The Great Do-over

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may recall that last March Sue and I bid and won an antique quilt top from on ebay. I say "we" cause Sue isn't connected. The top was for her. She's crazy about them old 30's and 40's prints. And probably really 50's prints. Her plan was to take it apart and remake it.
Here's the before and after pictures.

Generally I don't blog about other people's quilting but this time I had  to share cause she was so sweet and gifted it to me. WOW. Why would she do that?  Well, she knew I loved this particular pattern and lots of those prints. After all I kept her informed of all the goodies I found on ebay and shared with her the treasures left at church. But apparently this is her favorite pattern to piece - having done 3 now. Giving it way gives her a reason to make another top.  Apparently she has a problem with them piling up at home and she is happy to give it to someone that she knows likes it.

It doesn't take much to see what changes she made to it. Besides changing the many colored melon patches to one color, she swapped out some of the fabrics that were very thin. She is fond of the stripes so added those and introduced a bunch of the bright yellow. One of the biggest improvements to this piece is the workmanship.  The quilter that had attempted to put this thing together had no concept of a consistent width seam allowance and didn't have a clue how to get those corners to meet and lie flat. Sue ripped out all the hand stitching that had a backstitch every 3 stitches and then recut the pieces for the 9-patch.  Sue was a a little disappointed in how flat and smooth her pieces fit together, but I assured her that it will "quilt out". Let's hope so.  I bet she is going to expect me to hand quilt this thing.  That's her favorite thing to do with a quilt top and on a gem like this, I guess I ought to to honor Sue. She has been my sister-in-law and friend for 40 years and I am really glad to have this piece from her.

Book 9 I am calling the Thirtysomething Block Book and is in the hands of the graphic artist, so now my attention turns to marketing it. Thinking of a blog hop/book tour. What do ya think. There would be give-aways involved.