A Milestone Event in the Life of a Happy Quilter

I have a story of beauty and preservation that I really need to share.  A few months back I was approached by Carol Taylor, the daughter-in-law of my dear friend Lyndol Taylor, and she asked me if I would be interested in making a quilt for her and to use some lovely embroidered pieces that her grandmother, Leona Collins, had made 50 years ago.  After looking at the pieces I agreed to design and piece the quilt it for her.

After hours of thinking how to bring out the beauty of these beautiful handmade pieces we decided to stay with the Vintage look and used 30's fabric in tiny 2" squares which would allow the embroidery pieces to shine.  Not wanting it to have a structured look, I set the blocks at various heights and sewed partial seams to get them to fit correctly.  It was fun.  We then sent the quilt to a long armer to do a simple meandering stitch throughout the pieced block area, but around each square as the fabric was delicate and we didn't want any problems.  When the quilt came back from the longarmer I sewed the binding on and hand stitched it.  Voila, beautiful!  But the quilt was still not finished.....

Lyndol thought the squares needed something more to finish them off so she took the quilt home and spent the next few months hand quilting inside the embroidered squares and the result was stunning.  So stunning in fact that Lyndol and Carol decided to enter it in the West Houston Quilt show that was coming up in a few weeks.  We were all thrilled when it took Honorable Mention in the First Time Entered Quilt Category.  

Here is a pic of the quilt with the four of us taken at the show.  Lyndol is on the left, Carol with a picture of her grandmother Leona and myself...

Here are a couple of pictures showing the embroidery in clearer detail.  Beautiful Work!

It was certainly a pleasure working with these great friends.  I'm sure that Leona Collins is very pleased with the results.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Carolyn, aka Crafty Jamie, proud owner of my Etsy Shop "Goodies By Jamie".  Here's the link if  you would like to visit GoodiesByJamie.etsy.com