My First Quilt....or Cwilt

Following a link from Samelia's Mum, I found bluepatch quilter and a post about her first quilt.  Sounded like a great idea so I thought I'd join in!

My first quilt was made for my sister-in-law for Christmas.  My inlaws do 'Kris Kringle' so we all only have to provide one gift.  Most years we have a theme, and sometimes it has to be handmade.  That year the gift had to be something starting with the first letter of the person's name.  I got Carol.... so I made a "C" Cwilt

 

Sadly I didn't get very good photos of it.  The above was taken with my phone.

Each star block contains a picture of something beginning with C:
Clouds, choir, curtains, cow, castle, couch, cats, clothes(line), compass, corset, computer, cards, cake, church, cherries, cheese, cotton, candycanes

I tried to pick things which Carol liked.  I hope I got some right ;)

The pictures are all appliqued by hand using blanket stitch with a few extras here and there.  The curtains are made of lace and are 3D, I believe the window frames are ribbon.  The cat tails are embroidered, probably back-stitch I'd say (can't remember).  The candycanes are made of red and white striped ribbon which was twisted then placed flat so that the stripes bend around the curve of the cane.  My (now) husband helped with some of the pictures, you can tell which are his by the more interesting blocks!  The castle, cats, couch and church are his.  We actually make quite a good team.  He'd draw a nice picture then I'd go over it, remove some of his little details and turn it into a 'block' picture that could be appliqued more easily.  Although I believe if we did it again now, I'd probably be able to applique in more detail than I could then.

The quilt was pieced and quilted on my Monster Machine (industrial straight stitcher), before I knew about walking and 1/4" feet.  The back is black and white checks to go with the black and white theme of the front.

I don't think I go back and look at this photo often enough.  I've learnt so much since then, but sometimes I forget how much work I put into this one.

What did I get that year that started with the same letter as my name?  A handmade steampunk kaleidoscope!