Pink Quilt for Spring

Hi! Oh, brrr, the wind is howling outside my window here! March gales being lion-like. Bright sunshine though.  Despite making my bed this week with fluffy flannel sheets and fleece blankets, down comforter, I felt suddenly in the mood for a lighter brighter quilt on my bed. Often I use my Tiny Baskets quilts for spring but today I dug out my newly completed pink rescue quilt and used it instead.

I finished this quilt during the winter holidays and sort of hung it in the closet right away. It deserves better! You'll recall I found it one windy April day, maybe three or four years ago. It was a sad and neglected, and very soiled! top when discovered in a bin of rags under a dealer's table at the flea. I gingerly took it out and fell in love with the fabrics. Someone's scrap bag perhaps--a collection of tiny late 19th century bits and pieces. Mostly darks, maybe mourning prints, or simply scraps from the dresses and shirts of a practical family. Dark cloth doesn't show the dirt as much. And a nice variety of reds, indigo blues, and light ground shirtings make up the rest of 1 1/2" patches. The wide sashing is an adorable teeny tiny pink polka dot.
Each block is different, I can pore over the tiny squares for hours, loving the antique prints.

I think I paid 30.oo for it, a couple of doll quilts[placemats?], and a set of white pillow cases with handmade lace.

I took it home. The quilt top was so dirty I had to gently hand wash it before I did anything else. Normally quilt tops are better left unwashed until they are quilted. But sometimes rules must be bent. Even if I'd been willing to handle this top, my quilter understandably would, I'm pretty sure, have refused. Plus I knew I needed to rework the top, and couldn't press it when soiled.

It washed well. I hung it up for a long time, thinking how to redo it. I finally found a sweet pink and white tiny print for additional sashing and borders. I picked the top apart and resewed the sashings, but I left the hand pieced Chimney Sweep blocks as is, in all their crooked imperfection: points cropped, biases wavy--fine.

My quilter did an excellent job with cotton batting and Baptist Fan allover quilts.

I bound the now finished quilt and gave it its real in-depth wash with a soak in Retayne, then a gentle ''exra rinse'' wash in All and Clorox 2. Dried in the dryer, it came out so beautiful and pink and pretty! Definitely the perfect quilt for Spring at the beach.

The doll quilt I made with the scraps is now listed on etsy and EBay. It was hard to give it up, but in the spirit of Lori's new doll quilt swap, I will let it go on to a new home, maybe.

As for the doll quilt swap [Humble Quilts], so far I've made three! 3! doll quilts to send to my person. It's fun but hard to know what might be ''just right''...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Easter pix: devilled eggs:

Mo's revenge...