Calgary Flood 2013 Quilt Completed and Delivered
Holly Hobbie Goes Scrappy – My Calgary Flood 2013 Quilt Donation
Tonight I delivered my contribution to the Calgary Flood Quilt project – Holly Hobbie Goes Scrappy! Remember Holly Hobbie? Late 1970’s early 1980’s? There’s a story here.
A couple of weeks ago I invited a quilting friend in for coffee and chat as she is one of the flood evacuees. Even now she is not back into her third floor condo. Although her unit was not damaged all the building support systems were destroyed and need to be replaced. All the storage lockers had to be cleared and the contents discarded and the parking garage drained and the silt and debris cleaned out. She thinks that it may be the end of August before she is back into her building. She’s one of the lucky ones. She can go back and pick up items to use elsewhere.
The day she visited she arrived with fabric and rotary cutter and spent the morning cutting strips for a quilt-as-you-go – a quilt for the Calgary Flood 2013 Quilt Project!
I had never tackled a quilt-as-you-go project so was a bit curious about the process. As a result, after she left I headed for my stash and collected some fabrics that I probably wouldn’t select when doing a more ‘planned’ project. I found a fairly large chunk of ‘Holly Hobbie’ fabric that I think dates back to my Mom’s fabric collection – and the plain green for backing it. She obviously had thought about making something for her granddaughters at the time. The dark green didn’t ‘work’ for me but I sometimes like to challenge myself so I made note of the orange, pink and gold in the fabric before selecting companion pieces. In the end I collected leftovers from dressmaking – my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law were sources for this I think! A few authentic sugar bags and some other prints from the 70’s were added. My original intent was to make a small lap quilt to work out the seaming technique.
By the end of the first day I had a piece 36 by 48 completed (9 sections) but something held me back from completing it. With the bright orange, pink and white stripes, the green panels no longer looked so dreary…. I also had a second ‘lap quilt layered and was ready to quilt it.
The assembled quilt panel sat for a week and I scanned the shelves in a few stores for another fabric to create panels to enlarge the quilt to fit a child’s bed. I could now envision it becoming a comfort blanket for a child who has experienced a lot of upheaval.
Current colour-ways just didn’t work. I needed to find a peach-coloured fabric that would soften, but not fight with, the bright colours in the assembled panel. I scored during a late afternoon stop at Traditional Pastimes, a local quilt shop. This hive of activity is a centre for teams of quilters working to finish quilt tops that have been donated and to create kits for others to take home and sew together. Someone had donated a piece of peach coloured fabric that would work. Thank goodness others are using this quilting blitz to selectively cull their fabric collection as well! The tone, tint, shade and other attributes of colour change over time, making it difficult to mix fabrics from different eras. This one obviously originated during a similar time period to my fabric!
Yesterday I decided to complete the quilt. Four edge panels were quilted and the second lap quilt was raided for four corner blocks in the Holly Hobbie fabric. Enough coordinating fabric was found to prepare the joining strips and I went to work. Thanks to a few interruptions, if was two am this morning when I completed the binding! The label went on after breakfast and some hasty pictures were taken between appointments this afternoon. Tonight it was delivered to Traditional Pastimes after the show and tell at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting.
It’s not a ‘glamorous’ quilt but I think some little girl will like it!
A peek at the back of the quilt
Calgary Flood 2013 Quilt – Back Detail
Each flood quilt is finished with a label.
Calgary Flood 2013 Quilt – Label Detail
Detail of the quilt as you go technique – to remind myself next time I want to try this. Note binding is machine stitched – more durable for a child.
Detail showing quilt-as-you-go technique. Two” strip folded on top, one” strip right side next quilt on bottom.