My father-in-law Ken had an antique quilt top that he believed was made by his mother. This top had been passed around a few times but never finished into a quilt. It made a good project for my new longarm, so I quilted and finished it off. Here it is:
This was pieced by machine, using foundation fabrics. Stitch & flip with very tiny seam allowances! There are many feedsacks, and fabrics that look like men’s shirts. I had to replace a few pieces due to damage, but that shouldn’t be noticeable on such a scrappy quilt. Notice that most of the quilt is done in rectangles, but there is one column on the right side made up of log-cabin type blocks. Did she start with rectangles, and then get bored enough to switch to log-cabins? Or did she start with log-cabins, decide it was too much work, and switch to rectangles? We will never know.
I did a simple quilting design using my first pantograph. Too bad it doesn’t show up well, but I’m happy with it.
I used a backing that looked like 30’s fabrics, in good Swedish colors. The fabric was from a line called “Aunt Grace’s Garden”, so it was perfect since Aunt Grace still lives on the family farm.
Here are Ken and Grace with their mother’s quilt:
They couldn’t remember with any details about the quilt. I had hoped that they would recognize fabric from their mother’s dress or apron, but nothing was familiar. Like so many of our own handwork projects, this one don’t get finished or labeled or recorded. But it is a nice quilt that will remind them of their parents, childhood, or life on the farm, and that’s a great thing!
Another reminder of the importance of labeling our quilts!
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