Quickie Quilt

 It only took three days to hand quilt this small piece (about 36" square). After choosing to quilt by hand rather than machine, I decided to use the curves on the blue patch to the left as a starting point, and just echoed from there. I did a self binding, folding the backing over the edge to the front, and slipstitching it in place.

 The back was also pieced, without much thought. It feels very calm as opposed to the front. The quilting stitches are like ripples left by waves on the shore.

There was a certain amount of conscious use of materials. The brown piece is a thin Indian cotton that came from the underside of a footstool that I had hooked a new cover for. I kept it because I loved the stamp on it that showed the mill it came from and the yardage - over 50 years old. It will probably be the first piece to wear out, but that's okay. It will have had its time to shine.

I also used pieces of a pink linen shirt, and deliberately used the placket and button bands to show where the cloth came from. I replaced the shiny plastic buttons though, after the whole thing was finished, with antique linen covered buttons. They sit more quietly amidst the chaos.

I'm glad I retrieved the piece from the bottom of the basket where it had languished for several months, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. As it happens, I will be leading a workshop on April 1 using the round robin piecing method (introduced by Sherri Lynn Wood and taught to me by Barb Mortell). It should be lots of fun.