Last year, I won the design contest that Sara Lawson @sewsweetness held for her Jungle Ave Quilt. I couldn’t believe it!! The design was inspired from Tapa cloths that I had picked up in the Pacific Islands, hence the name of my quilt “Jungle Ave Tapa”.

The prize included all the fabric to make the quilt and a chance to be published in Quilt Now. The fabric arrived and my first thought was OH NO (well actually sh*t) as I realized I now need to make it.

It was a long process for me to make this one as I had to work out how to turn it into reality, after a grueling 4 months it was complete. The whole secret sewing thing is like torture for me. I decided to get it quilted by Angela Walters as I wanted her style of FMQ to highlight and bring out the shapes. I love the quilting, Angela did a fantastic job on the first quilt I have ever sent out!!

For the big reveal, almost a year later, the quilt and the pattern is in this month’s Quilt Now magazine (picture from the magazine). (Happy Dance emoticons here!!).

We actually took it on vacation with us and had our own photo shot (the assistants maybe not have been always co-operative….but we got it done ;-)). This is my favorite sequence of photos;  my son, who was suppose to be posing for me and decided to hide instead.

The Hatteras Lighthouse grounds/backdrop made it a perfect location. It was purely by chance that the black, white and pink/red of the lighthouse correlated to the colors in the quilt.

The back re-uses the ladder shape amongst the city jungle of elephants and of course the hubby did a great job climbing in the shrubs for me!! (Ashley, if you read this…this could be us doing each others photo shoots…the hubby’s will be so happy).

By the time we got to do close-ups, I lost my models/assistants….but the porch chair made a great prop.

Details

Name: Jungle Ave Tapa
Dimensions: 60″ x 70″
Design: Michelle Wilkie (does include paper-piecing the center strip.

Fabric: Jungle Ave, Sara Lawson for Art Gallery Fabrics; Pure Elements Snow
Quilted: By Angela Walters

Anyway, that was so hard to keep a secret….only 1 more of the 5 secret sewing projects to go. Linking up with Alyce @ Blossom Heart  Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday (see button on the right) and Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Linking up with  Adrienne for 2015 Finish along, as this was a long time coming as it was one of my goals for Q4 2014 to finish.