I Make Quilts, Too

My mother was a quilter.  She made many lovely quilts for my daughters and myself.  I worked with her for many years learning to make pieced quilts and quilting by hand, not tyed or with a sewing machine. 

I wish to feature a quilt that I made for January, a dull and depressing month.  I must hurry to take the picture before February comes and I change to my hearts quilt.

This is such a lovely quilt and it is tyed, not something I usually do. The squares just lend themselves to tying.

My mother brought these squares of fabric from Hawaii when she visited my sister.  They were all cut and ready to sew together.  I pieced them together randomly then set them together with a two inch piece of batting (Yes, it is thick* so I only use this quilt in the winter.) and beautiful sky blue tricot back.  I purchased a couple of fuschia pillow covers for accents.  It lifts my spirits and makes me think of warmer days.

With the thick batting it puffs up the squares better; it would be puffier if I quilted around each square, but that is impossible because of the thickness--another reason it is tyed.  Perhaps the sewing machine could handle that job, but it is finished in my opinion.

Two problems:  the tricot backing makes it slippery.  On restless nights the quilt is almost off the bed by morning.  And, it is too heavy for my feet if I lay on my back to sleep.  It is especially heavy if folded back on warm nights.  We had unusually warm nights this January. It was 53 degrees outside at midnight one night. (That was in February--I had to post date this post because I got behind.)  These are record breaking warm days and nights for Utah in January and February.

*An interesting story about the 2" batting.  When I was manager for HOF one year, I found a brand new roll of our thickest batting in the back of the room that some man had peed on.  I was totally shocked at the idea that he thought he could do such a thing.  My district manager told me to write it off and discard it.  I took it home, cut off the pee part then laundered the rest of the roll in my bathtub (several times) and let it dry out in the sun for several days draped the length of my deck.  I had no clue what to use it for--it cannot by quilted--it is too thick.  I finally decided to make this colorful quilt for those gloomy days of January.