New Christmas in Italy Quilt

Last November my family and I were blessed to spend 8 weeks in Italy. The trip was a dream come true for me and something I had been planning for a few years. The experience of soaking up another country's culture was a wonderful experience and something we will all never forget.

One of our very special moments was experiencing a white Christmas, something very different for we Aussies who normally sweat in the heat of summer over an oven, or contend with seafood, salads and sand at the beach. Seeing snow fall from the heavens was something very new. And I will never forget the delightful squeals of  excitement from Miss 10 as she looked up into the falling snow and exclaimed "It feels like fairies are dancing across my face".

For so many reasons I felt that my next project should be one inspired by my trip to Italy.

Truth is though it took me a while to get my Mojo back in full swing, but thankfully when the ideas started to flow I was soon on my happy way, sketching from images fresh in my mind.

A few months on, the quilt is now complete and I have a confession to make. I have not been very diligent in taking photos of my progress. So instead I have another idea.

Over the next few weeks I thought it would be fun to show you where my inspiration has come from. So I will include some photos of sections from the quilt and then show you some of the places and buildings that inspired their creation.

The overall concept for the quilt flashed into my mind as we were driving through farmland in the Northern part of Italy just outside of Venice. Red and terracotta brick farmhouses nestled amongst snow laden trees was a scene quite new to me. The colours were so pale and yet so beautiful. It was the trees that intrigued me the most, their delicate branches dusted with snow silhouetted against the sky. Hopefully you will get an idea of what I saw from these photos, taken from the inside of the car (it was too cold to wind down the window).

So including these trees within my design was a must. I discovered a variegated DMC thread that gave the perfect effect, doing all the creative work for me.

As you can see there's lots of little houses, hills dusted with snow and lots more to come...!

Warmly Lenna