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REPRO CRIB QUILT

© Jeanne Walsh

Looking at all those fat quarters of reproduction fabrics on my sewing room shelves, I could see something had to be done before they started falling out on to the floor. I pulled out a few small flowers and a few small geometrics, but really had no clue as to what I would do with them. The patterns and colors of the 1930s took me back to the country home of my childhood. I could see my mother's dresses, the highly prized flour sacks, Grandma Cook cutting squares from worn out skirts and dresses, a bright piece here, another there.

It was 1932. Grandma Cook pulled her rocker closer to the heating stove and settled down to her usual afternoon pastime--mending, patching, piecing. Today, it was piecing. "Grandma, why do you cut all those squares?" "To make a quilt for your bed." "But why are the squares so small?" "So the quilt will be pretty. You want your quilt to be pretty, don't you?"

Without any real plan, I laid out a FQ and rotary cut it into 2 1/2 inch strips. I cut 3 or 4 more FQs into strips and decided to make setups of three strips and cut them into 2 1/2 inch segments. I had not matched colors in putting the strips together so the segments went together in a random fashion.

I enjoyed working with the fabrics and my thoughts went back to my Grandma Cook using the scraps left from my mother making school clothes for my sisters and me......

"Grandma, that piece is from one of my school dresses." "Hattie," Grandma called to the kitchen. "Are there any more scraps of the girls' school dresses?"

I first thought to make nine patch blocks separated by lattice. Deciding that would be rather plain, I tried laying the sets in strips with a fabric strip between; I liked that look. I figured how many sets would be needed to make the length and width--approx. 42 x 60 including border.

The plain strip was cut 3 inches wide. The whole thing went together quite fast. I did have to match the corners of the sets. This was made easier by pressing all the setups one way before cutting, allowing the sets to "fit" at the corners.

When I sewed the sets strip to the plain strip, I placed the sets strip on top so I had no trouble laying the seams of the sets. This is a closeup of the setting showing the lovely fabrics.