Vintage Indigo Challenge

Back in February, I acquired a literal pile of vintage indigo scraps and a few shirtings from the Bargain Garden at our quilt fair, and posted about it here. Three readers responded to that post with excitement about my find. I wondered if they might like a few of these scraps, as I had enough to share, and then some. The answer was, YES! So, off went three bundles of fabric to the various destinations.

Having been thanked profusely for the fabric, I responded by saying it might be fun to do a little challenge, and each make a mini quilt using some of the indigo.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?  Did I mention these three readers were Wendy (The Constant Quilter)  Janet (Rogue Quilter)  and Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones, and Elusive Ancestors)??? (click on the links to see their quilts) Only the three most excellent quilters that I follow, who are exceptional at making mini quilts! Oh good grief. What am I going to make that could possibly be up to this challenge that I issued? AAAK!

(ahem...) Well, I had to put my thinking cap on, but it wasn't cooperating. I went to all my usual sources for inspiration (books and magazines, other blogs, Pinterest, Google) but nothing was saying "yes". Meantime, I was itching to do "something" with the scraps, so cutting the tiniest pieces I made a little 9-patch, which I posted about here.

But what to do for the "real" quilt? I had to get started! Without an actual plan, I decided to make some 4" sawtooth stars, as I thought they would have big enough pieces to show off the various prints. I wanted to feature as many of the prints as I could, but had to stop at 15 to keep the quilt from growing too big. OK, but then what? I really struggled with how to fininsh this quilt. I thought about simply putting a binding on it, until I finally found a repro piece that brought it all together.

 I had intended to hand quilt this, in fact I started to, but wasn't happy with how it was looking. Truth be known, I've grown a little impatient with trying to get the stitches perfect on pieces where it really shows. So.. I decided to use the "hand quilting" stitch on my Janome, and decided it was exactly perfect. Not to mention, way faster.

Here are some detail pictures so you can get a better look at the prints:

Here are a couple pictures of the completed mini:

(my version of "indigo and cheddar" lol!)

Here are the two quilts together, to get an idea of scale:

All in all, this has been really fun, and yes, challenging. And, I still have lots more of the indigo, and am already itching to make another small quilt. 

Meanwhile, please go to the links above to see the others' quilts, which are fantastic!  (Janet had a family emergency, so hers is delayed. I will activate her link as soon as she posts.)

 

love,

Sandy