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Postage Stamp Quilt

by SueJean
(Dot Lake, Alaska, USA)

Postage Stamp Quilt

Postage Stamp Quilt

My grandmother was a quilter all her life and when she passed I was given a pile of her UFO's (UnFinished Objects = quilts) and her old Dressmaker sewing machine.

The most unnerving of her UFO's was a large Texas star that was a mess. She'd taken it apart and restitched it a couple of times before putting it aside. I looked at it for a long time before deciding I needed to learn how to quilt before tackling that job.

Since then I've made more than 20 quilts and "the mess" is still waiting for me to get the courage to finish it.

This quilt is my 20th (or so) and I made it because I love scrappy quilts. It has bits and pieces from several of my previous quilts.

I made the Irish Chain block in the middle and didn't want to make anymore so I incorporated it into this quilt. I also used strip piecing and nine patch blocks. The back is pieced from 10x10 inch blocks and this is my largest quilt ever at 80"x98".

I couldn't face "quilt-wrestling" the whole thing through my machine so I stitched-in-a-ditch the outer 10 inches and around the center block. Then I hand-tied the rest of it. I had an ugly/busy fabric in a multi-colored print that I made the binding from and I love it. The colors worked well to bring the quilt together.

I spent more than a year making it and all of the fabric came from scraps bought at the thrift store.

Comments for Postage Stamp Quilt

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Nov 29, 2018
 Love the idea of a "Happy Room"!
by: SueJean

Thanks for the encouragement Debopp!

I've been "living" with my Postage Stamp Quilt on our bed and I still find things to love about it. That fussy Celtic Knot block does make its own statement in the midst of all that color.

I look forward to seeing some of your quilt stories here. It's always fun to share those "organized cacophony of color" quilts when they get done!

Blessings
SueJean
Nov 27, 2018
 Inspiring
by: Debopp

I love your quilt! The center block really sets off the postage stamps. What a great way to use an extra block and then move it on to kick off the next scrappy Q!

I, too, cannot keep to one project and have several quilts going at any one time. I have a dedicated "HappyRoom" so I can leave them out and admire my works-in-progress. It's an organized cacophony of color! LOL.

Debopp
Aug 05, 2017
 Stray Thoughts
by: SueJean

Sandy,
My posting may be a little bit misleading as I said it took me a year to make this quilt. It did, but during that year I finished more than a dozen other quilts including my Road to Oklahoma one posted on another page.
My workspace has room for about 5 projects. If I want to do another quilt, I make myself finish whatever's closest to being done and I NEVER put my UFO's in a closet/cabinet or the old rule of "out of sight/out of mind" would kick in.
I think that's key for me to finish anything. (I don't like doing the same thing all the time either so it helps to be able to switch things up.)
Blessings!
Aug 04, 2017
 More like "Words of Encouragement"
by: SueJean

Thanks Jackie! I really like the pieced back also cause it added a lot to the overall quilt. Since I made that one, I've been cutting 10.5" squares from worn out shirts, large scrap pieces, old sheets, etc. to be able to do pieced backs whenever I want. I have a huge stack of them now.

Thanks Sandy! I started this quilt wanting something scrappy and old-fashioned. I didn't follow a plan or pattern. I just started making 9 patch blocks and sewing them into larger sections as "leaders and enders" to other projects. The more it grew, the more I liked it and wanted to finish it. I hope that helps... ;>)

P.S. I think it also helped that there's so many scraps from my previous quilts. This one carries the memories of the others that were given away.
Aug 04, 2017
 Words of wisdom?
by: Sandy

I'd like to make one of these postage stamp quilts...do you have any words of wisdom to pass along on making it?

And not giving up part way through?

Thank you.
Aug 04, 2017
 OMG
by: Jackie

That's a whole lot of work! It's wonderful.

To top it off, I love the way you pieced the back, too!

Congratulations!

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