unfinished quilt top

When Gwen posted her phenomenal feathered star quilt, it brought back my quilting days from twenty years ago, when we lived in Istanbul. So I went hunting for this one, first upstairs in a dresser, then through several trunks and tubs in the barn. Finally, after tubs of fabric scraps, there it was. Poor neglected thing.

I made several quilts in those days twenty years ago, mostly simple ones to be used daily by my family.

I started piecing this one with fabrics I'd brought with me from the States.

Because I didn't have a sewing machine in Turkey, and I had lots of time on my hands, and because the Turkish women spent afternoons at tea doing handwork, I pieced the quilts by hand.

I don't have anything against machine piecing, but I think I can be more precise with hand piecing.

The border with the white, mauve and blue squares and triangles should be hanging down the edge of the bed. It would make the top look more unified. But I am too lazy to take another set of photos. :-D

I have one more row of border to sew together and onto the quilt top (up there at the head of the bed). Then I can layer it with batting and backing, baste, and start quilting.

Unfortunately, my hands and wrists aren't what they used to be, with all my computer work at the university, so I don't know if I'll ever finish it.

This is our little guest room upstairs, where I spend Sunday afternoons sometimes reading, writing and looking out the window at the farm. We bought the brass bed at a flea market for $20 and painted it.