The 20 year Quilt

This winter we remodeled our kitchen. For years a simple seed packet quilt, now old and faded, hung on one wall. 

It would be nice to have a new wall quilt for the new kitchen, but where to start? Digging through a bin of UFO’s I found the answer.

Twenty years ago I made the background for a pictorial appliqué wall quilt. I pieced the sky and grass, appliquéd a white picket fence, and added a black and white checked border. 

I don’t remember where I intended to go from there, except that it included sunflowers. There is no doubt the quilt I just completed is very different than the one I started.

There is a peacock, representing the flock we once had.

An orange cat, in memory of my favorite.

I have always loved dimensional fabric flowers, so they were a must.

I added bees, flowers, and watermelon, as beekeeping and gardening are big parts of out life. I created machine embroidered appliqué pieces for many of these, something I could not have done 20 years ago.

I used a variety of hand and machine sewing, appliqué and embroidery techniques, and quilted it using the hand look quilting stitch on my trusty old Bernina. It really does brighten up the room.

The Baby Crazy Quilt

I used to do a lot of quilting. It kept me sane when my kids were young and I was constantly changing diapers, doing laundry, cooking, etc. At a time when almost all the work I did was temporal, I loved quilting because I was creating something that lasted. As the kids grew up, I started doing alterations and custom wedding gowns. I also worked as a Costumer for nearly 15 years. I sewed all the time, and the quilt fabrics got pushed to the back of the stash. 

Things have finally slowed down a little. Close friends were expecting a child in December. The urge to make a baby quilt was strong- and I had time! I have always loved crazy quilts and their rich variety of colors, textures, and design elements. Our friends have a life that is a lot like a crazy quilt- highly variable, and full of the unexpected. I decided to make them an all cotton crazy quilt of predominantly antique colors.

I started by going through my embroidery designs, choosing those that fit them or us or both. 

Once I had stitched out a dozen or so, I cut four 20" square blocks out of tightly woven cotton sheeting. Each piece would eventually be a large crazy quilt block. I dug out fabrics and lace from the back of the stash and purchased a couple special pieces. The first block was the hardest to make. It is more difficult to create scraps out of whole cloth than you might think. Once I got into the swing of it the process became easier.

I quickly learned that I needed a lot more embroidered pieces. I made them all on my embroidery machine.

After arranging the pieces and pinning them in place, I used the buttonhole and feather stitches on my Bernina to hold everything together decoratively.

After sewing the four blocks together, I added a few three dimensional elements.

The quilt is filled with cotton batting and tied. The backing fabric was folded over to the front for simple self binding. 

I enjoyed making it, looking at it, and gifting it.