Spools and Sawtooth

One of the nicest things about repairing quilts is that some really marvelous quilts cross my path.  I get to see and work on such a wide range of quilts.  Here's one I really enjoyed.

I love the combination of the spool blocks and the alternate sawtooth edged blocks.  The blocks play visual games. The two blocks form a cool secondary octagonal pattern that kind of comes and goes.  I find it hard for my eyes to focus on the blocks themselves, and instead there's a rhythm and movement across the quilt. 

The quilt was purchased about 25 years ago, which means it was made around 1990.  I like the color palette.  It's scrappy, but not full spectrum.  The blocks are relatively small, 4 1/2".   Isn't this just so much fun!

 

 

 

Most of the wear was in the center of the quilt.  I needed to patch mostly white and brown pieces, but also a few prints.  In the photo below, the brown/red floral upper left and white on green in the center are mine.  They are of similar vintage to the prints in the quilt.  I didn't quilt most of the new white pieces because the originals were not quilted, and you can see that they stand up from the surface a bit.  There are quite a few new browns here; if you look closely, you will see some with fewer wrinkles.  They are quilted and blend into the quilt's surface much better.

You'll also see, in the photo above, two of the white squares that I patched and did requilt, again the ones with fewer wrinkles.  Here's how I transferred the quilting pattern:  I traced the pattern from one of the intact blocks.  I folded the paper and re-traced to make the pattern more symmetrical again.  Then I made plastic templates from that.  I marked the quilting lines by scoring the fabric with a quilters' pin tip.  That way there is no concern whether the marking tool would leave a permanent mark.  The lines show well enough in bright daylight or a good, strong lamplight.  It helps if the light comes across the quilt in a bit of an angle to make the shadow.  It's a sweet little pattern, and I'm going to hang onto those templates!

"We bought it in a mainstream store when we were starting our married life in the US (we met and lived first in Poland), and it has served us through 25 years of the 33 years of our happy life together.  We are so glad you were able to repair it for us as we fully expect at least another 20!"