A Tale of Two Quilts

In my previous post I briefly lamented the fact that while I was in Vietnam there was buggerall chance of me buying clothes off the rack because I’m twice the size of your regular Vietnamese chick. A number of alternative possibilities were considered and discarded. I didn’t honestly need any more handbags and shoes (I cannot believe I just typed that out loud- and sincerely hope Mr. P doesn’t read this post) even if they were fabulous Prada knockoffs. None of my real life friends even know who Prada is so I’d have to fling it around leaving it conspicuously on tables and eventually tell the story about how it was Prada and that kind of defeats the point of having one.

Anyhoo. I had birthday money burning a hole in my pocket which I was determined to spend even if it killed me and I wanted a memento of my time in Vietnam and a pointy hat or Vietnam magnet just wasn't going to cut it ...

So I bought myself a quilt....

I got this from a wonderful craft and quilt shop in Saigon called Mekong Quilts. They sell all sorts of things on consignment that are made by women in a number of villages around Vietnam. The money goes back to the people who makes the goods , and the project generates employment and wages for a sustainable living situation for those living in poorer communities. Fabulous quilt + Great cause = win, win. 

The hand quilting on this is amazing and it's far more gorgeous than my cruddy photography shows. 

The back is a plain white and really shows up the gorgeous hand quilting. Honestly it was incredibly reasonably priced for a hand made quilt. I could quite easily have brought back more than one if I could have convinced Mr. P to be a pack horse. 

Moving right along...the second part of this post deals with an actual finish from moi. After working on the binding for my Irish chain quilt for what felt like forever , I finally finished it late last week. 

This one is a keeper...and i finally managed to some of those reds I collected for my Farmer's Wife quilt that never got anywhere near finished. 

Beautifully quilted by my quilting fairy . I'm thrilled with how it's come together in all it's antiquey loveliness. 

It's backed with a heavy damask I picked up on sale eons ago and I think the back is just as pretty as the front.  I think this is my favourite quilt of 2013.