Patchwork Quilt

Last month I completed a pinwheel patchwork quilt that I have been working on for a very long time. I actually began work on this quilt prior to marrying Adam. I planned to make a twin quilt for my bed back home using scrap fabric from my many sewing projects. After becoming engaged I had the ambitious idea of sewing a queen sized quilt. I continued to add blocks to my collection, but never quite enough to complete the quilt.

Unfortunately the pinwheel blocks sat in my work basket untouched for a few years until recently.

 My sister found two vintage wooden twin beds along side the road one day. She refurbished one for her little one and gave me the other. It was then that I knew that my patchwork blocks had finally found their destiny! : ) I had enough blocks to sew a twin sized quilt.

This has been a special project for me. Many of the fabric used are now over 15 years old, while some are more recent. The blue and pink square above was sewn from fabric left over from two dresses I sewed for myself. The pink on white calico was a dress I sewed when I was 17. I wore it often to when we began our sewing business and sold at a local Farmers' market. The blue was left from a dress I sewed when engaged to Adam. I wore the dress while on our honeymoon.

The pretty pink rose fabric in the block above was leftover from my sisters' bridesmaid dresses.

Instead of purchasing extra wide backing fabric I decided to piece together some fabric I had on hand. I found it a little difficult to "sandwich" all three layers together. I ended up watching a video that explained how, that definitely helped! But still it was a little tricky since I didn't have a lot of space to spread out.

 I also found a neat video that explained how to attach binding. If I hadn't been in such a hurry I would have liked to have hand stitched the binding, but decided to machine stitch in order to save time. Jemimah was quite impressed with the quilting pins I purchased. She expressed her disappointment that the pins were not a permanent part of the quilt. : )

Instead of quilting my quilt, I used embroidery thread ties. I spent one weekend working away at stitching in approximately 200 ties! It was fun, and possibly my favorite step in creating this quilt.

This project has certainly been a learning experience! It is far from perfect, but with each mistake I have learned how I will do things differently next time.

 Winston also approves of the new bed and quilt. Whenever he comes into the house, and then disappears, we know that he has gone to Jemimah's room!

Adam is now hoping that I will sew a quilt for our bed. I hope to at some point. I definitely have enough scarp fabric to do so! He is always hinting that my scrap fabric collection is getting a little out of hand. I guess I have my work cut out for me... well not quite.