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Designing a Family Quilt

© Jeanne Walsh

Family quilt, genealogy quilt, whatever you choose to call it, nothing can compare to the love in a quilt for your own family. If you design it yourself, the quilt is even more special.

Many quilts are being pieced today using 3 or 4 inch blocks. They go together quickly, and there is room for writing or embroidering family names and dates. (Joann's flyer for Feb 4 - 16 shows a beautiful yellow quilt made with blocks about this size.)

The quilt in the photo above was designed and made by my 23 yr old granddaughter for her parents' 25th wedding anniversary. With a general idea in mind of what she wanted in this quilt, she began by looking at fabrics in muted browns and greens. Along the way she spotted the gray/brown mottled leaf pattern that is the light squares in the photos. She loved it! She had to use it! But what to go with it? Then she discovered other leaf fabrics. The dark green and the brown were chosen next. Something bright was needed and she found the bright leaf print with oranges, yellows and greens. Just the thing, her color scheme was complete.

The center square with 4 inch blocks around it was to be the focal point of the family information. Adding borders enlarged the quilt. She gave added width to the 2nd grey/brown border and the first green border at the top and bottom to get the length needed for the blocks along the edge. Using the bright print in blocks at the corners brought all the colors together. Probably the tricky part was getting that outside block border measured to get the number of spaces needed for names. A mottled yellow/orange leaf was fused on each light block.

When the piecing of the top was completed, the parents' names and wedding date were embroidered in rust on the center block. The names of their 4 children, one child on each side of the quilt with wife and children, were added to the light blocks around the edge, also in rust.

The bright print was used for the backing and for the binding. It was machine quilted except for the orange fused leaves which had handquilting. You can see a bit of the back turned up at the bottom of the top photo.

Simple squares and borders in well chosen colors, made a lovely family quilt. Variations of this idea will make one for your family.

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