Memory

Many, many, moons ago I worked for a high end shirt manufacturer in the UK, I salvaged a lot of the old salesmen's sample books, from these and some sample lengths of shirting I made this monster - it's 2.55m by 3m, (about 100x 120 inches) it's big, the center postage stamp bit, the pieces are about inch 'square', alas nothing is square, it was started WAY before I ever had a rotary cutter, it was chain pieced with random seam allowances, there are a couple of pleats in the backing - which is also pieced (the 9 patches). But..... it's not as bad as I remembered.

So when t2 has allowed me or No3 to get near this quilt today - he played 'sausage rolls' or 'pigs in blankets' depending on which side of the water you are from. No3 just snuggled down in it and pretended she was asleep - I snipped off the buttons and started unpicking the quilting, there doesn't seem too much but given the size there is more than I imagined. So on a day where it was 24 degrees in the shade I sat with a huge quilt over most of me!

I plan not to harvest the batting (it's warm and natural) but to spray baste it when I do the I spy quilts and just lightly quilt it, using a wonky line and the walking foot - anything else will be torture. It needs a good hot wash, some stray cat hair on it - I can't remember working on it for at least 5 years..... still I hope a lot of the 'character' quilts out - who knows, I'm sure there will still be pleats! I'll keep it for in the garden and when the nights get cool and the bugs start attacking - and of course snuggling and playing sausage rolls!