u/bonnienorman

UPDATE: A little more history from the owner of this quilt. "Lell was my great-great grandmother's nickname, short for Luella; she's the maker. Her only child, my great-grandfather, worked for the St Paul Pioneer Press when he was very young--I think 14 or so. She was a single mom who supported them as a milliner. She sent his father away around the time Guy was born, with a promise he wouldn't contact his son for 20 years. And so it was- my great grandfather met his father when he was 20 years old."

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I was visiting friends in the Midwest recently & a cousin-in-law hauled out this vintage quilt that has been in her family. We assume that all the pieces are milliner scraps, since that was the maker's profession.

Wow.

This quilt. Ugh. II wasn't going to post it, but decided it was worth sharing just because YES I got it done. And it definitely inspired me to go full color on the next quilt (I posted that one yesterday here).

I fell out of love with this early on in the project, but forced myself to keep going and get it out of my project box. And now, while it isn't my favorite one by any measure, it IS the one I reach for when I need something cozy. Because of the fabric, it's heavier than most quilts. And just comforting.

I had a large-ish collection of Japanese fabrics & thought I'd make a quilt to show it all off. A simple quilt made of identical blocks of the different fabrics. I made a TON of those blocks (Pic #2).

After laying them out, it was ... boring (Pic #3). So boring. This was the point I fell out of love with this quilt.

I decided to pull a handful of blocks and replace with some larger sized/diff shape blocks to add some interest.

Still not in love, but kept going. I had thought stitch-in-the-ditch would make it all pop, but it was still ... boring.

So as the rest of the photos show, I just picked different blocks or groups of blocks and quilted in different ways. Channel quilting, waves, matchstick, angles, whatever I felt like.

I'm glad I didn't banish it early on to the 'never to be finished' project file, I'm glad it's done. And I still have a large pile of Japanese fabrics in my stash.

I usually go thru a love-active dislike-growing on me-love again with each quilt I make. But this one I've loved thru the whole process. It makes me smile each time I see it.

Fabric management (81 colors) was a challenge, but I'm happy to report my seam ripper came out only a couple times.

-- 68" x 76" after warm wash/dry
-- Pattern by Messygoats
-- Cherrywood hand dyed fabric (omg love - hardly any fraying due to high thread count)
-- backing is Tula Pink Best Buds in Fog

I'm sure a lot of you recognize the flannel backed vinyl tablecloth that I used to lay out the pieces. If you don't have one in your quilting supplies, get one! Fabric pieces stay put, you can roll it up if you make sure the vinyl is on top of each piece as you roll. It's a cheap solution that works sooooo well.

This is the only quilt I've ever made that has been totally unplanned. Not the pattern. Not the colors.

I purchased a charm pack on sale (Kona pastels) & made a stack of HSTs for my granddaughter, who always loves to arrange different blocks she finds in my scraps. I totally missed the mark! Zero interest.

I decided to play with the HSTs myself and see if I could use them in a quilt. And I'm thrilled over the result.

Are the points perfect? Oh not even close, since I never intended these to go into a quilt. Would I have ::married:: the colors together differently if I had a goal in mind? Absolutely. This was beyond random. I prob couldn't repeat it if I tried.

But somehow it all worked out.

(Last photo is the embroidered binding on the back, with a baby name and DOB.)