Quilt Finished...

Quote for the Day:

"Finished is better than perfect"

~a favorite saying amongst quilters

Last year I was gifted some quilt tops from a friend's mother's estate.  Most are pieced by hand, probably using templates and scissors, which makes for some "wonky" quilt tops.  But they are all still beautiful in that special way that antique or vintage items are.

Many years ago there used to be a shirt factory here in Grafton (way before our time of moving here.)  I've been told that you could go down there and buy "remnants" very cheaply, so many of the old quilts/quilt tops from this area have shirting material in them.

I believe that this particular quilt top is made from that mixture of feed sacks and shirtings, probably obtained from the former factory.

Here's a picture of the quilt top when it was given to me....

The middle was pretty, but it had a narrow solid, medium-blue border that was VERY WAVY (meaning that there was NO WAY it would ever lay flat!)  Also, that particular blue was not reflected anywhere in the quilt, so it looked like it was just an after-thought...slapped on for lack of something better.  I also didn't think the width of the border complimented the rest of the quilt, so I removed the offending border and added a wider border made from a 1930's reproduction fabric that complimented the red and pink already in some of the quilt blocks.

I purchased a cream-colored, solid backing and used 100% cotton Warm & Natural batting.  I quilted it on my Tin Lizzie18 sit-down long-arm machine using Aurifil 50wt. cotton thread on top and Bottom Line 60wt. polyester thread in the bobbin.  

I LOVE the way it turned out!!!

One of the feed sack blocks...

Shirting blocks...

The new border I added.  Free-hand feathers...no computer or pantogragh used...just me and my machine.  They aren't the prettiest, but I sure have fun doing them!!!

The back...shows the "figure 8's" and the "loops" that I used to quilt the blocks...

I hope the recipient will like it!  


Loretta