Recycling Vintage Quilt Scraps

Yesterday, I took a short train ride east to Dallas to join my some of my Dallas Modern Quilt Guild friends and enjoy the Dallas Quilt Show.  These girls are too much fun, as evidenced above by the priceless greeting I received as I stepped off the train.  After a big breakfast at the delicious greasy spoon, Mama's Daughters Diner, we were off to the show.

I did exceptionally well showing restraint while shopping (see, I only bought a few FQs), but an antique quilt dealer from Austin had some inexpensive quilt goodies I could not resist. One of my purchases was a large bag of quilt scraps for $4.

They really are scraps, but I knew there would be something in there I could work with.

Last night, I sewed the scraps together by butting the freshly cut edges together and zig-zag stitching over the join with some fabric on the backside to help stabilize the seam.

Here's the finished mini-quilt; it's just under 15" square. I had enough of the red floral (with it's original binding attached!) to use as the outside once I pieced a little of it together. I love that it has all of it's original hand stitching and batting inside.

As for the quilt show, we had a wonderful day and even ended up back at the diner for some pie in the afternoon.  Thanks for letting me hang out with you girls!

Loops of Love (aka Single Girl)

I had the most wonderful weekend with my quilty friends! There was lots of sewing, lots of great conversation, lots of laughter, and lots of good food!  So, what did I accomplish this weekend?

I only accomplished one thing...

I finished my king-size Loops of Love (aka Single Girl) quilt top!

I worked on this monster almost non-stop from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon.  I'm just thrilled I was able to finish this top in one weekend! I still need to add the white borders to the top and bottom edge, but then I'll ready to sandwich and quilt. 

I used the entire line of Katie Jump Rope and mixed in some Flea Market Fancy. I love the way it turned out; those two collections seem to be made for one another. I really want to hand quilt this behemoth, so it may be a while before you see it finished, but I'm anxious to get started.

Are you making a Single Girl quilt too? Check out the SGSG on flickr while I go order a really big piece of batting.

Shop update!

I received some of the revised Cheater Friday and it's listed in an Etsy shop.

Get it before it's gone!

My mother's first quilt

I'm so proud of my mom.  I just have to share this with you all.

My father passed away in May 2007. That's my daddy above in Korea during the Vietnam war. As of last summer, his clothes were still in his closet and my mom asked me to help her go through them. She wasn't quite ready to let them go and had the wonderful idea of making them into a quilt. My mom hadn't made a quilt before, but she's a very talented sewer, cross stitcher, crocheter, and crafter.

We sorted through my dad's shirts, 

cut them into large pieces, and tried to sort them out by color and shade.

She wanted something simple to construct, so I suggested the blocks above and she started cutting and sewing.

And here's the finished quilt! She did such a beautiful job, although I'm not the least bit surprised she did such nice work, I knew she would. I'm so proud of her!

The quilt is queen sized and she plans to use it on her bed. The backing is a purchased sheet in a shirting stripe; it looks perfect for the quilt. The binding is made of more shirt scraps and is hand sewn. We decided that tying this quilt might be the best option for her because she wanted to do the work herself (I know where I get my stubbornness from) and she didn't want to try quilting a queen on her domestic machine.

This quilt is a treasure! It's special and sentimental in so many different ways. I know this quilt will be loved and used for years and years.

So, after years of trying to talk my mom into quilting, I suspect this first quilt won't be her last. Between you and me, I think she's hooked.