Sentimental Stitches

I've written before about Betty's friend Sigrid and her passion for quilting. She loved to stitch by hand and was a master at mixing lots and lots of prints before it was really a thing; I learned a lot from her and continue to see her influence in my quilts to this day. Sadly, she died very unexpectedly in 1995, but recently a couple of her quilts are back on our radar.

Her husband Bill has two flimsies that he would like quilted so that they can be enjoyed by their sons so Betty encouraged him to ship them here and we'd help take care of that. Well, the box has arrived!

This is the first one, which I am calling a variation on a Drunkard's Path. It's beautiful, but a little on the small side, so we decided to see if a deep dive into the stash could offer up something suitable for an additional border.

Wa-la! This Hoffman print, also circa 1990, was perfect. Not sure if this was mine or one of mom's, but it felt really good to find it such a wonderful home.

And it's a terrific fit for the rest of the quilt too.

Betty had so much fun pouring over the blocks and discovering many prints that she had shared with Sigrid and I have to admit that I recognized many of them as well.

Seeing Sigrid's stitches again after almost 30 years was like visiting with an old friend. Very touching.

You can see her attention to detail in this perfectly mitered corner.

To ensure a nice, even margin of the green where the first border fabric meets the floral, I stitched from the back of the stripe and it worked out quite well.

While we were stash diving we also pulled a pretty green print for the binding, so Betty will start work prepping it and I will get this off to Roberta for quilting.

It is more than a little surreal to not only see these quilts again, but to help move them along to the finish line. A truly sentimental journey....M