Vintage Bed Quilt

Guys, here's how low I've slunk. I now consistently PURCHASE my quilt tops, instead of piecing them myself. This is the third or fourth time I've done it. I have yards of gorgeous fabric and stacks of yummy jelly rolls that are just languishing on my sewing room shelf. I simply love quilting so much that I don't want to take time away from it to piece anything!

The quilt on Eric and my bed was one that I pieced and quilting on my domestic sewing machine, maybe five years ago. I had fudged on the seam allowances in a few places, and they were starting to pull apart. Plus, the quilting (which I was so proud of at the time) is no longer representative of my style and capabilities. I look at it, and it just drives me nuts. I wonder what I'll think of my current quilting in a few years!

The one featured below was an antique quilt top that I purchased on Ebay, no less. I'm not altogether sure if it's truly antique, or maybe the fabrics are just low-quality, so they crinkle up like antique quilts. It was machine-pieced, of that I'm certain. Anyway, I thought the "Bear Paw" patchwork was lovely - after all, I'm a traditionalist at heart!

I applied my favorite edge-to-edge quilting motif: cherries and feathers (in deference to my most influential role model in all of life - Dolly Levi of "Hello, Dolly!"). All quilting was free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.