This quilt was finished in 1975 and I didn’t make another quilt until 1995 (one started, but none finished). The pattern is very different from the scrap quilts I make now. The quilt has seen lots of wear — it’s pretty thin and the black print with the little roses is faded. I like the circular effect that was created when the blocks were sewn together.
I bought a giant quilting frame to hand quilt the top, but I couldn’t stand it — the frame was awkward and the stitching tedious. I did about a third of the quilt and ended up sending it to a church group in Ohio to complete. My mother-in-law, Gail, is from Cleveland and she located this group of ladies who did a fabulous job. I decided that quilting just wasn’t my thing.
In 1995, I was working at Somerset Elementary when one of the teachers arranged for a woman to come and share her quilts with the kids. It got me thinking about quilting again and I decided to finish the tumbler quilt I started years earlier. After that it just snowballed — I discovered a love of vintage fabric, hand quilting and hand piecing. I placed a link to the instructions and templates below the photos.
Morning Glory
Martha Dellasega Gray, 1975
machine pieced, hand quilted
70″ x 86″
