New life for old quilts

There's nothing more satisfying than cannibalising an old quilt that's had its day and needs new life. A few years ago I made a log cabin quilt using Laura Ashley fabrics. It was exhibited once at Llanidloes in Wales and never saw the light of day again. Till this week that is. I love to layer techniques and I'd much rather embroider on a quilt than on a flat piece of cloth. There is more texture and the colours of the patchwork always tend to be more interesting. The swallows here are a Husqvarna design that was just tweaked a bit to change their direction and fill the embroidery hoop.

After the embroidery was finished a fine layer of white fabric paint was applied with a foam roller to create a distressed surface. I love the way the paint highlights the wrinkles in the hand quilted fabrics and the edges of the patchwork seams. What was quite a bright quilt suddenly looks like a pair of old faded jeans that have been washed and washed. It's destined to become a bag one day.

This afternoon we set the embroidery machine to work again and stitched some lovely little fabric name tags that will be used to label my garments and accessories for Festival of Quilts in August. Laura digitised a simple design that will make use of all the tiny scraps that are left over when I chop up my old quilts to make something new. Nothing goes to waste - it makes me feel good about the sacrifice!

Thanks for dropping by.