Something Old, Something New

Something Old, Something New

I desperately wanted to share these quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  The big plan was to share something new I hadn't posted before!  But my sewing machine put the kibosh on that idea.  Still - I get to share now.  I'm so excited!

I wanted to make a quilt as a wedding present for my cousin and her husband.  I contacted my aunt for ideas and she offered some sentimental material to incorporate into a quilt.  I expected a scrap or two.  Imagine my surprise when a box arrived with three hand-made kid's dresses and about 1/3 yard of fabric.  The dresses had been my cousin's when she a little kid.  Another aunt had made the dresses (have I mentioned I have a lot of aunts?).  I felt guilty taking the seam ripper to them, although it gave me a good look at the workmanship.  These dresses were beautifully made.

So much material!  I had enough donated material to complete the pair quilts and still had enough left over to create two additional wall hangings.

Something Borrowed, Something (Aqua) Blue

The fabric presented a challenge:  there were a few medium weight cottons, a light eyelet, an almost gauzy-weight cotton and a light weight velvet.  The velvet was a nightmare to work with, because it crawled while sewing it, even when I hand basted the seams first.  But it looked so terrific in the final piece, I had to stick with it.  There were plenty of bad words said as I ripped seams.  I'm surprised the lightweight fabric held together as well as it did.  The photo doesn't capture the textures you can see when you're up close.

Although both photos look a little washed out, they show the quilting nicely.  I did a mix of straight-line quilting with my walking foot and practiced some more free motion quilting.  I'm pleased with the results.  I struggled a while over borders and binding because of colors and yardage.  The Old/New quilt had no aqua and the Borrowed/Blue quilt had none of the dark green.  Even though the two quilts had the pink in common, I didn't feel they tied together well.  Then another quilter suggested swapping the aqua and green in the borders (thank you so much!).  I think the quilts came out great.

It's always hard to part with a finished creation, especially when you put it in the mail and trust it will arrive safe and sound.  I hope the newlyweds will enjoy these quilts for years to come.