roll over Beethoven

My Mother-in-Law bought this quilt in a second hand store. In fact, she says she rescued it. Because she felt sorry for it.
Let's face it, it really was in a sorry state.


Her plans to restore it never came to fruition, so I inherited it with the blessing to "dooverdog it" -- I love how that has become a verb in the family.


I salvaged the fans, but had to replace one fabric in each one -- it was pilled and super thin. I think I found a pretty good replacement. In the deconstruction process, I discovered that some of this quilt was hand-pieced, in two different styles of stitching; other parts were machine-pieced suggesting to me that at least 3 different people were involved in its construction. That's neat. It also means the fans are all a bit different in size and shape. This was never going to be a technically perfect project.

I really wanted to take this old girl to a new place. Not just restore, but revive. Give her a whole new life, so I applied some "modern" concepts to her. Like doing away with the sashing all together. Ditto the borders. Using negative space. Asymmetry. And then there's the colour. No shrinking violet here!



It isn't uncommon to hear a modern quilter comment that they like the backing as much as, or more than, the front -- backings are often pieced and include some reference to the front, so I saved a fan for back here. When looking for colours, I was insistent I didn't want to use any pinks. At all. But then I found this fabric that looks like a colourful QR code and I knew both the colours in it and the technology reference were perfect so... pink it is!


There's still lots to be done. And the quilting alone will take a ridiculous amount of time, which is why I'm sharing this now. You might not see it again for months.

In the meantime, let's think of a name for it.... keeping in mind the original block is called "Grandmother's Fan". So far I've got...

"This ain't yo grandmother's fan quilt"
Or maybe (because the pattern looks like rope to me) "Someone tied up Granny and gave her a makeover"
"Roll over Grandmother"... (the fans are kind of rolling across the quilt, right?)
How about "Born-again Grandmother"?
"Love at first stitch; Granny meets a younger quilt."

I do not mean any disrespect to traditional quilters or grandmothers... I love them both and none of us would be here (quilters or people) without them! but this girl needs a fun new name! Suggestions welcome.

Comments

  1. Older Sister of Your Man26 October 2014 at 16:57

    What about Gramma's Braids? Mother of Your Man will love this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gramma's Braids is a lovely name. I very much hope she does love this.

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