The Hankie Quilt

So, I've had this stack of vintage hankies around for awhile-some were from an old friend who passed away, some came to me in a box I got at an auction, some I don't know where they came from, but they are so pretty. I saw on Pinterest where folks were making quilts out of them...I can do that I thought to myself! So probably a year ago, I washed and ironed them, then I cut a bunch of white squares to back the hankies, then I got distracted.

 So it's September 2018, and I don't have a project going so I go outside to spray baste the hankies to their backing fabric. They are all different sizes, and a lot of the time they do not have nice straight edges.

 But I ignore the oddities and I also ignore the dozens of different shades of white/ecru/ivory/off white.

And after about an hour, I have them all spray basted to their backs...then I get distracted......

 So now it's October, and I have finished a bunch of other stuff...you've read my blog, right? So I start to lay out the backed hankies into a pleasing design. And I notice that some of the ones with just a small motif in the corner are too plain to hold their own against some of the bright printed charmers.

 So I think to myself, I'll just cut them into quarters and make one block out of four of them. Trouble is, I can't cut that pretty hankies can I???? Deep breath...it's just like the first time I cut up a book....bad bad bad.....no it's OK, it's for a good thing...it will be used and pretty!!

 So here we go!! I had to cut them just slightly larger to allow for the seam allowances, but I did it!! This particular hankie had a little sticker on it-it had never been used!!!!

 Now let's see about that layout.....hmmm, better!! And just to be even more of a hankie rebel, I SERGED THE WHOLE THING!!!!

Yup, I serged the blocks together, fast as you please!

 Don't they look great! Serging them together kept all the threads and messy-ness out and kept the layers together too!

 Look at that little 4 into one block! It looks great! You'd never know they were serged together!

 SO I press the heck out of it, and decide I need borders. In addition to getting to a larger size, I think it needs a little calming influence.

 So I pick up this pastel 30's print from the quilt shop over in Amana-Heritage Needleworks. I don't have really any pastels in my stash, I'm not much of a pastel person....I was trying to not purchase anything, but..... it's a nice print that kind of brings it all together. And I used it all up!

 I used more of the plain hankie motifs in the corners-I had plenty of them basted to the backing so it was easy to cut them for the corner stones. Oh and see that hankie with the pink flowers-it's nylon! Or some kind of slinky synthetic like that and it was pretty large! It had a crazy wavy edge, so I spray basted it so two edges were in the quilt and two were hanging over the edge, when I serged it the edge was trimmed off and it looks great!

 These blocks really did shape up well. I'm glad I serged them-it cut off the edges that were on the oversized hankies, and made it super easy to press the seam allowance to one side.

 I do love these 4 into one blocks-I just thought of that name, pretty clever, right?

After spending their whole lives in a dresser drawer or box in the closet, these hankies are ready to shine!

 I go outside to my garage door to do the quilt sandwich-spray baste is my friend! And those little magnets are awesome! This is the biggest quilt yet using them!

 It was pretty breezy on Saturday, but I want to get this project done, so I brave it with my trusty magnets! I used warm and natural cotton batting, I'm hoping the natural color won't allow shadows behind the white.

 It worked great! I am so happy with the results! Magnets rock!!

 And so I do a big meandering stitch on the center and loops along the border.

 I get it all trimmed up and get the binding on it. I think I'm loving this quilt now!

 Here it is! Outside on the clothes line...

 It's breezy today, but it looks really good. I wasn't really loving it until now.....

 I'm glad I ignored the many white shades and added the border!

And now into the washer for a good clean up-so many of the hankies have stains, and even after one wash, they still have quite a few issues.

 And now after a wash-almost all the stains are gone-Thanks to Tide....I kind of feel like those that remain are OK because it shows those hankies were used, not just put away.

 And the back-I had to piece it, but it looks good too! This quilt washed up so nice and soft!

 

Gosh all those pretty hankies get to see a new day!

 I'm really pleased with how this came out, and it came together pretty fast using the serger!

 And no one will ever know the difference! I don't know why it took me so long to dive into this one, but I'm glad I did!

NEXT!