Sheilz

I made this quilt for my sis who lives in Australia who requested one with a Scottish theme. I started off with a variation of our family tartan kilt weight wool with each sq fussy cut from the fabric. The framing colours were chosen as ones she has in her bedroom. Ostensibly this is quite a plain quilt however the detail is really in the embroidery and the back. The emblems - unicorn, lion, eagle and thistle are our national symbols. The centre block is The Declaration of Arbroath one of the most important documents in Scotland's history. Linking to this document I opted for some of the heroes of the Scottish Wars of Independence on the lower left hand corner with heroines of the same wars on the opposing corner. One of these ladies in particular, Black Agnes is one of my all time favourite characters from this period. While her husband was away fighting the English, Agnes and her hand maidens were left to defend the castle (Dunbar). They were subjected to quite an onslaught from English troops trying to besiege them. Agnes was quite a formidable lady so that after every bombardment of her castle, she led her handmaidens out across the battlements with their dusters to disdainfully flick away the dust created by the enemy. She clearly was quite a character! In the two top corners I opted for Scottish saints on one side with Scottish sinners on the other. The most obvious of these is Burke & Hare, with Deacon Brodie hard on their heels. Of lesser known infamy are Provost Davidson and the Earl of Mar, ostensibly respectable gentlemen who by day sat on the bench in Aberdeen, sending children as young as 7 to the gallows for stealing a hankie. By night they were a pair of scoundrels whose penchant was piracy. Their most famous victim was Richard Whittington, who did indeed become Lord Mayor of London. Richard lost two ships laden with goodies to this pair of rogues. Another name perhaps more interesting to Americans is Davy Jones, a hero in America as he founded the US navy however his antics in Scotland would've ended in the gallows - but he wisely didn't return. Fast forward a few hundred years and I thought it appropriate to include the opening declaration of the Scottish Parliament made by a highly regarded Scottish politician who was its first presiding officer. To represent Scotland's input on the international stage I could think of no finer person that Nelson Mandela and the battle against apartheid to include in this quilt, for as the gentleman said, Glasgow and Scotland were driving forces in world condemnation of apartheid.
To represent Scottish culture, I couldn't look past the bard, while the Scottish character/humour is captured in the Scottish toast I embroidered in one of the top corners. The top of the quilt also has a four generation mini-family tree on it. I was quite pleased about being able to include that as my brother in law didn't know his Granny's surname so that was a nice surprise for him. Other areas of the Scottish story are included in the actual quilting - cities, rivers, town, writers, poets and of course many of the earliest inventions which Scots had a particular talent for discovering and which have had such a profound impact on our modern life. There is actually more missing from the quilt than is included but I had to draw the line somewhere. I haven't got any pics of the reverse of the quilt but it is a collage of Scottish scenery, places that were important to my sis and her husband and basically taken as an opportunity to show as much of Scotland's beautiful scenery as possible. There are some tartan strips in the back with blocks of colours from the front with bands of marine blue for contrast. The back is very colourful. This is the largest quilt I've made - 9ft square. Another sister suggested I put it out to a longarm quilter to which I said no way. This is my quilt, warts 'n all! (Ha ha I've just written a mini essay - sorry!)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]511250[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH=CONFIG]511246[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]511248[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]511249[/ATTACH]i[ATTACH=CONFIG]511245[/ATTACH]