2 Special Heirloom Quilts and Starting an Economy Block Quilt

Special Heirloom Quilts

The blocks in this heirloom quilt were hand pieced by my great, great grandmother who was born in 1880. My grandmother assembled the quilt top with navy hexagons and started hand quilting it. She wasn’t able to finish it and passed it on to me.

She was a little concerned about choosing navy, but I love it. The navy makes all the bright colors pop.

Many of the fabrics in the quilt are from my grandmother’s clothes when she was a little girl.

She shared many of her childhood pictures where she was wearing a shirt or dress that is now in the quilt. It is such a great story and such a treasure. I promise I will share it again with you when finish quilting it. I am going to continue to hand quilt it.

Here is another Heirloom quilt made by my great, great grandmother in 1901 along with her friends in her sewing group. It was for her wedding and each member of the sewing group made a square and embroidered their name or initials in the center of their block. You can find more about this heirloom quilt here: A Family Treasure.

Starting an Economy Block Quilt Project

Well, I did it… I got sucked in. You may have come across pictures or mentions of the Economy Block Along that is going on. I have read about it on various blogs, there is a flickr group with many examples, and tons of pictures on Instagram under #economyblockalong.

All the quilt block eye candy on Instagram is what coaxed me into joining. I usually resist these big sewing movements mainly because I have enough on my to do list as it is, but this time there was no resisting.

I chose a 5″ block and for some reason, I decided I want a big scrappy throw sized quilt. Meaning I will need over 200 blocks. I am not sure if I know what I am doing, picking a project that requires so many fabrics, but it’s going to be fabulous!

Most of the week has been cutting fabric and more fabric. I haven’t been very productive at the sewing machine because all I have done is cut fabric.

Above I stacked my blocks and stuffed some in a ziplock bag with many more to go. It doesn’t look like much, but there are a LOT of blocks there.

Here is an Instagram collage of my current projects. You can find me on Instagram at SaltwaterQuilts.

Left to right – Heirloom Hexagon quilt, trip to Florida to visit family, pretty tea pot gift from my sister for Christmas, my cat sitting on my arm as a I push fabric through the sewing machine (go figure), enjoying a sunny day, Economy Blocks, Sherbet Pips Quilt

Happy Sewing,

Candace

You can find projects and quilt project for sale in my Etsy Shop.

17 Comments

Carla

January 20, 2014 at 4:51 am Reply

Oh wow. The heirloom quilt is just fabulous! Lucky you. I have a couple of family quilts from my hubby's side. Enjoy those economy locks. They are fun to make