Multi-generation Quilt

When DH's maternal grandmother passed away, I inherited most of her fabric, and some misc quilt parts. One project bag had a bunch of units, and some notes scribbled on a piece of paper. From what I could tell, she had planned on making two throw sized quilts from the units in the bag. 

We didn't have a quilt made by Granny, so I decided to use these units to make a quilt for us to keep. Most quilts are out the door as soon as they are finished around here, so any quilt I keep is notable. 

I don't know how she intended to set her units, I just did what looked best to me. I decided to make the largest quilt I could from her units, so I could hopefully use it on a bed. When I used all the units up and it was still too small, I added an inner border from my stash, and then made a piano key border from her scraps. It's been a quilt top for a while now, but I basted it my last basting spree, just in case I finished quilting those quilts before I was ready for another basting spree. I'm glad I chose to do that, because even only FMQ one hour a day, I am making serious progress on the backlog of quilts. 

Here's the quilt thrown over the loveseat right after I finished sewing the binding on. 

Here it is on the guest bed! The colors in this quilt just remind me so much of Granny. It has lots of her favorite colors, the ones she used to wear all the time, blues, purples, burgundy, and pinks. it also has none of the colors I never saw her wear, there isn't a single yellow or brown scrap in any of her fabrics. There also aren't any true oranges, though there are peaches and coral. 

Besides finishing this quilt, I got the borders on the transportation quilt.

It's not a great pic, bu you can see the Hot Rod fabric. I haven't gotten the borders on the bargello yet, but I have cut them. 

I also restarted a project. DD#2 wanted a weighted blanket, and I finished it earlier this year. She decided it was TOO heavy, so I took it back. It was easier to start over than to unsew all the channels in the weighted blanket. 

I've got the new version on the design wall, so I can start assembling the new top. I had to substitute a couple fabrics because I was out of what I had originally used. 

I cut apart the old weighted blanket, reclaimed all the plastic pellets (those things are expensive!), and I also reclaimed the fabric. Before I started cutting the quilt apart, I was hoping I'd be able to get 5" squares out of the fabric, since they started with 6.5" squares. Since I sew the channels with a serpentine stitch, I cut off a bit more than I had planned, and although some pieces were big enough to get a 5" square out of, most were a bit shy. I decided to cut them all into 4.5" squares instead. Since I now have squares of the backing fabric too, I actually have more squares than I started with!

Now the "too heavy" weighted blanket will end up being a quilt, and she'll get a new "not as heavy" weighted blanket. I'll also have enough extra pellets to make an extra weighted blanket, since I'm making it almost half the weight of the first. 

I have several weighted blankets promised to people, and it is long past when I said I'd have them done. I'm hoping to finish them all before Christmas, and I'll make weighted blankets until I'm out of pellets. After that, I am out of the weighted blanket making business, because it's too hard on my arm to move those heavy blankets around when I'm sewing them. They aren't hard to make, just too much stress on my arm. 

I really feel like I'm making great progress, and even only sewing three or four hours per day is enough to make a real difference. I only quilt one hour per day, but depending on what's going on and how my arm feels, I might sew another 2-3 hours total, taking lots of breaks. Cutting and quilting are what's hardest on my arm, so I am very strict about how long I do those. Today I didn't sew a stitch, and that's OK too. I needed a break, and I had family over for lunch. Family comes first.