I was recently contacted by a lady named Lynette. She had been helping a friend clean out her mother’s residence after the friend’s mother had moved to a nursing facility. In the process, they ran across an unfinished quilt that her mother had stored away. Basically, the quilt top was done and it needed some finishing touches and longarm quilting. Lynette decided to send me the quilt to have it finished for her friend as a keepsake gift. I was thrilled! This is exactly the kind of thing I love. I named my business Heirloom Longarm Quilting because I myself have quilts that my grandmother made and I consider them to be family heirlooms.
When I received the quilt top I was immediately impressed with the mother’s work as all of the blocks were intricately paper pieced. Paper piecing is used to stabilize fabric and allows you to create intricate designs that could not otherwise be readily sewn, due to the fragility, small size, and geometric shapes of the fabric pieces being sewn.
Each block contained 15-17 individual pieces of fabric. All of the points in each of the blocks were precise and crisp.
The borders had been sewn on but were unfinished in the corners.
So, I took the quilt and mitered the border corners to finish the quilt top. I added a blue tonal fabric for backing and quilted it with an edge to edge pattern of swirly leaves, vines, and pearls to match some of the leaves in the fabric pieces. I used a pale-yellow thread to blend with the yellow in the blocks.
Below are pictures of the top and back of the finished quilt. I am so happy that Lynette found me and gave me the opportunity to turn this mother’s quilt into a family heirloom for her daughter. It gave me very fond memories of both my grandmother and mother who were actually the ones who inspired me to learn how to sew in the first place. I just had to share this story.
Happy Quilting!
Sherrie
TOP OF QUILT
BACK OF QUILT
CLOSE-UP OF ALL THE PRECISE POINTS