The Bonus Quilt

Why the bonus quilt? I was rifling through my mum’s scrap stash, looking for fabrics I could use for an applique of Maisy Mouse for a library bag I was making for my toddler, who is madly in love with “Maise, Mummy!”. I came across 18 completed, trimmed, ready-to-be-joined blocks from a “crazy log cabin” class my sister and I did many years ago, more than I care to recall. These blocks were from my sister’s effort, and were in blues & reds, perfect for a little boy. So after a quick call to my sister, which revealed she barely remembered what the blocks looked like, let alone having any desire to finish the quilt, I commandeered the quilt for myself (after checking with mum – after all, it was her stash, and she was the one who bought the fabric, my sister and I being teenagers at the time). Six days later, with a huge sigh of satisfaction, a glimmer of pride, and a renewed passion for the domestic arts, I gently lay the completed quilt over my son’s sleeping form.

It is not quite a single bed size, but for now it is large enough, with the boy still being in a toddler bed. It is a bit long, so I lay it sideways, and it drapes beautifully all the way to the floor. Once he is in a single bed, it will be used as either a bed topper, or an end of bed quilt.

Being my first quilt in over 5 years, I was quite happy with the result. It is far from perfect, but not too bad, a few puckers on the top, which I can live with. The binding is made from the fabrics of the blocks, making for a very time consuming task to piece them together – 5-odd metres of 4-inch long pieces, the widest being 2.5 inches, the narrowest 1 inch. Tedious is not the word! But I think it was worth the effort, I’m really happy with how it looks.

I do need to buy myself some safety pins though, hand basting is the pits! I had forgotten how long it takes (my teacher was very old-fashioned, and insisted hand basting was far superior to pinning – pfft, couldn’t be bothered!).