An ambitious undertaking

Jack has a whole bookshelf in the lounge dedicated to housing his collection of editions of The Arabian Nights. The stories of the 1001 nights are an inexhaustible delight to him, so when I was thinking about what to make Jack for his birthday, I hatched a plan to make him an Arabian Nights quilt, with embroidered and appliquéd panels illustrating selected "Nights".  

Valenti Angelo's charming line-drawings for a three-volume edition of Burton's Arabian Nights (1934) are my design inspiration. Although there are many violent episodes in the stories, I love the way that somehow Angelo manages to make a floor covered with severed heads look cute! Naturally, I'll be selecting the non-violent imagery for the quilt project so that we can sleep soundly beneath it.

I bought several rolls of vintage kimono silk that will be used for the panels and borders. I really enjoyed making all the appliquéd elements for the first quilt panel from fabric scraps, and when Jack opened it on his birthday he loved it. As it turns out, so did Zero!

It will be a slow-crafting project, that's for sure, but I quite like knowing what I'm going to be making for Jack's birthday and for Christmas for many years to come.