This week I have exciting news to share – well, at least it’s exciting to me! A quilt I began over 17 years ago, and chose to hand quilt, is finished!
Let me tell you the story and then unveil the quilt :-).
Quite a few years ago my husband gave me a pattern for a civil war era hoop dress and the hoop skirt to go with it. He had been at a Civil War reenactment, found these items, and thought I could make a costume to wear when I lecture. This was the inspiration for my first lecture about antique quilts entitled “But I Still Love You”.
In planning an introduction for this lecture I came up with an idea that required me to have a vintage dog quilt and a vintage pony quilt. I acquired the dog quilt shortly after coming up with the intro idea, but there were no pony quilts to be found. I had planned to give the lecture for my own guild, Patched Lives, first. So I did my intro and asked the ladies in my guild to imagine that they were looking at a pony quilt (ha!ha!).
A few days later I received an envelope in the mail from a guild friend (thanks, Johanna). She sent me a pattern for a carousel pony block and a note saying that perhaps I should make a pony quilt. What a great idea! I grabbed my small pile of vintage feed sacks and took them along to Paducah with me. That year Wendy, Jill, my Mom and I were all spending quilt week in Paducah together and I conned them into making pony blocks. They each chose the fabric they liked and hand buttonhole appliquéd a pony onto a piece of muslin.
Upon arrival home I stitched the top together, bordering it with orphan bow tie blocks which were given to me by my friend Barb.
At that point I decided the quilt needed to be hand-quilted, but couldn’t talk my Paducah buddies into doing the quilting on their blocks. I enjoy hand-quilting in small increments, and typically worked on this crib sized piece while traveling to Paducah each year (Wendy never did give in and offer to help). This past April I actually did do quite a bit of the quilting during our AQS adventure, so I decided to take it along when Mike and I drove to Philadelphia last month. I really worked in earnest on that trip, because I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. It only took me one evening of quilting after our return to actually finish the quilting. Putting the binding on was a joy!
I love it!
I used the corners of a vintage hanky for the saddles, the same black trim from my dress became the poles, and embroidery floss (go figure), was used for the tails. They’re adorned with a few old beads and buttons.
Do you have a quilt that has taken you over 18 years to go from start to finish? Would you like to share your story?
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This week I’ll be heading to Madison, WI for Quilt Expo! I’ve been blessed to teach there every year since the beginning. This year I’m doing “Sit and Sew’s” on free motion quilting, and lectures on many different ways to add circles to your quilts. It’s always a wonderful show. I hope to see some of you there!
Lori M says
You spin such interesting stories! I love your pony quilt. It’s so pretty. And your civil war outfit is fabulous. You’re so talented. It’s funny that you mention finishing an old project as I was just thinking about a quilt top I bought at an estate sale 30 years ago (eek! when I was in my 30’s!). It’s just lovely…made from 30-ish type fabrics with bleached muslin, all hand pieced. Of course I’ve been meaning to honor it by hand quilting it. Now I’m thinking that is never going to happen. My machine quilting skills are finally up to the task and I’m planning to finish it soon!
Carolyn Vogel says
I did a millennium quilt that I felt the need to hand quilt. Think I worked at the hand quilting for about ten years to finish it, and then titled it. “The Only One.” As it will be the only queen size quilt that I plan to ever hand quilt!