Monday night I had to teach a continuing education class for childcare providers up in Osage, Iowa.
On my way, I stopped at one of my favorite thrift stores. Â They were having a sale…$1 for ten pieces of clothing. Â I browsed and didn’t see anything I was really interested in until I came to the scrub top section. Â Our daughter, Kalissa, works at the nursing home and it always in need of scrub tops. Â There were two in the color she needs so I grabbed them, hit the men’s shirt section and hurried to the register as I didn’t want to be late for my class.
At the register the lady commented on my shirt collection. Â I explained that I make quilts from men’s 100% cotton shirts. Â She said, “Oh, did you see the partially finished quilt?” Â Then she proceeded to show me. Â I was expecting a wreck of a quilt not something adorable.
The picture isn’t the best. Â The little squares are a limey yellow green. Â It’s entirely hand pieced.
I was running late and almost didn’t bother looking at it..but I am glad I did. Â Now my worry, the price.
The lady and I looked and looked. Â We couldn’t see a price. Â Sometimes pieces like this can be $50…sometimes $5. Â She informed me that whatever the price was, they were running a sale on linens and that all were 50% off.
I kept thinking about the clock..I needed to get going but now that I saw it, I really wanted it. Â I asked her if there was a way to find the price. Â She said she would have to ask the gal in the back as she was in charge of pricing. Â I told her depending on the price, I was interested.
She went to the back…I stared at the time. Â A couple minutes later she came back, and said, “$10…well actually $5 as the linens are 50% off.” Â I said, “SOLD!” Â The line at the cash register was now long so I handed her a five dollar bill and asked if this would work…she said yes and I ran to the vehicle and took off to class. Â I didn’t get time to really look at it until I got home 5 1/2 hours later.
It’s entirely hand pieced….it’s scrappy and I love it. Â The quilt top is in marvelous condition…no tears…no weak fabrics…no stitching errors.
In the first picture, it looks like it doesn’t lay flat but it does. Â Now my question…what do I do with it? Â Do I try to find matching fabric and add to it? Â Do I just complete it? Â Part of me doesn’t want to machine quilt it but I can’t image me hand quilting…any suggestions???
I am so excited about this find!! Â Today I am hooking up with Colorado Lady’s Vintage Thingy Thursday.
Awesome find! My machine has a stitch that looks like hand quilting. Maybe yours does too? If you do, that would get you closer to a hand quilted look, with the speed of doing on the machine!
Great find, Jo! Looking forward to seeing what you do with it! Enjoy!!!
Score!! It was meant to be!! Whatever you do with it, it will be wonderful!!
P
Lucky you, it will be so sweet finished up in any method! Lucky, too that she took the $5 bucks without you having to get back in line, lol ~
:-}pokey
I would just finish it or squar it up with what you have there. I think adding to it would be a mistake.
I vote for finish it the size it is now. Machine quilt it and enjoy it.
Lucky you to get such a sweet quilt for $5. Looks like baby or lap size. Could either square it up and add borders, or use as a medallion center and add rows around using black squares (or other color). Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Sweet! That is awesome! Really beautiful piece! I love looking at English Paper Piecing in that design. Any way you finish it, it’ll be awesome. If it were me, I’d probably remove a couple pieces here and there, to make the pattern symmetrical, then lay the whole thing on a piece of background fabric, and sew the edges down. That way it’d have a cool shape, and you’d get more size from the background/border. I’m never sure whether to machine-quilt or hand-quilt handpieced quilts. I’ve done both, and I’ve been delighted with the results both ways. Enjoy!
Great find! I recognize some of those 70’s prints….probably even have small pieces of some of them.
Super adorable!! I’d probably try and finish it up, but not by adding to it, but by squaring it off. And if you want to use it then machine quilting would be fine. Better then sitting around as a top only.
If the hand piecing is tight there would be no reason that you couldn’t machine quilt it.
I used to do a lot more hand piecing than I do now. . . .and my stitching would hold up to machine quilting stitches.
What a great find. . . .and such a steal! Enjoy.
I love guilts of all kind, new or vintage. I do not quilt, but there are a lot of people that does. Perhaps you can find someone to quilt it for you. I would have had to be late to get that. Great buy.s
Jo the Yummy Yummy Bars blog post does not work and I always enjoy any recipes you share. Do you think you could do it again tomorrow Please!!!
Way to go Jo…what a deal! I’d say if it’s going to sit around waiting to be hand quilted for severl year..then no. Put it on your longarm and get it done. I’m sure the lovely person who made this would want you to finish it up..whether by hand or machine. If you need any old fabrics let me know.
OMG thta is cute! And THAT NEVER HAPPENS TO ME!!!! you are one lucky gal!
Finish to the size it is now — hand quilting would be nice but like another person said here — some machines have a hand quilt look stitch. Beautiful find!
Oh my goodness, that is SO CUTE!!!! Any chance you’ll be sharing some details about sizes of the blocks? I would love to make a replica!! I think I would use the regular modern machine snowball method (where the little squares are made from the corners of the square blocks), but I would looooove to make one just like it. Pattern? Details? Pretty please! :-)
~Angela~
Wow, what a wonderful little quilt! So glad you rescued it! Can’t wait to see what you decide to do with it.