Sweet Quilted Goodness for one of the Sweetest Goodest Sisters

This went out in the mail today with enough postage to hopefully get it to my sister by Friday for her birthday.

I made the top to this quilt for her for Christmas (minus the yellow and pink outer borders) and gave it to her then with the promise to finish it. She gave it back to me over the summer and I decided I could "regift" it for her birthday, just nine days after mine.



I made this quilt using this Paper Doll fabric. They call it "Paper Dolls" but the line of dolls are actually called Dolly Dingle drawn by Grace Drayton in the early 1900s. My sister collected these paper dolls from antique stores when we were younger. She even drew for me my own set of Dolly Dingle paper dolls and gave them to me for my birthday as a child. She is very artistic and they are exact copies. They were so precious to me. Nicole has them now. When I saw this fabric months ago, I knew it was perfect for her. I made her an apron first which she says she wears all the time and then she asked me to use the rest to make something else for her - thus the quilt.


I branched out a bit in my quilting. The all over stippling that I so enjoy doing lately just didn't seem to fit this quilt. And I really didn't want to quilt over the little dolls themselves. So on the block borders I did a loopy, curly sort of vine. I repeated this design in a much larger scale on the pink outer border. In the blocks with the paper doll clothes next to the doll blocks, I branched out even further. I attempted to freehand simple flowers with leaves and vines. Overall I was really pleased with how they turned out. Just don't look too closely. I photographed the back of the quilt thinking you could see the flowers better that way.


I am really happy with how it turned out. The doll blocks pooch out a little too much due to their absence of quilting, but overall it turned out great. I didn't enjoy the country-ish pastels as much (I am a very bright sort of person), but they fit the doll fabrics well. Most of all I am thrilled to share this special creation with my sweet sister who shared hers with me many years ago.