Two years ago we spent a month in Portugal, living in a small town outside of Porto.   Just before we left, I put together a “Millefiore” quilt to work on while we were traveling.  After working on it for a while, I realized that it was much too complicated for my limited handwork abilities!!   This was the point that I gave up on the project…..

It doesn’t look too bad in this photo but there are TONS of mistakes and I knew that I wasn’t going to be happy with it.

Anyway….back to Portugal…..  While I was walking around in Vila Do Conde (the small village that we were living in), I saw this wonderful wall….

…and thought that it would be a fun paper piecing exercise. 

About a year ago I put that thought into action and prepared a pattern…..

….and pulled fabrics…..

….. and started the piecing process.   I really enjoyed the hand work but had NO idea what this was going to be used for!!!!!

Then our Creative Group came up with the idea of doing round robin quilts using only handwork….a VERY scary idea for a few of us!!!    I decided to take this already started project and use it as the basis for my round robin quilt.

As I looked at it with a project in mind, I drew in some “grouting” lines to give more definition to the stones.

The next step was to add a ledge to the top of the wall and a base for the bottom….

But there was one thing bothering me….. The stones didn’t have the correct look as there wasn’t enough continuity in color.   So, I did what I often do and pulled out my paints and sponged the stones with a grey wash…..

It really helped!!!

But as I started laying out the quilt, I decided that the wall needed to be shorter, so I moved the base up and cut off even MORE of my careful hand piecing!!!

I had planned to add a tree behind the wall and ended up drawing it in.   This is what I presented to the group…..

I cant wait to see what everybody adds to it with applique, embroidery and/or beading!!!