Birthday Patchwork

Over 21 years ago I gave birth to our second daughter Barbara.

To celebrate I secretly made a patchwork quilt using scraps of old fabrics from her childhood, pieces from her sisters scrap box and from mine, together with new fabrics ......

 I used a mixture of alternate 'nine square' and 'plain' blocks.

 For the quilting I succumbed to my usual choice of a circle design.

I made a continuous strip of bias binding for the edging....

And as a final salute to Barbara's childhood, I collected together ribbon roses and bows similar to the ones that I used to decorate the bags and clothes of the dolls and teddies that she and her sister played with. I wasn't sure how to use them at first, I had thought of spacing them throughout the quilt, but that could've ended looking a bit twee. In the end I decided on placing them all in one area for a burst of nostalgia, also giving B the option of tucking them out of sight if she didn't want them on public display!

 Happy Birthday Barbara!