A very personal quilt finish

 The quilt I call "Afternoon Tea with Mum" was finished this weekend. It is a very personal quilt for me. It is about a story my Mum told me, about thinking she was finished with her family before I was born, and that when all the 4 other children were at school she would be able to go to 'afternoon tea dances"!

Well, birth control was not a precise science in the 1950s so I came along and then my brother, and Mum never did make to an afternoon tea dance.

Mum told that story with some wry humour, and as I get older I appreciate it more. We all look back at some of the things we wanted for ourselves and wonder why we wanted them.

Mum's words to me are very precious "every baby brings their own love with them". I wanted to celebrate that story by making a quilt about having afternoon tea with my Mum.

 My Mum and Dad were typical of those who lived in the UK in those days -almost any time of the day was the right time for a cup of tea. We shared a lot of them over the years. Mum loved fruit cake and bakewell tarts, but sometimes there were eccles cakes or 'fairy cakes' too.

 These cup blocks came from a quilt designed by Jan Mullens. I was afraid the applique of the handles would be difficult so I didn't make many of these -but when I actually tried with some some wash-away stabilizer underneath to support the machine stitches, they were easy enough.

 The butterflies make me think of having afternoon tea in a garden. This was some fabric I found in an op shop.

 The border fabric has pictures of all kinds of yummy cakes. Did I tell you how much I love spotty and stripey borders?

Here is the finished quilt, which is actually single bed size.  I spread it on my queen size bed because the room was nice and sunny.

I don't actually have a single bed which needs this quilt, but I am so glad I made it. It makes me happy!