This quilt has a very long story attached to it. A friend of mine, who does voluntary work in an op. shop, noticed that a colleague who was sorting donations was about to throw out a stack of beautiful fabrics, so she asked why, and was told that ‘nobody would want them’. My friend said she knew someone who would like them, whereupon the other lady tossed the bag to her and said, ‘Well, give it to her then!’ So she gave them to me. It was immediately obvious these colour-coordinated fabrics were not only exquisitely beautiful, but were also of very high quality. Upon further investigation (helped by the label on the bag, but I did work it out before noticing that), they turned out to be Liberty fabrics – only the best in the world! So I felt that I should do something very special, and decided to design a wall hanging to showcase them. I had to be very careful, because if I had made a mistake I would never have been able to replace any of them. So I decided to learn a computer-based program for designing quilts to help get it right (because I couldn’t exactly duck down to the local patchwork shop to buy more if I made a mistake). I wanted it to be a medallion quilt, and with that in mind I embroidered a peacock in matching colours on a blue Thai silk fabric I already had in my stash, to form a central octagon. This was embellished with some sequins on the ends of feathers. I bought a few extra fabrics (three, I think) to help with the final design. The bright red trim and binding, serendipitously also a Liberty fabric, was given to me by a friend. This was entirely my own design and I am extremely proud of it, but as it’s so large, I haven’t yet found a place to hang it. I don’t think the photos do it justice.
