Grandson Sam is renting a house in Lombard along with his brother Jack and a third roommate. Just because they are living close to us doesn’t mean we will see them with greater frequency. Sam went to Northern Michigan State, and one fall we took a road trip to see him - Sam was a sophomore, and I gave him a quilt. Since then almost any event we are attending, Sam is quick to tell me he uses his quilt nightly and has washed it a lot. Recently he told me he bought a queen bed and kind of gave what was on my dining room wall ( see below) a longing look - it is a smaller version of what I made him years ago. I asked him if he’d be interested in a bed version of this quilt. All of the fabrics in this quilt are out of print, but grunge pairs nicely. These fabrics were originally from a collection by Janet Clare called Wordsmith. And most important to my eye, there’s a color in this quilt - it’s grey/green/touch of blue - that feeds my soul and is so hard to describe and match. But this one grunge works!
So I removed the binding of the dining room wall quilt and began to make borders. It was 60 x 80”. And with the borders it is now 90” x 110” . Using the quilt as you go method, the two sides went on, and then the top and bottom. The final step was binding. It’s gorgeous. And the texture is wonderful. The body of the quilt is hand quilted with a wool bat. The borders are machine quilted with a cotton bat. And the back of this quilt is all Art Gallery fabrics, which have an almost silky feel.
I have loved looking at this quilt on the wall for a couple of years, but I ann also happy to look at this fabulous new quilt! I think I’ll leave it up for a while! And a final word about favorites: Sam is my favorite grandson. But so are Ryan, Jack, Brandon and Ben.
