Friday Finish

Winter Rails and Grandmother's Fabric

This week I'm linking up for the Friday finish because, ta da, I actually have a finish to link!  This lap sized quilt was made for my brother as a birthday/Christmas present.

I started working on my brother's quilt about two weeks before Christmas.  I had a small pile of blue themed wintery fabric that I didn't like, then I has a pile of blue that I did like, then I also had a pile of blue/cream that I inherited from my Grandmother when she passed away several years ago.  I wanted to create something for my brother that featured these special fabrics from my Grandmother so that he could have a little part of her around his house.

My Grandmother didn't really quilt, although she did like cutting her fabric into squares when the mood took here.  But, she did have a small stash of fabrics around her house that we kids played with and cut up.  My grandmother always let me use her sewing machine, even when I had no idea what I was doing, and she even showed me how to sew my first pillow case.  I hope to make a quilt for my sister and also for me with the rest of my grandmother's fabrics later this year.

The front of my brother's quilt is a simple split rail fence design.  I wanted to keep it clean and graphic to suit his tastes.  Do you see my little oops.  I though about fixing it, but decided to leave it in.  It will throw my future great grand nieces or nephews off :) The back is pieced to really feature a huge piece of tiny blue tulips on cream fabric from my Grandmother.  I also used left over strips to tie the big pieces together.


I also had a lot of leftover strips that I used to make scrappy bias binding.  Talk about good quilting karma; I ended on the exact same fabric so the join is almost invisible!  Of course, that's where my luck ended with this quilt.  I'm sad to say that my old Brother sewing machine died a smoking, screaming death during the making of this quilt.  It had a good life, and I will miss it.  I had to borrow my neighbors sewing machine to finish the binding, and now I'm looking to buy a new machine to replace my Brother.

It's funny how a pile of fabric that I wasn't in love with turned into a quilt that I really like and am happy to send to my brother.  See, quilts are magic :-)

Can anyone spot the quilted hand? I put it right over the label :)