This quilt was made for an exhibition organised by Irish, German and South African quilting societies. The theme was Interchange Threads Connect, and one of my first thoughts was about the Silk Route, after all, it has the interchange, it has the threads, and it has the connect, too. I was thinking of making an appliqué of camels and oriental patterns, but then opted for a more abstracted interpretation that played on the interconnection of land and sea trade routes. The main thing here is the colour - the contrast between the teals and the golds and the nuances of the various shades. I machine-pieced the top and started playing with the textures. As you can probably see, I had a great time playing - there's machine quilting, hand quilting, embroidery, beads... Our International Rep Paula took the Irish part of the exhibition to South Africa and she has some photos in her instagram and the exhibition looks really great, I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's brought to Ireland. Linking up to Off the Wall Friday at Creations by Nina Marie Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict