Iris's Lap Quilt

Difficulty:

Category: Quilting

Type of item: Functional

For: Home

Style: Traditional, Classic

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Materials

Scraps of cotton fabric left over from other projects, additional cotton fabric for sashing and backing, cotton thread, buttons, polyester wadding.

What was your inspiration?

During her long life, Iris had made hundreds of knitted and crocheted toys for underprivileged children, and had even knitted an enormous bedspread but had never tried quilting. She was most interested in my first couple of quilts which I took to show her, At that time she was fast approaching her 90th birthday and had become frail and unable to continue with her crafting. I therefore decided to make her a little quilt of her own for her September birthday, to put over her knees on cold winter evenings. I very quickly put together a quilt from odds and ends in my stash, using a very simple pinwheel block. I decorated it with a few Suffolk Puffs (that's what we call Yo-Yos) here and there with buttons in the middle. It was ready just in time for her 90th birthday and Iris was delighted with it. Sadly, Iris passed away just before Christmas that year but I hope she had a little comfort from the quilt in her last days. Her family didn't want it after her death and returned it to me as they felt it would be a pity to send it to a charity shop where it might end up in someone's dog's basket.

What are you most proud of?

The fact that I made it, start to finish, in just a few days.