Monday, May 27, 2013

Purple Posies in a Basket

I have been quilting this beauty off and on for 6 weeks.
Pieced by Janet, quilted by me
68" by 78"

It was pieced by a family friend, Janet, who learned quilting growing up on a dairy farm. She still lives, and works there. I wanted to quilt one of her tops as a way to honor her, her relationship with my husband's family and as a memorial to my late MIL.


The piecing is exquisite. See, Janet doesn't own a rotary cutter, she cuts each piece separately and pieces precisely. The flowers are not made of carefully pieced half-square-triangles, they are diamond shapes with exact y-seams. Perfect points. Hand-appliqued stems.


I took my time quilting, heck, this was intimidating!


I first did a tight stipple in the white backgrounds (with white thread), then left it as I built up my nerve to quilt feathers in the lavender sections. I had Isacord in a matching lavender for the solid blocks and stitched a plume in each. The border is stitched in a piano-key , it didn't need anything else.


I was happy with it, but a bit anxious to give it back. What if she didn't like it? Thats a lot of stitches to rip out.

She loved it. Her sister and brothers loved it. Her sister-in-law asked for it. (whew)
And we spent a wonderful afternoon and evening with them. And the cows.

This girl was so curious, she kept her eye on us the whole time!


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful!

Vicki W said...

Well done!

Paige said...

Holy moly! Hand stitching like that is amazing to me. My husband's 92 year old grandmother did and does every stitch by hand. Your quilting is a perfect match for this wonderful piece!