Andrea's Antique Quilt--Part 1

Happy Birthday to my friend, Andrea, photographer/artist extraordinaire and blogger (http://www.hulaseventy.blogspot.com/), owner of this charming antique quilt top made of original feedsack fabric. She showed it to me several months ago and asked me to repair and quilt it for her daughter, Ava.

Through the years, Andrea used the quilt top for a stereo cover. Later she used some of the fabric at the quilt edge to make some glorious circus cards which appear in Jane Davila and Elin Waterston's new book Art Quilts at Play (C&T Publishing, 2009). Andrea casually showed me the copy they sent her and I thought 'girl, you don't even know how cool you are to be in that book'. But she clearly deserves it! Yea, Andrea!

After separating the squares, I spritzed each one with some of Mary Ellen's Best Press spray starch, and trimmed away the frayed edges to a uniform size of 4-1/2" x 4-3/4". I put a block of wood underneath my cutting mat to provide a firm surface underneath; otherwise the rotary cutter can break the mat because the ironing surface is too soft to withstand the pressure when cutting.


As I took each row apart, I kept them in a stack and labeled the first square. I sewed them together with a light gray cotton thread (Presencia 60/3) and shortened the stitch length slightly. The thread is fine yet strong and it's what I use to piece all my own cotton quilt tops.

The original quilt top has solid lavender and hot pink squares. Very random placement of these solid squares appear in two 9-patches. To get the quilt to the correct size, I'm incorporating some other solid colors of light yellow and aqua.

This quilt top is still needing a few feedsack squares to make it a bit longer than the original and to fit the twin bed it is intended for. So while Andrea is on the hunt for more fabric, I'll work on some other projects and show you the finished quilt in the new year!

Copyright ©2009, Sharon Baggs