The Ties That Bind Completed (With Pictures)

It has been a few years since I made a new quilt for my own bed so both my husband and I are very excited. Add to that excitement the charm of the quilt itself with its bright colors and pretty border.

                                   Here is the quilt in situ with my hand holding up one corner.

 

Each corner has the repeated morning glory (bindweed) cluster but with different fabrics for the flowers, demonstrating another use for the Japanese Fan idea. This corner also has a small caterpillar and a butterfly appliqued along with the fuchsias on the sides. Except for some of the small circles on the fuchsia all of the fabrics are also in the bowties in the pieced part of the quilt.

The center of each side shows rudbeckia with the stems forming a loose heart shape. Although I like symmetry I never aim for pure symmetry so some of the centers have butterflies and some don't and the rudbeckia are different yellow fabrics throughout but the plaid parts, from a cotton dressmaker fabric given to me by an acquaintance, remain the same.

Here are two segments of the border showing the dragonflies that I often incorporate into my quilts, one flying and one at rest.

The unidentified five petal red flowers are multi-layered--red petals, either black or blue inner petals, and stuffed yellow centers. All of the fabrics appear somewhere in the bow-ties in the body of the quilt.

The label on the back.

As I was working on this quilt and deciding what name it would have, I considered all the ties that bind us to our families and our lives. My husband and I have always taken in animals who need homes and we have been extraordinarily lucky to have known some wonderful cats and dogs. One of the most memorable was our dog, Spuds, half border collie and half Maltese who had been mistreated as a puppy. He was the epitome of the good and faithful friend and lived for over 16 years. We still miss him.