My latest project with vintage fabrics is a little quilt to remember the quilting friend I recently lost to cancer.
It is made from fabrics from the border of a vintage quilt top that she gave me several years ago. The top was too damaged to keep, but the border was still in good shape. It had been pieced from circa 1900 fabrics, strips of prints alternating with white.
After the border was removed from the quilt, I took it apart. I discarded the white pieces, then pressed the print pieces. Once pressed, they measured ~3" x 6". Since some of them were not quite 3" wide, I decided to cut them into squares that measured 2 3/4". When all cut, I had 57 squares with which to work--two from each print, plus one extra.
My 14-year-old granddaughter is very artistic and a few years ago we'd made a small quilt together. I asked her to arrange the squares into a little quilt--perhaps 9 squares x 6 squares. My granddaughter thought 7 x 8 would be better. 😊
It was interesting to watch her lay out the squares (without my coaching). She went for "balance", just as I would have done, laying out the two halves of the quilt so that they would be identical if turned around! I only tweaked her layout a little bit, so that the colors would be a bit more scattered.
The squares are now sewn together. Flannel will be used for the batting and the little quilt will be tied.
My friend was to be my travel partner this November, going to Kenya with Craftours. I will be traveling alone, but she will be with me in spirit. This quilt will go with me and it will be my "Flat Stanley". It will be photographed in many of the places that we visit. 💖
