Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Wild Geese

I've always admired 
antique doll and cradle quilts.

found on Pinterest

Their humble patterns and
the irregularity of stitching give us
a tiny glimpse into the makers.
Was it sewn with
young hands learning to hold 
 needle and cloth or
older hands, stiff from life
 lovely sewing a small quilt for someone special?

Wendy, the Constant Quilter, issued a challenge to herself
and anyone else who wanted to join in the fun,
 to make one small quilt a month.
No rules, no pressure.
Whatever path you wanted to take.

How hard would it be to make one
small quilt each month?
Well, it was definitely fun,
but more challenging than I thought.

I decided to try and reproduce
one of the many doll or cradle quilts
I'd been saving on my Pinterest board.

Here is the original quilt 
someone pinned from 
Stella Rubin's Antique Quilts.


The funny thing after I started this, I
saw Temecula Quilts was making it
their mini of the month as well.
Too funny, but definitely a sign
I was going to have fun with my first challenge.

I had no problem looking through
my stash for similar fabrics.
I wasn't sure if the tan was originally tan
or a fugitive color.
It didn't matter. I decided to go as is.
I drafted the pattern
the size I wanted it to be.  

The challenge came
trying to be more liberated in my sewing.
When you spend years trying to
perfect your sewing skills and 
then to try and be more free or loose, it wasn't as easy
as you'd think.
Here's an example
of my flying geese.


I roughly cut rectangles close to the same size,
used large triangle pieces for the background,
and came up with some good variations.

I set the rows of geese together 
without measuring


and laughed when it came out so close to
equal measurements on the opposite sides.
When I try hard, that doesn't always happen!

I handquilted it with
a small cable in the rows as well as
 the outer borders and then
 around each flying goose.



This really was a fun project.

Wild Wings
17" x 26"

New and old side by side.


Thank you, Wendy, for the mini
monthly challenge.
I hope to be trying it again soon
with another antique doll quilt.
Check out Wendy's blog, to see her
first mini and also
Barbara's blog to see what she made. 
Time to join in?

Until Next Time-
Kyle

24 comments:

  1. This was a fun post to see...I'll check out the other ones as well :)

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  2. How sweet. Can't wait to see all the little quilts. Hugs

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  3. Wow Kyle, that looks very close to perfection! A perfect copy of the antique baby quilt.
    I can imagine the fun it was to make it.

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  4. I LOVE your cute wonky little quilt and you came up with such a CUTE name for it. Never can come up with a clever name for mine.

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  5. Congratulations on this lovely finish !! I think it's the twin of the antique doll quilt !!

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  6. I'd say you pretty much nailed this one. Your hand quilting is so pretty, especially in the borders.

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  7. What fun! I love your little quilt. This is such an inviting challenge, I'll be looking forward to seeing everyone's quilts each month.

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  8. Wow!!! I am so excited that you are joining in the fun. I cannot believe how hard it must have been for you to make those "imperfect" geese. This is absolutely adorable! I will try to figure out how to do a link up at the end of the month. I'm sure I can find a five year old to help me!

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  9. That is one sweet little quilt! Love the hand quilted cables too. I do wonder what the original colors could have been, although blues and tans are my favorite combo. So eerie that Temecula chose it too--cue the Twilight Zone music-lol!

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  10. Stellar job, Kyle! Great job letting go of having to be precise. That is such a challenge when precision has been your goal!

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  11. What a fun project! It turned out really adorable. I love the handquilting you did on it. You will enjoy making these small quilts along with Wendy I think and I look forward to seeing what you make next month :0)

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  12. A very sweet rendition of the original quilt - the blues are wonderful. And hand quilted too!

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  13. A lovely little quilt! You did a fabulous job recreating the antique quilt. I look forward to seeing your next one. It is hard to sew “imperfectly” when we are always trying to get things “perfect”.

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  14. Omigosh, Kyle, you captured that little antique quilt perfectly! Love the way you made it "humble" :) Nice quilting, too!

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  15. And thanks for adding a link to my blog :)

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  16. I love both the original and your reproduction/interpretation. Your hand quilting adds just the right touch -

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  17. This is wonderful! I had seen the little quilt somewhere before and I love the one you made. The antiques are my main choice of inspiration, you did great!

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  18. That was fun! I love those antique doll/cradle quilts and save plenty of pictures, thinking to reproduce them "some day". Thanks for the inspiration - even though I don't think my "some day time is just yet!

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  19. There's something so sweet and engaging about these simple little quilts. Your interpretation is wonderful! Can't wait to see what you finish up next.:)

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  20. Your geese look great, and it is a cute quilt! ---"Love"

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  21. This is delightful. Great idea for a challenge. I think you have met the challenge very well and have a lovely quilt at the end.

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  22. Wee love your mini - great job capturing the charm of the original. I love making doll quilts and you are right, it is not as easy as you think when you work on a smaller scope.

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  23. I like that you did liberated geese. Was Temecula's also to be liberated style?

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  24. I’ve made a version of this wonderful little quilt, too. Yours has so much spirit though! Love it.

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