Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Orphaned Quilt No More

I cleaned out my workshop over the holidays and came across this unfinished quilt top.

I made it years ago when I was working out the pattern for this much-beloved house pillow and I needed to make a version in scrap fabrics before making it in the fabric I had purchased for the bedroom. When I tinker with patterns, I end up with lots of these little unfinished blocks that I use to make sure all my measurements are right. This one was too cute to just toss in the trash (which is what I usually do.) So I posted it on Facebook asking if anyone wanted it. Our good friends, the Peixottos, mentioned that their little girl would like to have it, so I spent an idle afternoon quilting it up just for her.

Now, I've made a couple of quilts for Shiloh, who likes to cover her stuffed animals with little quilts and I remembered that she likes the little pocket that is created by my quilt labels on the back of the quilt. So I decided I'd go one step further and add a zipper to the back of the quilt. She's maybe at that age where she's working on fine motor skills, but mostly I just figured if I were a little girl that age, I'd love to be able to zip up my little bears into a special sleeping bag. I've made a quilt with a zipper in the past.

This is actually one of my favorite bits of patchwork I've ever made.

It's backed with much beloved Strawberry Shortcake vintage sheets I found at a thrift store and it's equipped with a zipper, so we can use it as a cover for our little electric blanket.

Have you ever worked hard to figure something out and then completely forgotten how to do it when you attempt it again a year later? Yeah. That happened. But it wasn't too complicated, so I was able to get the zipper installed in the binding again like I did last time.