A Quilt without Borders

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Margaret is a lovely member of the NYC Metro Modern Quilt Guild and her niece - a quilter who lives in France and who volunteers for the International Festival of Extraordinary Textiles - asked Margaret for her help. 

Margaret guided members of the guild to create a modern quilt that will be used during a picnic in the Jardin Lecoq park. The picnic will be done "flash mob" style with people showing up, a quilt under their arm.  Then when a text message arrives the quilts will be opened and spread on the grass. After the picnic the quilts will be auctioned off to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

The quilts have to be made of recycled fabric - which is more than close to my heart.

The quilt Margaret put together is made from old sample upholstery/drapery fabric.

I sewed together left over cotton batting remenants to ensure we kept the theme going and used odd bits of thread cones I had left over for the quilting. 

I practiced my feathers. 

 

I had a lot of fun quilting this mainly because every patch of fabric was different and gorgeous. I'm not sure that the photos do the materials justice - but there were plush velvets, ...

... silks, fake suedes, gold threads and plush richness all over this quilt. I kept 'ooohing & aaaahing' over the various different textures and colors. 

When I quilt I tend to quilt with the longarm I quilt one handed the other hand laying softly on the fabric and often that feeling of touching the soft fabric on my hand makes me feel very calm and centered - does that sound like the weirdest thing ever - or do other people experience that textural induced zen???

I didn't have enough time to bind the quilt for Margaret - but she seemed very pleased with the result.

I have quite a stash of random upholstery material - both donated and from our own house projects. This quilt has given me a huge amount of inspiration to put them to good use.