Kimono Quilt

     While I would like to post pictures of how far I have come with my quilt I am holding back as I have found it difficult to go further.

     Yesterday I added six inch silk borders around the "T" shaped quilt and put a collar on.  I had originally wanted to add pleated flowing skirts of silk from the edges and after it was laid out changed my mind over and over again.  Now I have decided that I will wait and see as I can always add them later and make them truly a skirted edge.

     I also wanted to silk ribbon embroider a floral arrangement similar to cherry or peach blossoms around the exterior as if they were falling from branches and add some small items such as little birds etc., but not sure what I should do at this stage as it is a wall quilt.  It is very heavily encrusted.

     The original pattern belongs to a quilt block of a month series from Victoria Adams Brown of http://www.ribbonsmyth and it was so beautiful to work with.  I received mine as a gift and I worked on it for more than two years to make all of the work my own as well as taking the ideas and instructions from the wonderful handouts that Vicki added with each block. 

     I decided that I did not want this to stretch so used warm and natural batting behind it and to date have tacked it with long running stitches every two inches so that it does not move and will now proceed to think of how I truly want to finish this quilt.  I have felt wonderful working on it and did most of the work on a fold out fabric board over my ironing board so that I could bring the quilt to my level. 

     I have decided to use a small oriental inspired bead or miniature butterflies to secure all of the blocks so that they do not move around.  I can do this from the front and have it go through all layers as I have enough of the silk left to back it with.  I chose a fawn beige silk that has some stiffness to it and it does bring out all of the colours.  I was first going to use black.

     After perfectly mitering the inner corners under the arms I am tempted to now go in and add a piece of fabric to bring it out to the arms edge, perhaps in a darker brown, and this would allow the break that I want to make the kimono look like it is walking in through a door.

     I will lay the whole quilt onto the dark silk and see what it looks like.  This has now given me more ideas on how I would finish blocks that do not belong to any set pattern and are all stitched and sitting in a safe box in my sewing stash. 

     I am proud to say after almost eleven years of doing blocks I finally have a quilt that will have all of my own work in it.  I also have a collection of oriental fabrics that will go into a fan quilt that will not be as decorated as this one as I want to be able to drape it so heavy encrusting would be out of the sorts, and I do want it to be all mine with seams done in the " Carole Samples " style of quilting.    I also draw inspiration from J. Marsha Michler books as well as my books from all of the quilting artists out there.

     A special bouquet to Sharon B., Allie in Stitches, Jo in NZ, for trying to make us the best at what we do and, of course, to my mentor Vicki whose choice of colour and design have taken me from upholstery fabrics to silk.

     I will share some before pics and then add the others as the day progresses.