The Marrakech Rose Quilt?

So with the way I was feeling on Wednesday, I was all set to take my best dressmaking scissors to my husband`s collection of checked summer shirts (of which he has many and wears few).  This was not the premeditated actions of a woman scorned but rather my impatience at the length of time it was taking for my fabric to arrive from the US. Actually not an inordinate length of time as these things go - just two weeks but when it`s coming by plane, why does it take even two weeks??

I`ve always been impatient where sewing is concerned  - ask my mother. When I was a teenager, I made a lot of my own clothes  - I thought I was the bee`s knees as I wore my long straight skirts with buttons up the length of the back with a big baggy sweater,  and ankle boots - so eighties.  I would make a skirt in one sitting - no breaks until it was done and late into the night blood curdling screams would fill the air as I realized I`d made some mistake.  It had to be ready to wear the next day to college.

Anyway yesterday, much to my husband`s relief that he would have something to wear this summer, it arrived. Here it is washed and dried and ready to be cut up and sewn back together again.

Alexander Henry

I have to admit that I have been wondering to myself why I chose these fabrics.  It`s not that I don`t like them. Clearly, I love them but why reds, pinks and oranges?  They are just not colours I am naturally drawn to.  I`m more a blues and greens girl, and so I am thinking that maybe I was subconsciously drawn to them because they are colours that suit the light here in Marrakech.  Unlike the coastal towns in Morocco where all the buildings are painted white, here in Marrakech (which is on a plain at the foothills to the Atlas Mountains) the buildings are painted pink. In my design innocence, the last duvet cover I bought for our bedroom was a pale sage green.  I reckoned that it would cool me down in the summer months here.  I was wrong.  It looks terrible (and doesn`t even cool me down) - just as the reds, pinks and oranges of these fabrics might not suit the light in Scandinavian countries.  So now I`m asking myself  - have I subconsciously bought fabrics for what could be the first Marrakech quilt?

Kaffe Fassett

I plan to make a quilt based on the log cabin design of Jane Brocket`s Russian Shawl quilt so this afternoon I`ll be planning it out and will hopefully start cutting tomorrow. I`m going to piece by hand as I just prefer it that way and find it more accurate.  I`ll post some photos next week.

Oh by the way, I changed the name of this blog as it`s not just about quilting and my life has thankfully had a very rich pattern but that`s for a post another day.

The Bahia Quilt? Perhaps?

About a year and a half ago, my cousin Sybella came to visit us here in Marrakech.  It was her first trip to Morocco and Marrakech can easily overwhelm with sensory overload.  She is an artist and she preferred the new to the old but not knowing this at first, I took her round the narrow streets of the medina (the old walled city) and souqs and we visited the Bahia Palace.

The Bahia Palace was built in the 19th Century and is full of small tiled rooms with painted ceilings and courtyard gardens with trickling fountains.  

Despite being closed  for extensive renovation, it still looks a little tired at the edges.  Ignoring conservation issues, this kind of adds to its charm.  There are tiled steps for unscheduled rests....

My son (who looks so young) sitting on tiled steps at the Bahia Palace

..and big mirrors...

 It was during this visit that I started snapping tile designs for quilt inspirations.

A typical Moroccan tile design

This could be a green quilt with blue hexagons and white applique

Applique ideas from intricate Islamic plasterwork

When I looked back over these photos, it is this painted ceiling that really caught my eye - I think it would make a great quilt top!

It reminds me of Jane Brocket`s Russian Shawl (Matryoshka) Quilt, which you can find in her wonderful book, The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making - as she says, it is really only a large log cabin design and the beauty of it for me is that it grows quickly. I think some big Philip Jacob florals in yellows, greens and blues could look great and the centre could be appliqued.  What do you think?