Applique | Brooklyn Quilting Co

Butterflies – Finished

Way back in January, I posted about an applique butterfly quilt top my (almost 93-year-old) grandma made many years ago. She can’t quite remember when she made it, but we guestimate it is at least 20 years old, if not 30+. Since grandma doesn’t quilt anymore, I took this one on to finish for her and I’m finally done.

This quilt took a long time because it is so large; it measures approximately 78” x 86”. I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a quilt that big, and let me just say it was a lot to handle.

While it did take a long time to finish, I actually had it done a couple of months ago, but I hung on to it for a while before I photographed it. That’s because I was waiting for my summer vacation to begin.

While I was away this summer, I spent some time with my aunt and uncle, who now live on my grandparents’ old farm. The white barn you see is the original barn that still stands. I thought it would be appropriate to photograph my grandma’s quilt on her own farm so I packed the quilt in my suitcase and waited until I got to the farm to take photos.

Turns out that was a good move, because I love the barn in the background. I also got to see my grandma while I was visiting and I showed her the finished quilt. Needless to say, she was very happy to see it done.

The back of this quilt was a bit challenging, mainly because it took me a long time to decide on a fabric. I knew I wanted to do something red and floral, but I couldn’t find the right fabric. It finally occurred to me that a Denyse Schmidt print would be a perfect complement to the vintage look of the butterflies. (Side note: Many of the butterflies are likely made with actual vintage fabric. My grandma was known for cutting up old dresses, aprons, etc. to use for quilt fabric. My mom even recognizes one of them as a dress she wore as a child.)

I ended up using a print from Denyse Schmidt’s Sweet Ruby collection for Jo-Ann’s. I am so happy I went with it; I think it looks perfect.

I also used an extra row of butterflies for the back. When I found the old quilt top in a storage bin, there was an extra row of butterflies that were packed with it. I wasn’t quite sure of what I was going to do with them. I thought about attaching another row to the quilt and making it a little bit longer, but then I decided to use them for the back. It ended up working out really well, because I needed a little more fabric for the back. Once I had the Sweet Ruby fabric and the row of butterflies, it was just enough fabric.

Now that this is done, I’m itching to dig into the other quilt tops my grandma left unfinished; I think there are two more left. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that I previously finished another applique quilt top of hers back in 2013. You can read about that one here. Maybe my next one will be finished in 2016. Stay tuned.

Vintage Fans

This is a quilt I can only take about 50 percent credit for; the other 50 percent goes to my grandma. Years ago she made the quilt top and I took it over and finished it last week. This design is part classic Dresden Plate quilt pattern, but with a twist. I think they look more like fans so that’s what I’m calling it.

My grandma recently celebrated her 91^st birthday and has spent most of those 91 years as a quilter. But unfortunately now that she’s 91 her eyes aren’t so great anymore. She can still do some embroidery (more about that in another post) but she can’t see well enough to work a machine.

Before she stopped, she had a few quilts tops that were done but hadn’t been finished, so my mom gave them to me to finish. They’ve been packed away for years and I finally dug them out on my last visit home to my parents’ house.

I love the old fabrics she used. My grandma comes from an era where you use what you’ve got, and many of the fabrics found in this quilt come from old shirts of hers, according to my mom. It kind of inspires me to look a little more closely at old shirts of mine before getting rid of them!

I chose a simple white back for this quilt and put it all together. When it was time for the binding, my grandma had already taken care of that part, too.

Every quilt I can remember my grandma making has these little triangles for the binding. She had already pre-cut all of the squares and all I had to do was fold and attach them to the quilt.

I typically do a traditional binding on my quilts but it was fun to do the triangles to keep this a true grandma quilt. I have to warn you, if you ever do the triangles for a binding they take A LOT longer than doing a traditional binding, but so worth the end result.

I love how this vintage quilt turned out and now I’m anxious to get my hands on any other quilt tops packed away.