I immediately thought of this quilt I've slept under during the summer all my life. My great grandmother Grace made this quilt. She made a lot of this same pattern with scraps. She called it a snowball quilt. I decided I wanted to do something with this block.
The original quilt was hand pieced. I decided I wanted to do it by machine. So I ordered some leaf pieces from Paper Pieces and used a gray solid Island Batik to make a bunch of leaves EPP style. I then removed the papers and glued them down to the quilt top. Next was stitching carefully around each leaf. I also went and cut out the backs so the seams wouldn't show through the gray leaves. Next time I'm going to try Appliquik paper which I can keep in!
I also decided not to do all the areas with leaves. I created this fun shape. All the background fabrics are scraps of Island Batik from being an Ambassador the last four years.
Next up was quilting. I layered it with my favorite Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly batting and went to work. The gray was stitched with large match sticks using Aurifil thread. For all the colors of the background squares I decided to use a variegated thread to blend in and do some simple continuous curve quilting.
Every time I look at this quilt I am reminded of my great grandma. It makes me so happy!
Have you ever made a quilt inspired by your ancestors?
Suzy
