I finished this beauty last weekend but haven’t had time to post until now. This handkerchief quilt was made for my customers, Barbie and Lou, from handkerchiefs that Lou’s mom gave her. 

When they visited to design the quilt, they brought around 30 hankies. She picked her favorites and we agreed on the composition to ensure even color distribution. They originally were thinking they wanted the hankies sewn together but we agreed on this approach so you wouldn’t lose any of the beautiful design. Basically I cut 13.5″ squares of the background fabric and sewed them with a 1.5″ sashing into a 3 x 4 layout. I laid the stabilized hankies into each square, and quilted them down. Using my glide foot on my Handiquilter made it easy and I didn’t have to glue or stitch the hankies to the background. This let the hankies really become the focal point and didn’t detract from the design. 

We picked a light pink Moda Bella solid and a simple paisley sashing from my stash. The idea was to make sure the handkerchiefs were the star. 

They are all beautiful but these four were my favorites. I stabilized them with medium weight iron-on stabilizer to give them a little weight, but also to protect the color and make sure the pink didn’t come through the thin hanky fabric. 

The quilting is Sweet Heart from Urban Elementz. We picked this together because it worked with the hankies thematically, while being small enough to completely secure the hankies to the back. 

This was a fun custom project to make and it was fun to create the design plan with my customers. Barbie and Lou are picking up their new quilt on Sunday. I hope they love it, and I sure hope I get to do another one soon! 

I also have to thank Jen and Amy for the extra hands. We were all hanging around sewing while I finished this and they were terrific at helping getting this done even more quickly. Quilting with friends is fun!