Norman Strikes Again!

That Norman! The chocolate lab who tore apart a vintage Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt in April (see The Dog Ate My Quilt) has developed a taste for old quilts. This month, he chewed the corner off a gorgeous vintage Bowtie quilt. Not as extensive as April’s damage, but Norman’s owner is starting to think I’m paying him in Milk Bones to tear up her quilts.

I had to replace half the bowtie, batting, backing and binding. I could not locate a green striped fabric that came anywhere near what the original bowtie looked like, so Norman’s “mom” decided to go with contrast and picked out a polka dot.

I noticed there was another quilt in the bag, and it was the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt I fixed in April. Oh no! Immediately, I did the mature, professional thing and jumped to conclusions: she hated my work and was throwing it back in my face. Can you believe I was wrong? The worst worn flower in the garden had batting falling out around what was left of the fabric. While the owner didn’t want me to make a completely new flower (too expensive), she did ask if I could “put a patch over it” to keep the batting where it belonged. Well sure, I can do anything. Hahaha. I mean, how hard can it be to make a one piece patch, sorta hexagonally shaped semi circle, complete with seam allowances? Pretty darn difficult, that’s how hard! The patch and I had a few differences at first, but after I threatened it with the fireplace, things fell into place.

Everybody is happy for now, but I sense Norman is plotting his next “challenge”.

UPDATE: This blog won American Quilter's Society Blog Of The Week on June 4, 2010.  Thank you Norman!  Your Milk Bones are in the mail!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part IV

Six flowers down, which means the half-way mark has been reached! The flower on the left has a pink and green dogwood print with a complementary green inner circle and a pink and green plaid center. Dogwoods are prolific in Kentucky, where my grandmother was from, and in the spring, the mountains are a fairy land of pink and white. The second flower uses a space age inspired print in avocado, along with solid marigold and a center of white on white stars. The flower that's in production now is also green and yellow, but it's light spring green for the inner circle and a bright yellow floral print for the outer circle. Very light and airy!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part II

Two flowers are done. Only 10 more to go! I'm using the English paper piecing method to make the flowers. Most of the fabrics I chose for the restored flowers are reproduction prints from the 30s and 40s. One lucky flower though gets to be made with the real deal: a vintage floral print from the 40s. One flower is made with a summer themed print (apples, bees, sunshine) and a solid burgundy, and the other is made with a 30s repro blue and pink floral and a pink solid.

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part I

This is a picture of my grandmother, Lillian Fields Patton, in 1943. She was one of the many women who inspired and nurtured my love of quilting. Long before I was a twinkle in my daddy’s eye, Grandmother made Flower Garden quilts for all her children when they were freshly married. Each hexagon was hand cut, and no two flowers were the same. She used up every piece of scrap fabric she could find, and some of the neighbors’ too. Grandmother even made flowers from my grandpa’s old boxer shorts (3rd picture)!

Six months ago, my aunt, a Super Master Of The Quilting Universe herself, sent me her quilt, asking me to restore it. ACK! What an honor to refurbish something my grandmother made! Not to mention nerve wracking, anxiety producing, heart pounding, pressure filled... OK, I’ll stop. While I was marking the flowers that needed to be fixed, I noticed the binding needed a little TLC too. However, Grandmother bound each side of the outer hexagons with its own separate miter. Can you imagine hand sewing the binding to the quilt 1" at a time, then mitering 1” pieces of fabric together? My mind reeled. Before I fainted completely away, I asked my aunt if she wanted me to replace the binding too. Luckily for my heart, she said no because it would be too hard to match the fabric. What’s left of my sanity thanked her.


The other two pictures are of the quilt itself. It’s too big to take in one shot, so I just took a couple of close-ups to show the diversity of colors and fabrics used. I’ll be posting updates as I go along, or maybe pix of me in the loony bin. Stay tuned!