Christmas Roses Quilt

Another UFO.  The top for this quilt has hung around my fabric room for ages without any borders.  I simply could not stir myself after the original borders did not work.  The reds were not the rich Christmas red I have always associated with Christmas.  I had not really liked the borders anyway but ................Those of you who quilt will be familiar with this malaise when something does not appear to be a wise choice.  And the longer things hang around the harder it is to move them up the list.

I searched for another border that would be in keeping with the center of the quilt.  Some of the strips in the quilt portray Christmas rose as well as pointsettia and lilies..

 These roses do not appear in Canada in all the ice and snow at Christmas but do appear in the UK where it is milder.  So when I found a backing material covered in roses albeit not the same Christmas roses and put the border on the quilt it moved a step or two up the rung of the UFO ladder.  I remember many years ago learning that red roses play a large part in the table decorations in France at Christmas and even had a wreath made of red velvet roses.  This wreath now survives, undone as ribbons on my Christmas tree; silk velvet which has a gorgeous hand and many memories.  I also conceived a design for the border of this quilt of full blown roses and an overall quilting pattern of cascading rose petals with some holly sprigs thrown in.   A few more rungs on the UFO ladder earned there.

So Hortense and I got busy and this quilt is now finished.

 Where the quilt is going from here is a question as I have started a more contemporary scrap Christmas quilt.  How do all the Christmas fabrics proliferate overnight?  But I have come to like this reject and with a nice cozy wool batting it makes a lovely bed cover.  

Unfortunately the UFO list is a bit like an extension ladder in that it can expand to great heights and like ladders things can slip down and climb up.  The newest things become the favourites and then slip.  Oh how fickle we quilters are when we see something new and exciting.  UFOs get demoted.  How often you can overhear in a quilt shop 'I really shouldn't'.  'Ah, why not?'  And another quilt slips down the UFO list.  How do I know?  I have a room full of fabric and an overflow and lots of friends in the same position.  Do we encourage each other?  You bet we do.  Nothing like friends who agree with us at just the right time.  'Yes, it will make a beautiful quilt'.  PERMISSION to purchase the fabric.