Phew! These things are a lot of work! All the quilters out there are
probably chuckling right now - I have a newfound respect for you guys! I made this quilt for my cousin's wedding (in July, but this took me a while) and it is pieced with scraps from our Nonna's fabric stash (she passed away in 2003).
I am ashamed to admit that it took me a minute to contemplate parting with those scraps, but now I'm glad I did so that I could share something of hers, hopefully something that my cousin and her husband will pass to their kids as an heirloom. I'm also ashamed to admit how much I began to really not enjoy making this, but that is how much I love her I guess!
OK, you're really going to laugh now. All my moaning and groaning? This quilt is like, 45"x 60". Uh, it's really small. Like lap blanket or baby blanket. 88 4"x"4 patches with a 5" border and thin bamboo/cotton batting. It felt like a king size battle!
Since the patches were kind of all over the place with colors and patterns, I attempted to use a checkerboard pattern with darks and lights to make it somewhat cohesive.
I think my cousin likes darker pallets and I didn't want to make it too
cutesy, so I used a gray pinstripe linen and an olive binding. I have
to say I'm really pleased with the colors and contrast.
Hated: Cutting the squares, sewing the binding (I machine stitched it), and jamming the thick parts through a machine that didn't want anything to do with it. And the length of time I spent on this project!
Loved: Connecting the pieces, making the sandwich, and sewing the quilting. Aside from the corner above, I did a decent job aligning seams.
OK, I guess it wasn't all bad. But this is my favorite part:
I hope they like it! Because they will be the only ones in the history of man possessing a smunch-made quilt!
