I have recently finished making this lap quilt.

Let me explain the ‘combined effort’ in the title.

The embroidered calico blocks came to me in a bag of salvaged textiles that had been donated to an op shop but were destined for landfill as they were deemed not to be saleable. The blocks were sandwiched between other larger pieces and may not have even been seen. They had been hand embroidered and I felt it was important to respect the love and care which had gone into the handiwork.

So, I trimmed the blocks to a standard size and set about sourcing some plain coloured fabric which would complement the embroidery colours. Some were from my own stash and others from a friend.

The patchwork top was finished earlier in the year before we left Queensland. Once we moved I needed to find someone with a long arm quilting machine as I wanted to make sure that I did justice to the work so far. I bought a king-size sheet from an op shop for the backing and the binding and handed it over to be quilted. My quilting contact did a marvellous job of highlighting the various elements of the embroidery and patchwork.

Then it was my turn to add the finishing touches with the binding which was also cut from the sheet.

You can see the backing and quilting detail in the photo.

I feel like this was a really worthwhile project and the only new materials were the batting and thread.