Something old, something new....

Don't you just love it??  It's a vintage quilt square that I have had in my stash for years! It's really a total mess.. not square at all.. wonky seams and cut off points..but you know what?  I think it's beautiful!  I think of the woman who made it.. or maybe it was a girl.. who knows.. Not enough of anything and yet she  did it.. she made that block. She fudged and patched, she stretched and bunched and in the end all these years later it's getting a sashing set from me and  has been quilted into a wall hanging. (I will shoot photos of it when I get it up on the wall). 

 To honor the piece I left it alone as much as possible but did square it up a bit, added the sashing from some nice linen in my stash.  Then I pondered on how to quilt it.  After a while a settled on machine channel quilting the linen part since it was the " new"and hand quilting the "old" block with largish simple stitches that were similar to some that she used in part of a patch job that already was part of the block.

I am VERY happy with how this project came out and to me it's part of my statement about how I view quilting and needlework in general.  I do it for the joy.. not the angst of the perfect seam or the practically blood thirsty competitive nature of today's "high end" quilt world. 

I do it for the joy - the end.

In other news I am making headway on the Bari J fabric project... two 16x70 bench quilts for the big farm table.  I an IN LOVE with the little bird in this fabric and think I will take a stab at digitizing a small bird from a sketch I did based on her fabric.  To that I want to incorporate our family monogram and use it on the head chairs for the table... I will let you know how it goes.

In the mean time keep your eyes peeled... I am going to have a big sale over in the store front as I say goodbye to some of the designs ( they are being retired)

So..what else are you all doing?...