Vintage Block Challenge/Monthly Mini

Last fall I signed up for Lori's (Humble Quilts Blog) Vintage Block Challenge (Click on this link to see what others did for the challenge). We were to take a vintage block and either use it "as is" to make a quilt, or deconstruct it and use the parts to make something, adding other fabrics if needed. I dragged my feet at first, but the temptation was too great. This is the vintage "block"  I received from Lori to use in the challenge.

Wonderful colors, but overall, it looked better from the front than it did from the back. It was machine stitched, but there were so many tension issues on the reverse side, along with uneven seam allowances, and really chunky seam intersections. Oh, I love a good challenge!

So I unpicked the whole thing, and gave the pieces a very gentle bath. Below they are shown after drying.

I wanted them to maintain the "aged" look, so I didn't do anything to dramatically whiten the background pieces. I cut all of these triangle pieces in half, so that instead of having 2 large stars, I could make 4 small ones. And in homage to the original, I purposefully placed one of the purple star points going the wrong direction.

Within the star blocks, all but two of the "white" squares and two of the "white" triangles are original fabric. They all would have been original if I had not wasted some of the fabric by cutting my first set of the 9 cornerstones just a bit too small. The sashing, binding, and backing are all 1930s repro fabrics from my stash.

I had hoped to hand quilt it, but a last minute trip to Oregon, and a deadline on a grandson's birthday quilt precluded that. I just did a lot of ditch stitching. And for those same reasons that I did not hand quilt this, this must also be my May Monthly Mini, with Wendy The Constant Quilter. 

This was a very fun challenge. Thank you to Lori for the opportunity to participate.

In case you are wondering, stay tuned for my next post where I will announce the blog anniversary giveaway winner.

Until next time,

be creative and be kind!

Janet O.

Rainbows are a symbol of hope to me, and Sunday night there was a complete bow in the sky here. We need hope more than ever right now! Please excuse the power lines--I was afraid that if I took the time to run downstairs to get a shot without them, by that time the colors would have become dull, or be completely gone.

Upon closer inspection, I saw something different about this rainbow. I zoomed in as close as my iPhone Mini would go, and you can see a little stem coming from the side of the rainbow.

Interesting--I've never seen anything like that before. Have you?