Blogger's Quilt Festival

Ancestral Jewelby Ilene Atkins

I've decided to join the excitement over at Amy's Creative Side, and enter this quilt into the Quilt Photography category. See the link here. You can vote for your favourite from November 1st to the 7th.  Hop on over to see other fabulous quilts.

This is one of the first quilts I made, shortly after leaving the corporate world for more, shall we say, blue collar work. I no longer needed those woollen skirts and jackets, so I cut them up into 4" squares. Yes, cut them up. Happily cut them up.

The squares seemed big to me, so I cut them into quarters for 2" squares. I laid them down on the floor in a random diagonal way, then stitched them all together into rows. 

Pressing was a big job, since all those seams are pressed open. If you've pressed wool before, you will know it takes a lot longer to press than cotton. You must wait for it to dry and cool as you press. 

The finished quilt top was quite heavy, and reminded me of the heavy quilts my family had around when I was young, made from men's wool trousers. Mostly grey and brown, I loved sleeping under them. Loved the weight and the warmth in a (quite) cool room. I'm still like that! It didn't occur to me to put batting in the middle, so it just has a flannel backing. The quilting is all diagonal. Sorry, no close-ups.

I wanted to photograph this quilt and two others in nearby Woodside National Historic Site while there was still snow on the ground. It was mid March and quite warm, so I headed out to get my photos. The next day, all the snow was gone!

Linking up to The Needle and Thread Network, link here, and Anything Goes Monday, here.