William Morris Trees of Life Quilt

Here is my hand quilted William Morris Trees of Life quilt.  Finally done!  

This quilt is special for many reasons.  Shall I tell you a few?  Way back in 2012, I went to Paris with my husband and two oldest sons.  It was an amazing, amazing trip.

Before we left, I, of course looked up whether there were any quilt shops in Paris I could get to.  I was very excited to find one called Le Rouvray just a few blocks from our apartment (which was fabulously also a few blocks from Notre Dame Cathedral - oh my goodness, I loved it).  THEN, on my birthday just a few weeks before we left, my sister in law gave me the book you can read a bit about on the Le Rouvray website (it is now out of print).

When I got to Paris, I saw the shop had this fabulous antique quilt hanging up made with Tree of Life blocks.  There was a pattern for a similar quilt was included in my book and since I had several William Morris fat quarters (I was thinking about his Tree of Life tapestries...) It came together.

Then I decided to hand quilt it.  Well, that took a long time, but I enjoyed every minute.

Sadly, Le Rouvray is now closed.  But here is a picture I took of the outside of the shop.  You can just see the Tree of Life quilt that inspired me through the window.

QUILT STATS:

Dimensions: 53" by 67"

Fabrics: Various fat quarters of William Morris reproductions by Fabric Freedom, blue Strawberry Thief print by Barbara Brackman from her line A Morris Tapestry. Bella Snow.

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt for piecing, Gutermann hand quilting thread for quilting in Ivory.

Binding: In the Beginning, by Jason Yenter

Backing: Eiffel Tower by Michael Miller (wide width, no seams!)

William Morris Tree of Life Quilt

As if I didn't have enough hand quilting to keep me occupied with the king size Swoon! As the old saying goes, a change is as good as a rest, so I picked up this quilt and decided to hand quilt it too:



Changing it up a bit by using traditional weight thread (as opposed to the 12 and 8 wt. I am using in the Swoon). I think this Gutermann hand quilting thread (with a lovely wax (?) coating to make it oh so tangle free) is a 40 wt.



The fabrics, as you may have guessed from the title, are reproduction William Morris prints.  I thought them very appropriate to turn into tree of life blocks as the Tree of Life was a popular theme in William Morris tapestries.



I am enjoying it immensely!! I am almost done with the trees, and then I will have to expand my hand quilting skills and figure out how to quilt some kind of garland motif in those big blue squares... should be fun!