kedougou

When I told my mother that I was attempting to quilt baby blankets, I got a wonderful surprise. I new that my mother has many many quilts made by my great grandmothers (great grandma devore would make the tops then great grandma faustnaut would hand quilt them.) I turns out that she also got their stash. My mom is not a quilter and felt guilty about it just sitting in a closet. Long story short, I got the stash!

Here's my question. In the stash I found several blocks and the matching fabric. They are usually blocks that are way to hard for me (flower garden)or in fabrics that I just plan don't like. I feel obligated to finish great grandma's quilt. Do I wait untill I am able to make those blocks and them make them as my grandparents intended? Forget the blocks and use the fabric in my own way? How about forget the fabric, and use the block in colors from the stash that I like?


Btw: my current skill level is two 4 block projects, one 9 block project and a log cabin. the blocks came out great, the log cabin has.....issues. (my mom says it has charater, what it really has is problems, thanks for trying mom!)

sewjoyce

What a lovely gift your mom gave to you!! I think I would put back the blocks until you think you can do them justice...as far as the fabric that you don't like -- put it away for awhile too. I've found that my tastes have changed over the years and what I used to think was just beautiful is now kind of well, yuck! :lol: :lol:

mrspete

How wonderful to have a history with quilting. Some of us were recently hatched and it just caught on. If you wish to make it as closely as your grandmothers' intended, then I'd wait until I was comfortable with it. You'll find that the more you do the more you feel good about. Always one way to face things is ... someone before me accomplished it, if I really want to, I can do it, too. Relax and enjoy your new learning experiences and that day will come. I would never get rid of anything like that. Blessings, Ruth

ktbb

you could do it either way. You could also make a block quilt then applique the flower garden in one corner instead waiting to do an entire flower garden, etc. Do what is at your comfort level if you want to use them right away. If you don't like the fabrics, cut them up into squares to use in a scrap quilt where they'll be lost in fabrics you do like. You can always make small wall hangings - depending on the size or number of blocks you have. If the flower garden blocks are cut but not sewn, stitch them onto a solid background with some space between them as sort of a stained glass quilt...the ideas are endless.

Would you rather have parts of GGMs quilt where you can see it to remember her or have it stored away again for how many years????

Vanuatu Jill

Hi and welcome to the board from Southern California! Boy are you lucky to be on the receiving end of that special stash!! I would just take your time and sort thru it all carefully. If it were me (and I wish it were!) I would keep whatever I made with those special fabrics in the family-not for gifts outside the family-and not be in any hurry to make any decisions regarding how to handle them. Remember, even really ugly prints can loose most of its ugliness among other great fabrics. We would love to see what you got if you can post pictures. It would be easier to tell then. I think continuing with what she had started would be nice if you can manage it-even if it means waiting until you feel you have the skills.

Kat Sews

congradulations on your special gift from mom and grandmothers. I think that since your grandmothers used their time and materials to make items that pleased their taste, they would expect no less from you. Could you use the ufo's as the centerpiece of a quilt to show respect for their ideas and efforts and also your own taste and creativity. Kind of a love thru generations kind of thing.

sewwhat85

what a nice problem to have i think there is no wrong answer

irishrose

How many blocks? If it's not too many, I would frame them for my mother and any other family members who'd like one. Then after that's done, you're free to use the fabrics for anything of your choice.

deema

I just got my own Great G'ma's stash yesterday! She had a beautiful appliqued crib quilt top that was never finished. I've decided that I'm not touching it until I can hand quilt. My biggest issue with this top is that it's a baby girl crib quilt...and I don't have any baby girls in the family coming...and possibly won't get any. My own daughter is only 5, and this top is already 30 years old. I don't want it to leave the family, it was passed mother to daughter to me unfinished...but assuming my daughter someday has a daughter, this beautiful quilt won't get any use for 20 more years (I hope it's that long before she starts having babies!). It makes me sad that it will have to wait so long for love.

She also had a huge stack of squares cut. I plan to use those squares and make big scrappy pinwheel quilt.

As for what you have - if you really want to finish what she started in her style, *I* would wait until I felt my skill level was there to do it justice. But I don't feel, in any way, that "doing your thing" with them would be an *injustice* to your great grandmother's fabrics. Nor do I think that you should feel obligated to use fabrics that you just don't like. Maybe you could use those to make something to give back to your mom. I bet she'd love it knowing that you and your great grandmother came together, in way, to make something for her.

kedougou

It varries. Some are just one block, some two or three, the flower gardern is about a dozen. She also has four mini blocks, each a different color.
I think I will save the fabics that I have several yards of for future projects. In the mean time, I have several totes of her scraps that I can use to make practice scrappy quilts.

I will show pics when I can. My place is way too small to store it, so it lives at my moms house. When I start a project, I drive over to my mom to "go shopping."