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| 36.5 x 44 inches, including the 2" eyelet ruffles |
I bought it as a prequilted panel at the JoAnn Fabrics store where I was an assistant manager. It was done up in that chicken coop motif just like this one:
I didn't like that at all, so I took all the quilting out, tossed out the skimpy batting and plasticky-feeling shim that had been inside. I soaked and dried and pressed the fabrics to get the needle holes and indented lines out, and relayered it with a high-quality poly batt that was a big splurg for us at that period.
I hand quilted it! (The last hand-quilting to happen until our youngest was in high school!) I used a hoop, and just followed the outlines of the figures with black thread and then added background work in white thread in the central panel and also to define the inner borders. You can see that I'd left the border backgrounds untouched and fluffy, which is still just fine with this batting.
I didn't bind this quilt. I'd wanted a pretty ruffled eyelet trim on it. I attached it by machine right-sides-together to the front of the quilt, right through the batting. when I turned the edge, yes, that batting wanted to flip out unattractively. So I remember that I hand-basted the batting edge down onto itself to lay pretty along the finished edge.
I also remember the TV time I enjoyed while I sat there and hand-rolled the edge of the backing under and hand-stitched it down to the eyelet so that it just barely covered the seamline. Sandy brought it to mind to look up which shows I would have been watching that winter, and they would have been Star Trek Next Generation, Home Improvement, Dinosaurs, Murphy Brown, Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Designing Women, Cheers, Cosby Show, Murder She Wrote, Northern Exposure. I didn't like Married with Children, Dallas, or Full House for some reason. I also didn't care much for daytime TV other than Regis and Kathie Lee.
This quilt is in excellent shape. Heather never used it actively - it was put up on the wall as a nursery decoration.
I'm going to make a label for it and stitch the ends of the eyelet ruffle together - I find it funny that I did so much other handwork on this quilt and failed to tend to this detail. :)
What a great find in my old quilts!! It's going to be wonderfully fulfilling to gift it to Heather when they're expecting their first child.
~*~*~ Linking up at Sandra's Throwback Thursdays
SO glad you've found and documented another of your old beauties Lynette! Incredible hand-quilting, and how you took the whole thing apart and then reDID the batting and quilting...and then the ruffle ends! Too funny that we do things like that. Love the memories it evokes, often not thought about until we sit down to write about the quilt right? Thanks for linking up with TBT!
ReplyDeleteA beautiful walk down memory lane! I like that you are going to add a label this little beauty deserves it.
ReplyDeleteThat’s quite a lot of work! Very cute.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet quilt! You put a lot of work into that. I bet you were watching "Full House" or "Home Improvement" while you stitched. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful gift! My girls were both thrilled to get their baby quilts (made by their now-deceased grandmother, my mom) when their own children were born . . . both cried. I am so thankful I saved them, and I know Heather will be thankful you did, too! Good Mom!!!
ReplyDeleteWe must be from the same era. I think I began quilting about that same time and I hand quilted everything. I was never going to machine quilt - ha ha. Little did I know that I would make too many quilts to hand quilt them all.
ReplyDeleteI too remember the fun baby panels. I made several myself.
A very pretty heirloom.
ReplyDeleteLong ago I made some baby quilts using panels for church raffles. I wonder if they were used and where they are now. Hope they held up as well.
ReplyDelete