Inspired By

I'm really inspired by Inspired by Antique Quilts today. Kathie has been talking about quilting small quilts on her blog lately and I love how hers have turned out. I am going to take the time to relax at the retreat this weekend as soon as I have everything ready and planned for those who are attending. I decided not to bring my sewing machine, just my needle and thread, and get some of my quilt tops hand quilted. Who am I kidding?? SOME of them? I'll be lucky if I get one finished; I am that slow. But that's the beauty of hand quilting - you HAVE to slow down. No rushing allowed. And boy, does it feel good.

I bought this antique doll quilt a little while ago and think the simple hand quilting adds something really special to the simple quilt. (The primitive little bed helps too, don't you agree??)

I almost didn't buy the quilt because it was so simple and plain. Unexceptional for the price. And then, as I  looked closely, I spotted one block in the corner that was different. The quilt is a simple four-patch design and the quilter used light shirtings in the background squares. Except for one. In ONE block she used pink for the background . . .  Just a little quirky and not noticeable at first. Did she run out of shirtings? Or did she insert a tiny bit of creative play into the quilt? Did she say: What the Heck, I'm doing this one in pink. It's probably the thing I love most about this doll quilt. I don't like perfect quilts and I sure don't make them.

So simple and unassuming. But clearly loved to death by some little girl I'll bet.

I was so inspired by this quilt that I made THIS quilt that's in The Civil War Sewing Circle.

Again, just a  simple four-patch design with mostly light shirtings for background.  Pink in the setting squares. All of the darker squares in the blocks align except in one block.  I turned ONE of the blocks in the right hand corner the other way deliberately. Did anyone notice? Many of you probably thought I just made a mistake, LOL. No, I tried to do the same thing as the maker of that little doll quilt did.

I had so much fun hand quilting this little quilt with an orange peel or pumpkin seed design as some call it. I think hand quilting really makes little quilts special, even if the quilting is rather simple and  not spectacular. Click on the link above to see how this one was done. Very easy.

Last year, when I was recovering from my surgery, I hand pieced a copy of the antique doll quilt using some of my favorite prints and shirtings. This morning I layered and pinned it to bring to the retreat this weekend to work on. I'll let you know how it goes. Wouldn't it be nice if I finished?