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Monday, May 4, 2015

Doll Quilt Exchange This Month

There is a doll quilt exchange going on right now at Lori's blog, (Humblequilts.blogspot.com), and I signed up to make a little quilt for someone else.  First I looked on the internet for ideas, and spent a little time looking at doll quilts at The Quilt Index. (www.quiltindex.org)  If you have never looked there, it's a wonderful place to see old quilts and study them from the comfort of your living room.  Once on their site, you can search the quilt records from the top righthand box on their main page to find what kind of quilt you are looking for.  I searched using the "advanced search" feature, and looked at quilts in the date range of 1876-1900, and put the word "doll" in the pattern name spot.  There were 47 doll quilts for me see with this particular search.

Here's a picture of the one I chose as my inspiration for the little doll quilt I am making:



I studied this quilt, and saw that it was made up of four patches, and calculated the size of the quilt if the squares were one inch each.  It would be about 18" X 18".  I wanted it smaller, so I cut the squares l.25"X1.25", to finish at 3/4" each.  

It is basically a nine patch made up of 4 patches with nine four patches that are all  little 3/4" squares, and 5 patches that are nine patches with four patches in them (the pink and white squares).  Confusing, I know, but here's a picture of my quilt with the nine patches all laid out ready to sew together:



The original quilt had no binding (edges were just turned in) and no batting, but I finished this one with thin batting and used binding that was cut 2 inches wide and double folded.  

After I assembled the quilt and bound it, I tea-dyed it to make it look older. It looks like it should be some kind of game board doesn't it?   Here's a picture of the completed quilt next to an old Chinese checkers board.  My Hitty doll is in the picture too.  She is dressed in brown, and has a little coral pink necklace, so she looks great with the little doll quilt.



The quilt finished at slightly less than 14 inches square.

I am not going to show you the complete label, as I don't want to reveal the person who will own this little quilt until it reaches her.  But here is a partial picture.  I am trying to do better work with labels, plus I have a goal of putting labels on all the quilts I have made in the past.

The label fabric is the muslin before tea-dying and the back of the quilt shows the darker result of the same fabric after the tea bath.  It really does age the look of the quilt.



I hope you have a great Monday, and I'm heading over to Judy Laquidara's blog to look at design walls.  (Here)

15 comments:

straythreads said...

great little quilt. I have doll quilts too that have no batting in them. I always thought they wrapped around my dollies better that way.

Janet O. said...

Love your little quilt--the tea-dying was a nice touch!

Charlene S said...

Your doll quilt is darling.

AnnieO said...

Lovely! I think the tea dye bath was genius to add instant age. Hettie does match the doll quilt beautifully. I'm in the swap too and would be thrilled with this beauty--the recipient will be a lucky swapper.

Barb said...

lucky recipient!!!

Sandy said...

So so precious! How can you stand to give it away??

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful! I am having a terrible time deciding what to make. I have one started but so far I am underwhelmed and may start over. Thanks for the rminder about the quilt index. I think I will head over there!

Sue said...

Hi Judy thank you so much for the search info. I didn't know to do that. I am in the swap also, but as I usually make 90"square quilts this was difficult but great. My problem is I am concerned that my 4"blocks are too big. What is the usual block size for a small quilt?
I tried to find your email addy to send you a note but couldn't find it on your blog or circle. :-)

Scrappy quilter said...

Cute quilt. You brought back so many memories for me when I seen the Chinese Checker board. I played that with my Uncle for many years. Love that game.

Debbie said...

Adorable. Love the pink.

Charlotte said...

Hope I am the lucky recipient. I love it. The one I made is already to send off.

Charlotte

Unknown said...

I'm so impressed by your design and execution! Way to go!

Sharon said...

My friend just emailed me and sent me to this post. She was the lucky recipient of your darling piece. I think i might have to make one of these myself, as I have a bag full of 1 1/4 " sqs from Lori (Humble Quilts) workshop last week.

Louise said...

I am the very lucky recipient of your sweet little doll quilt. Love it, love it, love it! You did a great job planning it out and the execution of it..love the tea dye finish, aged it perfectly..I
have a note in the mail to you to let you know it arrived. This was definitely a fun project. My little quilt is going in the mail tomorrow. Thanks again to Lori for organizing this.

Ruth said...

What a precious little quilt! It is just darling. I didn't participate this time because we are traveling to visit family now, but I have done it in the past. Such fun!