My grandmother Betty was an avid quilter. She was well supported by my grandfather, who greatly enjoyed road trips and would happily stop at all the fabric stores along the way to collect interesting fabrics. Betty was always on the hunt for solid fabrics in unusual colors as well as eye-catching prints that were different than anything else she already had in her stash.
Betty was, in fact, the person who taught me how to sew, to hand quilt, and to cross stitch when I was quite young. Not only was she passing her passion along to me, but I think she was also trying to keep me occupied on those long road trips…
After Betty passed away, my grandfather (on another road trip) brought me all of her fabrics, her quilting books, some partially cut projects, and even her notebook of notes on her quilting projects. It was boxes and boxes of things! Amongst those many boxes, I found these three square quilted panels.
They were clearly intended for some purpose and had been mostly completed in terms of the piecing and quilting, but they lacked backings and/or bindings.
I pulled them out about 7 years ago and thought “it might be nice to finish these and hang them in my sewing room” in recognition of Betty. Fast forward those 7 years and the quilted panels were still in that unfinished state. But last summer I put it on my to-do list to go through the fabrics I inherited and find backing and binding fabrics, so that when I had time I would at least be ready to think about finishing the panels.
I took an inventory of the panels in their inherited state:
- The red was basically done and just in need of binding. (The quilting had been done along with the appliqué hearts.)
- The green was also basically done and only in need of binding. (The quilting had been completed in a leafy motif.)
- The star was all pieced, but not quilted onto a backing yet. Also, before coming to me, it had gained age stains on the ivory backing, which isn’t ideal. I didn’t want to unpick all of the edges… (I don’t find it to be fun and I wanted to keep my grandmother’s sewing intact) so my plan was to use the ivory to make a border around the star and re-appliqué it onto a blue patterned background. I felt this would tie it in with the other two pieces and help the three panels feel like an intentional set. Then the star also needed to be quilted to a backing and bound.
Below, photos of the backs of the panels before I started working on them.
I went through all of the green and blue (and ivory, but that’s not the most exciting!) quilting fabric I had inherited to pick out suitable backing and binding options for each panel. Below are just a sample of the many solids and prints I had to choose from!
I chose a dark green binding for the red panel, a lighter green binding for the green panel, and a blue small print for the new background for the star, as well as ivory binding and backing.
And here is an individual photo of each completed panel, front and back.
I used a mixture of beautiful shades of green and blue (and ivory) thread to match the different colors use for the bindings and quilting.
It was fun figuring out what pattern I wanted to use to quilt the star, so that it would have dimension and seem in keeping with the other panels. I’m pleased with the pattern that is visible on the back!
Each panel also has a channel sewn along the top edge on the back, so that I can easily hang them on the wall. I puzzled about the best way to do this. I wanted a dowel of some sort to run through the channel to keep the panels from sagging. And I wanted to be able to balance the dowel on something that would be easy to put up and not put holes in my wall. I settled on Command hooks, and found very small ones that would fit a wooden skewer. It turns out that the panels don’t weigh much and I had skewers around the house… plus they were easy to cut to just the right length!
Now I have a lovely tribute to grandmother Betty hanging above my sewing machine!
The Quintessential Clothes Pen 