On Lucy's blog she reduced 5 UFOs to one by combining them all into a new top. That reminded me I did something similar years ago by combining these two projects. The border used 30 blocks, which surprised me, I actually had to make more to get it done. I like the result, and I might go through my old UFOs and see if I can combine any of them, somehow this top doesn't have the guilt value that the unfinished blocks had on their own.

I loved the look of Lucy's quilt, because there were so many different blocks in there, whereas this looks quite planned. I obviously need to be a bit more 'maverick".

This top was made in the long ago age when I did just about everything by hand, with templates. I loved the centre block, and now I'm tempted to make another top so I can use rotary cutting and machine sewing. That's silly, I don't need more of these blocks, but it would be so much easier....

It was a much more pleasurable process in some ways, but I just don't have the time now. Nevertheless, I loved handpiecing them in front of the telly at night and cutting out every fabric carefully and choosing the colours for each combination . I think I'm going to limit my handwork to applique, because that's something I will never do by machine.

And here's a quilt from my favourite book, Legacy, by Nancilu Burdick, about her grandmother Talula Gilbert Bottoms. This 'Throw-Together' quilt was made by Talula's mother-in-law Elisa Bottoms and is dated 1875 - 1890. I adore this quilt, so full of scraps and the start of quite a few quilts, all combined when another cover was needed and married together out of necessity. I love making my quilts, I love choosing and cutting and buying the reproductions to make traditional designs, but who could ever capture the integrity of an old quilt like this, made from necessity and hardship? Even though I'm Australian I feel that this is part of my quilt heritage too, quilts like this are the reason why I'll always be grounded in the traditional rather than the modern. Just love it.