Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Handkerchief Quilts

This book by Sharon Newman is the guide Janice used to construct a quilt using her mother's vintage hankies. Published in 1992,  it is "out of print" so I was rather shocked at some of the prices I found while looking online for a copy for myself- I think $300 is outrageous! Argh! I really wanted my own copy so  I let my fingers do the walking around the internet and found one on eBay from an Aussie vendor that cost me about $27 US. including shipping. A deal, right? Now I have no excuse not to make a quilt from my Mum's hankies.
Janice asked me to quilt her top and wanted it quilted the same as the design she used from the book,  in which all but two blocks are crosshatched.
First row, fairly straight forward..........
second row, 
one odd hankie here, a lacy silky fabric, not much use as a handkerchief, I would guess merely for decoration.
I am on the third row now.
This block did not get crosshatching, just a little outline around some of the flowers to anchor it so it won't "pouf" up! 

Here is another of the lacy ones, a souvenir  piece. I think I won't like off -white thread on this, it will show up too much so I plan to switch to a red thread. 
Two more rows and the bottom border, then the side borders. Because the borders are large and the quilting is a larger curving feather I plan to turn the quilt to do the other two borders. This is my week with The Boy, so not as much quilting gets done, but it should be a cinch to get this one finished by next week. 

4 comments:

cityquilter grace said...

what a beautiful memory quilt....a treasure

Roslyn said...

It is a great way to use these hankies, & the quilt is turning out nicely I have only 3 borders to finish hopefully today, because I have homework for my sock knitting class!
Can't wait to post the finished quilt pics.

Andee said...

Great idea Ros...one of your future granddaughters will cherish it forever! What a treasure!

Gramma 2 Many said...

This is a beautiful quilt. I am sure Janice will treasure it forever and truly appreciate the work you did in quilting it.