Making Do

I've given the subject of quilting a lot of thought...

I often wonder why I have the "need" to quilt.

I figure it's in my Pennsylvania Dutch genes,

and I just have to do it.

{I'm like a beagle who longs to chase rabbits, even though it's a house dog.}

Today I read a post by my dear friend Amanda

The Patchsmith,

about the philosophy of quilting.

I would highly recommend that you 

visit her blog to read about the Fabric of Life.

{Always good for a giggle, Amanda has a serious dimension as well.}

Amanda's mug rug for me, made with scraps

As I stitch and sew,
I love to think about the way our foremothers

somehow managed to create beautiful quilts
using only what they had on hand.

{Amanda thinks about this stuff, too.}

Antique 1930’s Garden quilt exhibited by Lynn Kough, 2013 AZQG
from Quilt Inspiration blog

As I thought of vintage quilts,
I was reminded of a project that I made 10 years ago,

and I'd like to share it with you today.
The block is called Bride's Bouquet,

but it's also known as Nose Gay

or Old-Fashioned Nose Gay.

There's a nice new post here about this block
on the blog called Tim Latimer - Quilts etc.

Believe it or not, I had never seen this blog before,

until I was researching the block for today's post.
This post was just written yesterday!

{Very timely, Tim!}

The story of my little table topper began
many years ago...
I made this label for the back of my project.

I won an Ebay bid for some scraps of feedsack cloth.
Along with the fabric pieces, I found an unfinished
Bride's Bouquet block.
I don't have a photo of the original block
I received, but it needed some work.
I picked apart the stitches
and put the block back together again, more carefully,
but in the same order as before.

{I'm pretty sure I had the luxuries of time and good lighting
that were lacking many years ago.}

I think it took me more than a few minutes to appreciate
the shocking selection of fabrics that the original quilter
used for the petal pieces.
Never, never, never 
would I have put all of these prints into the same quilt!

{Until I remade this block...and now I find them utterly charming.}

I had some pink polka dot feedsack scraps for the border,
and I used some vintage pink and green floral fabric for binding.
I made a crude cardboard template to mark clamshells
for the hand-quilting.

{I still remember the peace that came over me as I quilted this block.
My PA Dutch genes were working overtime that day.}

I think using bits of solids in 30's shades

helps to settle down those crazy feedsack prints.

I love "that green" and "bubble-gum pink" together.

Not only did our foremothers "make do" with what they had...
they also made it into something awesome.

Nowadays when I look at those wild prints,
playing so nicely together in this little old block,
I think to myself,
"That farmwife had an excellent eye for color."