From July 1976 today Feb 2008 the poor red and white Hexagon quilt has been tucked away in a plastic bag secured with a rubber band.
Five years ago in 2003 when I was 57 I started to be concerned about what I was going to do with the rest of my life. This included the various projects that I had started over the years that were in a vast array of completeness. I worked for Qwest at the time and was invited as part of a training program to attend a motivational conference. This subject was discussed.
I pretty much decided that day to take some kind of charge of the items that had built up over the years. One of those was the massive amounts of fabrics I had collected over the years including much that my Mom had saved. I took a good look at the plastic boxes sorted by color and guessed I had enough fabric to make a 1,000 quilts and I had better get started. I figured I would live for another 20 years or so and could make 50 quilts a year to use up the fabric. I could have decided to donate it all to a worth cause, but that would have taken all the fun out it.
In the 80’s I had sold many crafty products to the local grocery store chain to include baskets covered with calico fabric and lacy. It was a great product and fun to make and gave me the opportunity to collect a lot of fabrics. It seems I never used what I bought, but had cut out twelve inch to twenty-four inch circles several times from the fabric.
As my Mom, Frances, was a quilter and loved fabric too, I gave her all my scraps. She used some of them up in a variety of ways, but there was still plenty left that she gave me when she moved into a retirement home.
She was one of the best at appliqué. Her tiny little stitches were perfect and even. One odd project she started took the scraps as they were, turned under the edges and sewed them on to a light orange background. 
Crazy quilt top – Frances Swanson 1980s
She took three panels of orange fabric about nine feet long and sewed them together. She placed the scraps willy-nilly on the fabric and appliquéd them on in a random pattern with random colors. Some of these fabrics were from my basket project in the 80s, some were from dresses she had made for my sister and myself in the 50’s. Some were probably from dresses she made for herself.
I think she was trying to make this big enough for a kind size bed for me. The piece measured nine feet by 11 feet. It is huge, even for a king sized bed. The patterns are very busy for a small bedroom and the orange color doesn’t do much to complement the project.
I have had this folded up in a drawer for several years since we cleaned out my Mom’s things. She passed on in Jan 9, 2004. Ever year I think of her on that day. This year was no different.
When I awoke on Jan 10th 2008 I had a clear picture what I could do this this appliqué project that Mom had spent so much time finishing.
Let’s use this as fabric
I had been using up some scraps with a pattern from an Eleanor Burns TV show.
1) Cut 3 inch strips into 10″ units
2) Sew two fabrics (light/dark)together –
3) Cut these into 3 inch units
4) Sew 2 units together into a 4 block with opposite light to dark
5) Cut 5 1/2 inch strips of light fabric into 5 1/2 inch square. Then cut diagonally.
6) Sew these around the block.
Four Blocks from Scraps Nov 2007
This was such an interesting project which I am still working on that resulted in six quilt tops so far with varying color themes.
The thought I had that morning was to do the same kind of thing with Mom’s fabric. Make 5-6 inch block and border it with some interesting orange fabric. It would be a bit abstract, but some coordinate. I haven’t the nerve to cut her fabric up yet, but I am getting close. I might start with the edges and move in so if I do decide to keep one large piece, it will still be together.
Here are some of the quilt tops I made recently from the stack of four blocks.
Laying out pattern for blue 4-block Nov 07
Blue 4-block Nov 2007
6-9-2009 finished for my Great Niece, Brianna Kihlthau’s High School Graduation present
Purple 4-block – Ready to sew together Nov 2007 Jan 2009 finished it for a gift for my daughter Jamie who loves purple
Purple with old white/purple fabric from Mom Nov 2007
Rose – 4-block from scraps Nov 2007 June 2009 finished this for my cousin Gene and Sylvia’s 50th Wedding Anniversary present in August
Rose 4-block details Nov 2007
Tan border with blue stripped 4-blocks Jan 2008 February 2009 finished this quilt for my brother Alan’s 70th birthday present
The blue stripped quilt was made using most of the blue stipped 4-blocks. They didn’t seem to go together with the other quilts so I made one just for them.
Detail of Blue Stripped Jan 2008