Bits of Love

The last of my scrappy dress quilts goes to my aunt who had made the dresses.  I finally ran out of usable material, so the binding and hanging sleeve are from my stash (what a match!).  When I first planned to do a fourth quilt, I figured there'd only be enough fabric to complete the top.  Surprise!  Once I finished the top, I managed to piece together a back with what was left. 

As expected, the remaining pieces of fabric got smaller (except for some chunks of green).  So this quilt mostly has 1.5" squares.  In addition, at 20" square, the finished size is about 4" smaller than the other three wall hangings. 

This quilt included all of the trimmings from the dresses, the lace and the buttons.  I tried to work these into the previous quilts, but they just didn't fit.  It's very satisfying to have used every bit from the dresses.  I even added one of the original labels onto the hanging sleeve.  Because of the hearts and the hodge-podge of trim, I named it Bits of Love.

I kept the quilting simple.  The nine patches were stitched just inside the outer edge and around the center square.  I stitched around the hearts the same way and made a template to quilt an inner heart.  I ran a loose meandering over the green, since I knew it wouldn't show much.  The focus is drawn to the hearts and the trimming.

When I was done, all that was left of the dresses was a little pile of scrap.  I can't believe I got four whole wall hangings from those outfits.  I bet I could have made a small throw quilt from it all!  But I think they're prettier and will wear better as wall hangings.  Besides, I got to share the love with more people.

All that's left of the dresses

So this adventure has come to an end.  I had so much fun working on these four quilts.  I loved designing them, limiting myself solely to the dress material.  They were an opportunity to practice more free motion quilting.  And what a bonus to surprise my aunts with their own quilts!  This was a feel-good project all around.