The Goodbye Quilt

A little more than twenty years ago, I joined the Hudson River Piecemakers quilt guild when I was living in Corinth, NY.  The very first meeting I attended, in either late 1991 or early 1992, I paid $1 and received fabric and a pattern to make the block of the month. The next month, I brought my finished block back and wrote my name in a slip of paper. What do you think happened next?

You guessed it, my name was drawn and I won all the finished blocks. The pattern was called Laurel Leaf.  It is traditionally set with the blocks crossed, like this example from the Quilt Index:




Unknown, quilter. Crossed Laurel Leaf. circa 1850. From Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives, The Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, Inc.. Published in The Quilt Index, http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4A-7F-EA4. Accessed: 11/13/2013

I didn't receive enough completed blocks to set mine traditionally and still have it fit a twin sized bed, so I put them together with each block on point, added side setting triangles and a border and called it done.

Except that I was never happy with the non-traditional  setting. So, I never quilted it. This quilt top has been folded up in a plastic storage bin for more than 20 years! It's stayed folded and packed up at three different houses.

After reading that Jo will long arm quilt tops for charity, I decided it was high time this quilt gave someone warmth and comfort, so I contacted Jo, got the necessary details and made up my mind to send her the quilt top. When I took the quilt top out of the bin, I noticed I also had about 4 1/2 yards of matching backing fabric! Perfect! While trying to iron out 20 year-old wrinkles (only needed a bit of steam and out they came), I noticed that some of the appliqué stitches had come undone.

So I did my best to repair that block.

I also noticed that some of the appliqué is rather crudely done, and not even in matching thread! I think that just adds charm, so I let that block be.

I'm so happy that someone will finally get some use of this quilt top. So, I'm calling this one the Goodbye Quilt.  I have my pictures of it and my memories of how I came to appliqué and piece it.

Good bye, quilt.