Patching the patchwork

Sometimes a quilt faces heavier use than the materials are designed for. This was the case with this Stained quilt from 2012.

 Recycled shirt fabric is not very durable under the paws of a mid-size dog as you can see:

For some reason especially the brown thin striped fabric was attacked. Luckily I had not binned the remaining fabrics from this and another project using my son's business shirts.

This meant that I could replace each patch with the same fabric it was originally made.

Only the grey sashing is now a shade darker than the original, but this could mean that the original has faded over the years and from frequent washing.

I have sewn some patches by hand and machine stitched some, and I added a piece of new wadding in the block that was worst. Machine stitching went surprisingly well and I only needed to redo one bit where the backing was puckered.

Encouraged by this modest success I have added several other unlucky quilts on my list of patching my patchwork.

Secrets revealed and wonders of the nature

It has been a long time since my last post, due to Internet problems. Things are getting better now and I hope to catch up my blog reading soon.
This is what I have been working on in secret:

In February I heard through Simone about the Stained Quilt Along hosted by Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. After seeing Simone's blue and grey fabrics I thought my son's shirts would make a lovely stained glass quilt to match the Business Class quilt I made for his birthday.

His long-time girlfriend has her birthday this week and I had a chance to give this to her yesterday

They had invited us and her parents for a very delicious Mother's Day lunch at their home. The quilting is in the ditch as I didn't want to disturb the "glass".  -  I couldn't resist borrowing DD's stained glass angel for the last picture. There is no border in this quilt, just a narrow binding in the same grey as the sashings. Sarah's pattern was for a crib size quilt and I wanted to make a lap size, so I added a row at the bottom and to one size. I forgot to measure the finished quilt but it should be around 55.5" x 66.5".

Marimekko has taken old prints into production again. This one is "Helsinki - Helsingfors" by Per-Olof Nyström from 1952, the year of the Helsinki Olympics. I don't remember this print from my childhood, but my mother used to have summer dresses and skirts in this style. I found this piece of fabric in the local Marimekko shop and used it for a shopping bag for my sister Maija in Germany.

And now some spring feelings. Wood Anemone is one of the first wild spring flowers, usually popping up for Mother's Day.

My daffodils like their new place and are blooming right now. This is their second spring in this spot.

The green finches were courting over lunch. He on the right is showing his nice yellow wing feathers.

Mr. Pheasant has four lovely ladies, here he is watching over two of them having lunch. He is wearing his spring feathers, with brighter colours and much red in the face.

 

I almost forgot to update my Scandinavian Christmas. Here is Block 4 all finished:

And here it is added to the other three. I'm slowly starting work on the border of hearts and snowflakes. If you want to see a finished Scandinavian Christmas, pop over to Melanie. She is being a star pupil!

This is all for today, I hope to come back soon with new finishes.