Quilt for a friend

Early this year, my daughter was returning home via Brisbane then Melbourne from a holiday with her father's family in England when flooding hit our area. There was no way of getting her from Melbourne to here as all the roads were cut by water. My gorgeous friend in Melbourne rescued her, collecting her from the airport, giving her a place to stay and a hot meal or two, and then getting her to the train the next day once they started running again.

I wanted to do something special for her so I made this quilt. I called it 'Betty's Split Hourglass'. I bought the fat eighth pack of Betty Dear (by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman - I tried to link to it but they don't have the collection up on their website any more) ages ago - it's really not my usual fancy but I just fell in love with it. When it arrived I realised I didn't have a thing that went with it, and so I'd have to use it as a bundle. It sat and waited for inspiration to strike for some time. I knew it would look beautiful in my friend's home, she has a mix of colourful vintage going on that is quite fabulous. I paired the prints with Vanilla Emma Louise. The split hourglass block seemed to 'fit' the vintage feel of the 'Betty Dear'.

I free motion quilted it by stippling it, and added some straight lines around the border which I think really frames it. I don't often put borders on quilts but I think this quilt needed it. I pieced together scraps of the 'Betty Dear' to make scrappy binding.

I gave it to my friend on a trip to Melbourne a few weeks ago, and she loves it!