quiltlicious

June 29, 2013.
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So, what do you do when your husband comes home from his bike ride with a half-finished quilt top (and you don’t exactly dig it…)? You rework it, that’s what!

That’s what happened with this quilt: My husband bought the top at an estate sale for $1 (feeling guilty, he insisted the seller take $2; that’s all he had). He spoke to the original quilter, who had worked at a fabric shop in years past and out of a sense of obligation started this quilt.  She ran out of fabric after making the log cabin block center and one border. At this point, the quilt shop had long closed, and with no replacement fabric, she gave up; into storage it went. My husband recognized the amount of work she had put into it and thought it might make a great project.

First, the quilt went for a bath, because it was VERY DUSTY (ugh!). The forlorn little border was taken off and I stared at the center section for a week to figure out what to do. At first, I only saw the calico fabric, which frankly, is not my “thing”. However, I chose to look on this project as a challenge – to step outside my comfort zone – and turn it into something to be proud of.

The quilter had worked very hard sewing the log cabin blocks – I didn’t want to undo her hard work. She had connected the Log Cabin blocks in an arrangement known as a “Barn-raising” setting.  I ended up removing a row of log cabin blocks off each end to give the correct proportions to the center section.  I saved these individual blocks, later using them in the reworked border.

Around this time, there was a devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma.  The tornado was rated an F5 on the Fujita scale, which is the most damaging type of tornado. There were some fatalities, and most families lost everything.  Through an online newsletter I receive from eQuilter, I found out about Mission of Love, an organization providing disaster aid & relief.  They had collected and delivered quilts for the Hurricane Sandy storm (in NY, Long Island, New Jersey) and they were going to collect for Moore, Oklahoma as well.  Bingo! I knew were my quilt was going to go! How appropriate that a quilt made with a “barn- raising” setting would be sent to a place where new barns (and other buildings) needed to be raised?

Mission of Love requires that donated quilts fit standard bed sizes, such as twin, full, queen, or king. As such, my quilt needed much more fabric.  With so many colors in the quilt already, adding a dark color would tone down the color scheme and coordinate with the earth-toned calicos in the quilt.  I found a subtle chocolate brown fabric with a floral-ish design.

First, I used the new chocolate fabric to add a simple border around the center section of log cabin blocks.  Next, I took the forlorn border (~12 inches wide) and studied it.  There were a few places where I could insert a strip of green calico that I happened to have to make it longer.  After adding the green calico strips, the border still wasn’t long enough.  I cut the border into two thinner borders of ~ 6 inches wide each – still not long enough! Then, I decided to insert the extra blocks that were removed from the center. With the new chocolate fabric as sashing and together with the repurposed blocks, I finally made it all the way around the center section! I machine quilted this quilt as fast as I could, because the Mission of Love deadline was coming.

(photo here that shows the borders, before quilting…)

As I was getting ready to put on a quilt label, I realized that a barn raising can mean many things, whether a quilt pattern or an actual barn-raising. And, in order to make this quilt useable, it had to be taken apart and rebuilt, not unlike what was happening with Moore, Oklahoma. So I named the quilt “Barn-Raising Redux”.

And, P.S. here were the only scraps left when I finished… I kept the chocolate fabric strips and tossed the rest!

Summary:

Inspiration: Personal Challenge to finish another Quilter’s unfinished project, and to support relief efforts.

Pattern: Basic Log Cabin pattern, barn-raising setting

Special Materials: N/A

Special Skills required: ** Willingness to creatively finish someone’s project**

Additional Resources: N/A