Story of a quilt…

While my mom was still in nursing school and while they were still dating, my parents made a basic tied quilt as part of a sewing project for one of my mom’s classes. I remember that blanket vividly growing up. For years, I’ve seen it waded up in their garage. It’s made out of the craziest 70’s inspired pattern — red on one side of the blanket, navy blue on the other. When I got into quilting, I knew that one day, I wanted to snag that quilt, salvage the fabric and make a great quilt out of it. That’s when my dad approached me with an idea for my mom for Mother’s Day this year…

Close-up of the quilt

He wanted to know if I could make mom a quilt. Selfish little me had only thought of myself…the memories of the blanket and having something for me! One day while my parents were out of the house, I ran by, grabbed the blanket from the garage and washed it in their giant front loading wash machine. I carefully cut the yarn that tied the quilt and used a seam ripper to take the pieces apart. The red fabric was incredibly worn. It was so thin; I knew I’d need to use a light interfacing to give that fabric enough body to hold up in a quilt. Also, there were the holes where the ties pierced the fabric. The navy fabric was hardly worn, very sturdy and the holes were very small and discrete. I used an iron-on interfacing and red thread to stitch up the holes in the red fabric.

Stitches to mend the holes in the fabric

I put in many hours on this quilt and tried to do a traditional pattern. Mom isn’t one for modern quilt designs. I used this project as a diversion while I wrapped up finals. I’ve always liked the rail/fence pattern, but most quilts I see aren’t large enough to really do it justice. I kept it very simple, backed in navy blue fabric, simple quilting and gingham fabric for the binding. While working on this quilt I realized, I actually LOVE handstitching my binding!!

The finished project!

Mom was thrilled with the quilt. She was so surprised and it brought her to tears. Annndd…I have enough fabric left over to make my own!! I have a very Densye Schmidt inspired pattern in mind for it. Oh and don’t mind Oscar, my parents’ puppy. He wanted to be in the shot too.