Cheerful 30s Quilt

 Since spring is really showing off all her prettiest colors, I thought I would share a quilt that I like to use on our bed in the spring time. 

This 30s quilt barely covers the top of our queen size bed, but I put it on anyway. It is just so cheerful and colorful - the perfect compliment to those colors Mother Nature is providing all around us. Yellow daffodils and forsythia; bluebells; tulips of every color; hyacinths; dogwoods; redbuds; flowering pears and so very many more - the hillsides around us are awash in color.

The story on this quilt - you know, every quilt has a story, right? - I hand pieced all the blocks at track meets when our son was in high school. That would date the blocks to 1997 - 2001. Every fabric has a positive/negative block. Do you know what I mean? Where the background is neutral in one block, the other block with that fabric is exactly the opposite. The blocks are then set randomly, but alternate between print and neutral backgrounds. 

I had seen a similar quilt in ads for some long-forgotten product in quilt magazines. I studied it often when I came across it, and as it continued to grow on me, I knew I had to make it. That lead me to searching block books to see what this was. Tennessee Puzzle, I learned.

Track meets afford a person lots and lots of free time. Of course, I watched all the events, but I was most interested, naturally, in our son's events. Rather than to just sit around, I stitched, and made nearly all of these blocks at various high school tracks spread across south-central Ohio.

Like many of the quilts I made during these years, my grandmother hand quilted it for me in simple outline fashion. She told me she enjoyed quilting on these 30s reproduction prints, as they were reminiscent of the real ones she used as a young wife and mother. 

I'm here at the quilt retreat and getting lots of things done. All the girls are having a great time; Quite a few quilt tops have been finished. Several are working on UFOs while others are playing catch-up on various sew alongs. We shopped on Monday and yes, I have new stuff. The best part is how wonderful it's been to have this get-away with the girlfriends and just stitch to our hearts' content.

Happy Quilting, Friends!