31 Days - Day 28: The quiltmaker's daughter niece

You know the old story about how the cobbler's daughter is the one who goes without shoes, because he is so busy making shoes for everyone else? That almost happened with me and my niece. She did eventually get a quilt, but not until she was almost seven (if I remember correctly, she was born in 1984?)(I don't want to believe I am old enough to have an almost thirty year old niece).

The block pattern was labeled in the book I had as Broken Dishes, though it bears no similarity to the traditional Broken Dishes block, or any variations thereof I could find.

In other words, I have no clue what the block actually is. Give me a break - I made this quilt in 1991.

Kristin's quilt.

Red, yellow, blue and green, with white to give the eyes a place to rest. The quilt is about 45 x 60 or so, and handquilted.

Hanging the quilt on the clothesline out in the sun helps to put the quilting lines in relief. You can see the pretty simple, traditional quilting clearly.

Detail quilting.

The quilting is run 1/4 inch inside the seam lines in each of the triangles and in the white around the edges of each of the colored squares. There are diagonal lines running through the small squares.

Quilting in 1/4 inch from the seam line, to emphasize the shape of the block component, is used fairly often on hand quilted quilts. In addition, it's easier to do than sewing by hand through the intersection of two or more fabrics. Still, it gives a bit of dimension to an otherwise flat surface.

These fabrics were prewashed in hot water - I didn't want there to be any chance of the bright colors either running or crocking on to the white surfaces the first time my sister washed it.