Bedroom Games

Really!

It's a quilt of course. The inspiration came from seeing a black-work chess board. I did consider, for a few moments, a chess-board quilt. (Hmm! Thinks! Maybe next year?)
For some twisted reason my mind jumped from chess-boards to board games, which then reminded me of childhood illnesses.
That might not appear to be a pleasant memory, but coming from a large family, when something like measles or mumps hit one, it hit us all. We'd all be put into the same large bedroom (you could fit in eight in bunk beds) and when we had recovered enough we would be given board games to play. (Let's not talk about the bad loser who would kick the bedclothes and upset the game!)

Leastways and whatever, it made me think of the games and how easy it might be to create the game boards in fabric. That led on to the question of which games. It didn't take long to select them, longer to decide which order to put them in.
The top row is Tiddlywinks, then Backgammon, then Noughts and Crosses.
The centre row is Nine-Men's-Morris, Chess and Solitaire.
The bottom row is Snakes & Ladders, Ludo and Go.
I suppose that the inner border could be used for a game too, and the outer border is a wonderfully dot strewn cotton that could be game counters or the patient's spots.

All the parts of the quilt were cut and folded using English Piecing, with each block completed separately then joined together with red sashing. The sashing between the boards is bias binding. The embroidered snakes, ladders and numbers on the Snakes & Ladders board were added after the hundred squares had been sewn together, but before it was joined to the other blocks. The motifs on the inner border, including four trains, a lightbulb and a tap were appliqued in place before quilting, but were not themselves quilted.

Making the boards was fun, putting it together less so. The cottons were firm because I don't remove the papers until I have completed the quilt top, but the bias binding kept trying to show off its snake like propensity to wiggle off on its own.
The quilting is worked in diagonal Vs starting from the centre of the chess board.

It took nearly 18 months to build this quilt. I started it in March 2002 and did not finish it until August 2004. This quilt is a full double bed sized quilt, and that's where it lives, on our bed.