Hooked on Needles

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Scrap Quilt ~ Another Longtime WIP Finished!

Many, many years ago, I decided to cut up all my leftover fabric into 4 inch squares. I had boxes and boxes of fabric from about 5 years of sewing for my daughter who was my only child at the time, and also for her dolls and many more years of sewing for her very many cousins and a few friends as well. Then I decided to make a 9-patch quilt which I thought would use up most of the squares I had cut. (I was wrong about that! I made another 10 or 12 baby quilts as well and then sold the rest of the squares on ebay for practically nothing. There were easily another thousand or more. What was I thinking?)

So I started pairing the fabrics and making the blocks, never repeating the same pairing of fabrics. I made 81 blocks and sewed them together into a quilt top and started hand quilting this 95 inch square quilt. Then I had to put it away in preparation for moving. It was a long time before I pulled it out again, only to discover that I was no longer able to do the fine stitching that hand quilting required. Darn that carpal tunnel! I wanted to finish the quilt for my daughter's high school graduation gift. But it didn't happen. I finally found someone who was willing to long arm the quilt for me with the original hand quilting stitches still intact.

This past weekend, my daughter received this finished quilt which I labeled "Pieces of Your Past" as a bridal shower gift. When she opened it and realized what it was, she cried! Once she was able to compose herself, she started pointing out different fabrics and telling everyone what dress or outfit or doll clothes or blanket had been made out of them. I think it was a hit!

I've shown this quilt unfinished before, but here it is complete...








That striped fabric with the white background was an Easter dress for Elizabeth when she was about 3 years old. The upside down angel in the foreground was from fabric used to make a very pretty, poofy, sailor collared dress which Elizabeth wore to the father/daughter dance when she was in Kindergarten.


I see a Christmas dress, a cute little summer outfit, darling little overalls, some doll clothes, another wedding gift quilt, oh and another wedding gift quilt, a few blankets, fabric from the first maternity dress I made myself...lots of memories in this quilt!


The light blue fabric with the watermelon slices on it was a cute little summer sun dress. The balloon fabric is a denim weight fabric and I made a darling little jumper for Elizabeth's second birthday picture. She wore it with a cute little pink top and had her hair in curly pig tails! The green fabric paired with the purple and white flowers was the combination of fabrics I used to make her an Easter dress that had sort of an overlaid skirt and tulip sleeves. The pattern also came with a pattern for the same design for her American Girl doll so I made that too out of the same fabric combination. They were twins! Now my youngest, Grace, has that outfit for her own American Girl doll! Some things are worth keeping!

I also see some doll clothes fabric and some pillow quilt fabric in that picture. One year for Christmas I made all my nieces and nephews those quilts that fold up into pillows. I had to shop around and get fabric at bargain prices back then because each quilt required about 4 yards of fabric plus batting and we were on a shoe string budget. I think I made something like 13 or 15 of those quilts that year. I had to stop making gifts for all the nieces and nephews after a while because they were coming faster than I could catch up!



That busy fabric there at the bottom of the quilt paired with the pink gingham was used for a cute little dress I made Elizabeth to wear to a bridal shower for my brother's intended. The shower had a tea party theme and if you look closely you can see that the fabric also has a tea party theme! My brother has now been married about 15 years and has seven children!


Kathryn did a beautiful job quilting this project. She warned me that the finished quilt might have some puckers in the backing due to her not being able to feed the backing into the machine separately from the front because of the hand quilting. But there is not one pucker on the back. It is perfect!




That pretty plaid fabric was a summer sun dress and the flowered fabric on the right was a dress I made for myself...back in the day when I actually did some sewing for myself!


The Flintstones fabric was a little summer shorts and shirt set and so appropriate for Elizabeth because when she was a baby, she had so much hair that I had to fix it just like Pebbles, on top of her head, so some of our friends called her Pebbles! The floral fabric that is paired with the dark purple was a very fancy dress I made for Elizabeth to wear to a friend's wedding. The pattern had 29 pieces, and only two of those pieces were below the waist! There were lots of details on the bodice and sleeves of that dress, and it was gorgeous!



That blue paisley fabric that you can see up there paired with the wide stripes was what I used for the main fabric of a double Irish chain quilt I made for my brother and his wife for their wedding gift. I had so much left over when I finished the quilt that I used the same fabric to make Elizabeth's dress to wear to the wedding! I only have one brother, the 8th of 8 children, so yes, this is the wedding that the tea party dress mentioned before was made for the shower! Did you know paisley is a symbol of fertility?


Whew! That finish was a long time coming! This quilt will make a fabulous picnic blanket or cuddle-on-the-couch blanket, and a wonderful conversation piece! Now on to the next project!

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com

Labels: , ,

9 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home


 

 

Newer Posts Home Older Posts
Copyright ©2010 HookedOnNeedles.com. All rights reserved.