to keep my home uncluttered. I don't need to hang onto everything that "might be useful some day."