I've finally gotten around to photographing some of my quilts. This took some doing, as there is nowhere in my house that affords me an unobstructed shot of anything. So I got the idea of laying my quilts out on my lower back deck and shooting them from above. Yesterday, I weeded the deck (it's a very old deck and being on the ground has over the years developed Growth).

This morning I spread out a couple of lengths of grey fabric and took my quilts down to photograph them. This was right labor intensive, what with up and down the back steps, over and over. But then old people are supposed to be exercising - right?

Looking at the results now, I think I should have waited until later in the day. Four of them got entirely washed out with so much sunshine, and I reshot those later. I'm far too lazy to redo them all. And they're all at an angle, which distorts them. I'm really good with my camera, with rocks and flowers and such, but apparently not with my quilts. I need to think on this further.

Anyway, photographic problems aside, this is the Giant Dahlia pattern that's been around for about forever. I made this sometime in the last 10 years. It is machine pieced and hand quilted and measures 70x72", and is meant to hang on a wall. The motifs in the background corners are triskelions. You can read more about their significance here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion

In keeping with the Celtic theme, I quilted round spirals in the small outer squares and border corners, and square ones in the petals. The border? Well, I dunno. The quilt just sort of told me it wanted that fabric.

Wow!! I love it. I am a fan of Dalhia's.

Very, very beautiful and such lovely quilting. Puts machine work to shame.

Amazing.

Beautiful work. No wonder it took so long, with all the hand quilting! I really like hand quilting, but I'm not too good at it yet.

Beautiful quilt.

Just beautiful!

stunning

SOOO Beautiful and what wonderful work!

Love your quilt. I would love to try this pattern, it looks lovely.

WOW what a great quilt, thanks for sharing with us.

Beautiful!

Lovely.

Wonderful Dahlia quilt! And the Celtic quilting adds a very special touch!!!

It's beautiful. Great job. TFS.

Beautiful job! Your hand quilting is wonderful and you quilted a lot on this! That is a big wall hanging but big enough for a bed too if you decide to use it that way.

Absolutely gorgeous!

It's all fantastic.

Your hand quilting is stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a beauty!! :D

Love it! So beautiful! Thanks for sharing with us.

Very nice!

Very pretty :)

Bookmarking!! This is wonderful. Beautiful quilt and quilting. I have really enjoyed studying it!

Wow, beautiful quilt and your hand quilting is fabulous! I love red!

Is it just me, or does this giant dahlia look like the BP logo? Or is it because I see quilt patterns everywhere I look. Even my mother's bathroom floor has the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern... hexagon tiles.

I think you did a great job with your photos and the quilts are beautiful, the quilting is stunning!!!

The quilt is beautiful! Your quilting gets an A+. I love it! :thumbup: :D

What an awesome quilt! I can't get over the quilting -- I keep going back to look at it again.

WOW!! what beautiful work.

Beautiful!

love the color choices!

Beautiful! And such a unique way to quilt it!

That is Beautiful, I love the Dahlia on my list to do's.

Wow, that is just beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful!!!

Beautiful job!

Thank you all for your most kind comments.

The odd thing about this quilt is that it's really stiff and heavy, what with all that quilting. One of you mentioned machine quilting in your comments, and I have to wonder if machine quilting is going to make a quilt feel the same. (I'm trying to teach myself to machine quilt right now)

Absolutely stunning quilt. Thanks so much for running up and down those stairs for us! Very interesting about the triskelion too - I knew a bit about the Isle of Man of course (being English and having lived briefly in Ireland) but not all the links to Scicily, Neolithic times and the Trinity. Makes perfect sense - fascinating stuff! And a great quilting design BTW.

Awesome job

Gorgeous!