Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Back of the Quilt

When I first started quilting I used one fabric for the back of my quilts. A few years after joining the guild I am in Quilt Guild of Greater Houston I met a lovely woman who has become one of my closest friends Linda.

Linda has taught me many valuable lessons in quilting and in life and we are only going to discuss the quilting here!! One of the lessons she taught me is the back is as important as the front of the quilt.  That it should tell a story.. the story of the person you are giving the quilt to and how it should have a part of you as well. She also taught me the importance of the label.

She worked with me on my granddaughters Kayley's quilt.  I was struggling with the border and how one part of that border was driving me up the wall. We put the quilt on her bed and did several idea's for the border taking pictures and such...then the break happened. We went to Jerry Built's for lunch and afterwards we looked at the pictures and the decision was made.. but during all that she encourage me to personalized the back of Kayley's quilt.   So off we go on ideas and then next thing I know she was making blocks we were using blocks that did not work out for the front onto the back. I made State Stars from Carol Doak's.  50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars book.  Out of that book I pulled stars from Alabama, Texas and Mississippi.. where the family was from.  One of my favorite blocks is a butterfly block that Linda made.  I used Dimple fabric for the borders and that started my love affair with dimple fabrics.



I did a personalized my grandson's Richie's quilt. Texas Toast.... My daughter named the quilt which is a name that my husband Richard would have picked. It was perfect.  I used things that told his story for the quilt. Also on the back of his quilt is a special block that did not make it to Kayley's because we did not have access to it at the time. He got a block that my great grandmother Neal made out of my grandfather's baby shirts over a 100 years ago. These blocks are very cherished in our family.



 I am still working on Tristen's quilt. Due to technical issues with the machine he got a half finished quilt for Christmas. Trying to finish it now...  Yes it takes extra time to do a "second" quilt as many people have called it but it makes it that much more special when you make it personalized.