A matter of perception (quilting)

I chose my first patchwork project from a book I got at the library. I wanted a cover for a little quilt my grandmother had given me.  Made of polyester, it slipped off the bed all the time but it had sentimental value so I wanted to both keep and use it.  I thought a cotton cover would fix the problem.

I had thought of patchwork but all those geometric shapes and templates put me off.  Here however, in the book was a pattern that looked easy. No template required just a ruler and away you go.

The pattern was for a logcabin variation, no base square with the design marked on and not one central square.  I have never seen another book which did not start with a base square onto which the strips would be added.  If this book had that perhaps I would never have started.  Subsequent books tell me this is a difficult pattern and not for a beginner.  But as my book (sorry can't recall the title or author, it was about 23 year ago!) said no such thing. I chose material (greys with a touch of pink ) and off I started, using an every day ruler and a pencil to mark the lines (not recommended it does not come out well, I got away with it because my material was mostly grey).

On this first quilt I did go with a light and dark effect with my chosen fabrics you can just about see the diamond pattern this made.

My first logcabin patchwork quilt cover. 

I decorated the corners with dragons, I hope you like dragons, they will be a reoccurring theme in my work.  I don't care much for doing the same thing twice so having one in each corner was a slow job.  I also added the spheres with wings (ok so they are supposed to be flaming pearls but I didn't know that then) to balance things out.

Corner dragon

I did the patchwork on this quilt by hand with the boarders on a sewing machine.  It would be the first and last without a sewing machine for both patchwork and finishing.  

Logcabin will also be a regular feature, but it shouldn't be too boring, it is a pattern which lends itself to wonderful variation. For me it is my quilting default, the first pattern I think of when I look at material, and it is the easiest for me to do, others have a different perception.