Monday, June 6, 2016

Mataura Valley meets Ida Valley


Hello and welcome to my visitors from Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday and AmandaJean's Finish It Up Friday! This is a finish from my goals list for the 2nd quarter of the 2016 FinishAlong.

While it is not summer at the moment (and the frost this morning confirmed that!), the vibrant colours of this quilt reminds me of the blue sky and summer heat of the Central Otago/Maniototo area that this quilt is destined for, and so I have named it 'Summer in the Ida Valley'.


We'd had a real Indian summer until about two weeks ago when it started raining and didn't seem to stop, so it's taken me a while to get the photos taken. With my cousin and I growing up in the Mataura River valley I thought it would be a good reason to head up to Mataura's 'cemetery hill' to get the photos.

My almost-as-tall-as-me-now son was my handy helper but still struggled a little to get the quilt high enough for a tidy, flat shot but you get the idea! I must say that the green of the Mataura Valley is very different to the brown-gold of the Ida Valley in the height of summer...
Photo taken a bit higher up the hill (where the top part of the hill was still keeping the look-out in shade).
This single-bed quilt is for my cousin's son, 15 year old Logan, and is made of his favourite colours of blue, orange and yellow.  I bought the batiks when in Sydney last year for the Netball World Champs and put it all together during the summer holidays, finally finishing off the quilting about a month ago.


The pattern is called 'Under the Sea' and is from Sue Pfau's book "Quilts From Sweet Jane' (Martingale); I've backed it with a deep blue spotty minky, making it very snuggly (which Logan will need in his sleep-out in winter!) and I've quilted it in simple diagonal lines.




My taller handy-helper-hubby was being silly when I asked for his help back at home...

...but I did manage to get a decent front-on shot!



13 comments:

  1. I love this one, the colors are so good together!

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    1. Aren't they pretty?! It's a fun combo.

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  2. Great finish. great light of the photo's it sets the colours off nicely.

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    1. Thanks! I do agree with you - I was lucky with the light (and I think the green background is a nice contrast.)

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  3. Everything about this is wonderful! The pattern is perfect, the blue/orange/yellow is such a stunning combo, love the batiks, and your diamond quilting works so well. What a great finish! LOVE it!

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    1. Cheers Judy! I think the lovely photo setting really makes it appealing too.

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  4. Colors are great! Must have been quite a workout to get this through your machine. Great job.

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    1. Thanks Jen! It wasn't too hard to slide through as the minky is so slippery. And keeping it a simple quilting design helped.

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  5. What a great quilt! Congratulations on the finish and thank you for participating in the 2016FAL, on behalf of all the hosts!

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    1. Thanks Rhonda! It's a fun way to try and tackle the WIPs and UFOs!

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  6. Great colors! I love that you used a solid lighter blue for your background fabric. Great finish!

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    1. It took me a while to settle on a background, but once I decided on that blue I was happy - such a sunny sky colour, definitely suitable for where the quilt will be living!

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  7. I was looking at all your quilts, they are so pretty! I love that you thought outside the box with the blue background on this one!

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