Remember the barn tour I posted about a while back?
This was a lovely bit of inspiration that I took away from the day.
We met a lady who handmade these wall hangings from her beloved grandmother's collection of vintage hankies.
Even though she inherited her grandmother's entire trunk of handkerchiefs, this crafty and caring woman decided to turn them into keepsakes her whole family could enjoy.
She plans to make a total of 14 of these beauties and was just beginning a deep purple one when we happened her way. She was kind enough to share her secrets in making them.
First, she organized the hankie stash by color schemes. Then, she started layering and piecing them onto a fourteen inch square of muslin. She cut each hankie strategically in order to maximize the usable space, thus eliminating stains. Often she cut along the diagonal to get as much visual interest as possible. After safety pinning each piece approximately where she wanted it, she did some quick and simple hand-stitching to secure it all on the muslin square. Next, she created a two inch border out of coordinating fabric. Once this was accomplished, minimal machine quilting was applied all over ~ just a gentle wiggle up and
down the square and all around the border to further
secure everything in place.
Look at all the ways she layered and embellished her creations! I love how it gives the overall effect of a crazy quilt, but without all the extra tedious hand-stitching they traditionally require. By looking closely at some of the pictures, you will notice that this talented quilter took the time to transfer old photos of her grandmother onto fabric so that she was able to add yet another layer of nostalgia to each wall hanging she made for her family. What a beautiful keepsake that will be
treasured for generations to come!
Gets me thinking about trying this with some of my own hankie stash. Hmmmmm...
Happy Quilting!
