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
