Mom's Handmade Holiday

My mom got all handmade gifts from me this year...

 

The Oragami Organizer from One Skein Wonders

 

The "Not-Ugly Car Trash Bag" also from One Skein Wonders

 

A chair cover of my own design

The chair before:

 

And finally, the Praying Mantis from Amigurumi Knits

Look closely...

Can you spy the awesome, Mod podge Magnum PI container I made mom for her birthday in 1987? Not bad for a seven year old!! Of course, my Aunt Wilma did help. On the back I wrote a very inspirational birthday message: "Have a Happy Time!"  surrounded by rainbows. I love that Magnum still has a special spot in mom's room, now joined by a much creepier gift!

 

 



New Project: Quilt Restoration

Thank goodness for friends of your mom who cast off treasures like this:

A finished quilt top in need of a little love... Oh bliss! I love quilts that are mostly white with all these cute little pattern pieces. Now I can get right to my favorite part which is hand quilting the layers together.

First I'm going to iron the top piece so that all the petals are flat and take out the old ties. Then I'll get some cotton batting to make the 'sandwich' with the backing fabric. I haven't quite decided about the backing fabric yet. Should I go simple and get a nice quality, whole cloth back that's just white? Should I get a cute little patterned fabric, like flowers or polka dots? Or should I piece together a back using the old fabrics I have downstairs at my moms house? Part of me thinks that piecing the back together would be the most resourceful, 'quilterly' and congruent with the style already set forth. There aren't too many non-cotton fabrics, so I don't think the maker was cutting up old shirts and dresses or anything! I'm not sure if these are feed-sack fabrics, but they certainly point that way. Perhaps she got a bag of scraps from the fabric store?

I think I'll investigate the fabrics downstairs first, to see if any would match, then go from there. I also want to add borders on all sides of the quilt top, since the motifs are currently quite close to the edges. I don't want anything too distracting though, no patterns. I would go with white, but trying to match the current color would be impossible and would probably look terrible. So I'm thinking a subtle, muted solid color like a light green, gold or coral. Something unusual to satisfy the artist in me. This is so exciting!

I plan to quilt around the outside of each motif and at the same time, tack down any loose tips. This is probably not the 'right' way of doing it, but I thought it would conserve time and thread. If I'm going to be going around anyway... why spend hours tacking down loose tips before hand? Not to mention tying all those knots?

Any suggestions for what I should do in the center of the flowers?