The 1991**Didn't know what I was doing* quilt

In 1991, I was in my late 20's and was making quilts.  I have learned a lot since then, but I want to share this quilt with you:

This quilt makes me happy and it makes me sad. 

When my grandmother died, my grandfather gave me a box of fabric scraps that  had belonged to her.  She was a quilter, too.  I made this quilt for my daughter.... she was 4 years old... and I dreamed of the day that she would grow up and it would become a part of her home.

You see, I did not even know how to make the blanket stitch for appliqueing the pieces.  But I thought I had taught myself.  I whipped these little sunbonnet sue girls up in no time.

I embroidered some of my favorite Bible verses on each dress, thinking that one day my daughter would look up these verses, to see what  scripture had spoken to her mother.

 I hand quilted this quilt on a wooden frame, that sat in the living room until the quilt was finished.  My children played underneath the frame while I quilted away.  I look at my quilting stitches now and am amazed that I had such small neat stitches 'back in the day'.  My stitches no longer look that nice.

When I finished quilting the quilt and turned the edges over for binding (I did not know how to make binding  or how to  bind a quilt in 1991) I promptly washed the quilt. 
To my horror, when I pulled it out of the washer, all of my blanket stitches that I used to hold the sun bonnet girls on with, had shifted.... pulled away and were distorted. It's a wonder there were any Sue's hanging on at all!

So, it was at that moment, that I decided my little girl could not 'use' the quilt at all while she was a little girl, as I knew it would get dirty and not be able to withstand frequent washings.   I folded it away and put inside a plastic container and there it has sat for years!

My little girl is 27 years old now and has a house of her own.  I still have not parted with the quilt, because I know what will happen when she washes it.  

I've been thinking of putting the quilt on my sewing machine and machine stitching the Sunbonnet Sues in place and calling it ok.  I will then send it to my daughter and she can decide if she will display it, use it, or keep it in plastic its entire life. 

Any suggestions?  Man! I wish I could still quilt like that!

Underground Railroad completed

I am definitely an 'under' achiever with my quilting goals, but I have managed to finally finish my Underground Railroad quilt sampler.  

This picture was taken in a hurry with assistance from  an impatient husband.  The sunshine is washing out the lower portion of the quilt in the photo.  I bought the fabric 2-3 years ago, using Christmas money given to me as a gift.  I very slowly worked my way through Eleanor Burn's Underground Railroad pattern book.  By the time I was finished with the blocks, I was pretty bored with the color of the fabrics (attempting to use Civil War type fabric colors).  I decided on the black and red to make the blocks pop a little more and then chose the blue border because I wanted the quilt to look happier than it was looking at the time.  ;) 

The backing and binding were made from several yards of fabric that I found at Goodwill somewhere along the way.  I think I paid $2 for approx. 6 yards of fabric. 

Of course, it is all machine quilted.  I saved the quilting for the black sashing for last and debated on whether to even meander stitch on them.   Well, I did it, but not sure I would do that again... especially with contrasting thread colors.  On a happy note, I straight stitched 'in the ditch' the entire quilt before I started any  free motion stippling.  This is the first quilt that I have machine quilted that didn't have a huge pucker or fold on the back somewhere. 

This quilt now belongs to my husband because he claimed it right from the start.  He loved the colors and still loved the colors when I was done.  Those must be 'man' colors.   I'm happy it's finished, because it just feels good to mark an unfinished project off the list! 

And I threw this picture in for the grandkids.  Hoping that they will one day enjoy reading my blog, I wanted to throw in something that is sure to make them giggle one day.  These brothers are so much fun and it's cute to see Chandler growing into the little brother than can now 'play' with big brother, Avery.