Quilts and their history ~ An ongoing series.

A friend recently asked me about this quilt and I realized I’ve not written about an older quilt in quite some time. I need to get back to it.

I made this one in 1995. It was through a quilting class at Katie’s Stitch and Stuff, my local quilt store and the only place I bought fabric for many years. Hello? That is all there was! There was no internet fabric shopping and when we went to the city if wasn’t to buy fabric. There were probably 8-10 women participating in this class. I remember someone created and shared plexiglass templates to make cutting the shapes so much easier. That was a brilliant idea with all the curves! No rotary cutters then, either. We traced around the templates, in pencil, then cut them out all willy nilly and then did our best with 1/4″ accuracy. It’s amazing that this quilt lies perfectly flat. Really, all the points are pointed and it is flat. If you’ve ever attempted one like this you know what a challenge that is. There could have been a little dumb luck at play, but I do amaze myself at times, LOL!

This was the one and only quilting class, for lack of a better word, that I ever took. Not that it was a bad experience, I just like to work faster than you do in a weekly class! I had my quilt top put together and half quilted before most of them got started.

I made this one to specifically match my sewing room at the time. My husband and FIL had just finished out my studio and the sheet linoleum’s tile *grout* was the same color as the binding I used. You know that 90’s teal green? Yes, I still have stacks and stacks of that color fabric!

It hung on that studio wall until we moved 6 years ago. I don’t have the open wall space in this studio so now it is my favorite lap quilt! And I look at it, in this picture, and every single time I think it reminds me of Elizabeth Hartman’s Tokyo Subway Map quilt. Must be all the colors playing tricks on my eyes! Blur your eyes like when you looked at the Magic Eye books of the 90s and see if you don’t think so, too!

It is 60″ x 60″ hand pieced and hand quilted with scalloped borders. It was made using scraps that were mine, my grandmothers and some that I swapped for from other quilters (who all also shopped at Katie’s!). This was back in the day when I used muslin for the body of most of my quilts and almost all the backs of them. I do really like how it shows off the quilting. I might just go back to it. It is definitely cheaper than most of the quilting fabrics out there now. Muslin just makes for a calming old-fashioned looking quilt. Don’t you think?

Remember when last week I told you about the Scrap Quilt Challenge?

This is what I entered. The voting is now open.

If you want to check out all 18 entries go here.

And if you are so inclined, vote here until September 15.

And speaking of scrap quilts…

Why is it that inspiration only hits when your space is so nice and clean???

Not that you can tell it was clean.

But it was.

For a split second….

And did you see Monday’s post? I hope so, if not, pop over and see what I continue to be blown away by!

Have fabulous week!